Yeah, I can. I think what surprised me about the concert was how many were in the band. I liked the concert and wondered how growing up primarily with the sound of country on all the air waves, I still had not encountered Roy Oberson.
I became a Chuck Berry fan in ‘57 but was always disappointed when watching him live (not lip sync) on TV. Instead of singing the lyrics, he would talk them or shout them. I mean you rarely expect an artist to sound as good live as (s)he does on a record with the studio’s acoustics, and after the product has been given the finishing touches by mixers, etc., but he was usually ridiculous in my opinion. So I got a pleasant surprise in 1964 or 5 when he appeared at the Lyric in Baltimore. The man stood in one place – no unnecessary choreography – tapped his left foot and actually sang the lyrics, while playing his red Gibson like he was ringing a bell. I suspect that it was a bad vibe he got from the audience that put him in a serious mood. They were predominantly black and hard-core soul and blues fans. There was chatter about his devotion to commercialism rather than artistry. You heard comments like “sell out” when referring to him and complaints that he was the headliner, rather than the hard-core blues artists they came to see: Joe Tex, Little Walter, Solomon Burke, and Sir Walter Jackson, or even the one pop artist Dionne Warwick. Maybe I’m all wet but one thing for sure: he was superb that night.