Back in 1987 Taylor Hackford filmed a documentary on rock ‘n’ roll icon Chuck Berry. The film features commentary from Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and about 1000 other notables. The film was aptly titled Chuck Berry - Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll.

One Eyed Jacks played host last night to a special event. Rio Hackford is one of the owners of the club. He’d been on hand for much of the filming of the documentary and wished to do something to commemorate its DVD release. We held a special screening of the film complete with popcorn and $1 PBRs.

It was my first viewing of the film and I have to admit that it’s one of my favorite music documentaries. There are plenty of insights into Berry’s formation that would have been completely unknown to me otherwise. It’s sort of interesting to hear the transition his career went through. He explained that in his early days he received $21 a week for performing. As the story progresses Bruce Springsteen offers a story where his band backed Berry on a performance and the man received $11k for one show.

Where the film really shines, however, is an accompanying tribute concert with myriad guests performing alongside Berry. A significant part of the film is the rehearsal for the tribute. During the rehearsal, we see an amusing Berry yelling at Keith Richards for screwing up guitar licks on “Johnnie B. Good.”

Sadly lacking from the 1987 film is the 2000 litigation between Berry and former collaborator Johnnie Johnson. Johnson was a pianist who developed the foundation for many of Berry’s songs before Berry adapted them to guitar and penned the lyrics. The judge eventually dismissed the case citing that too much time had passed for it to be a viable complaint. Johnson died from pneumonia in 2005.