For as long as most of us have been alive, we've been told that Elvis Presley was the undisputed King of Rock N' Roll. However, there's some contentious dialogue floating around out there that asserts another name as having the real claim to that throne. Chuck Berry was as much a contemporary guitar and music god as anyone else, and plenty of people still point to him as the genre's true King.
Despite his iconic status, and reverence for his talent by rock’s heroes John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards, Steve Van Zandt, Joe Perry, Alice Cooper, all featured, Chuck Berry was at heart, a family man. He was a prolific craftsman of words and chords; an undisputed and stunning combination of talent and charisma. (rockandbluesemuse)
If it hadn't been for Chuck Berry, Bruce Springsteen would have never had the necessary creative fodder to write one of his most iconic bangers. Those aesthetic rudiments that comprised Berry's writing style and general demeanor as a performer and musician are what inspired The Boss to sit down and write "The Promised Land" from 1978's "Darkness on the Edge of Town" (Grunge)
Chuck Berry was one man whose music Bruce Springsteen admittedly had a deep and abiding appreciation for while growing up.
Multiple times throughout the years, he gestured at his appreciation for Berry's songwriting craft and noted his supreme lyrical attention to detail
It is not the first time that the Boss pays homage to the great rockers of the past, as in this case to Roy Orbison.
Roy Orbison's Black & White Night 30 DVD, Blu-ray was released again in 2019 Featuring Never-Before Seen Performances.
Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt, praise Orbison's unique vocal style and underrated songwriting talents.
By the mid-1980s, Roy Orbison had been out of the limelight for quite some time, but his song "In Dreams" was prominently featured in David Lynch's landmark 1986 noir film Blue Velvet and helped reignite interest in the 'Big O.' On September 30, 1987, Orbison, then 51, staged a remarkable comeback with the help of guest musicians whom he had influenced:
Jackson Browne, T Bone Burnett, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, J.D. Souther, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits and Jennifer Warnes. The all-star concert at the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove night club was turned into a television special and broadcast as Roy Orbison & Friends: Black & White Night on Cinemax the following January, less than a year before the icon's untimely passing.
Black & White Night 30 is NOT a reissue. Because the concert had been shot using seven separate cameras, there were hundreds of hours of footage that went unused and unseen. Roy's youngest son Alex Orbison and his co-editor Luke Chalk have gone back and re-edited the entire performance so that while the look will be familiar to those that have seen the original version, the vast majority of footage in Black & White Night 30 has never been seen before by the public. Furthermore, the program has been restored to reflect the correct set order, so that viewers can see Roy, brilliantly backed by Elvis Presley's TCB Band (James Burton, Glen D. Hardin, Jerry Scheff, Ron Tutt), blast through massive Orbison hits such as "Only the Lonely," "In Dreams" and "Crying" just as the star-studded live audience witnessed them on that very night.
The bonus features included in Black & White Night 30 are remarkable in both size and scope. These include a previously unseen alternate version of Orbison's biggest hit "Oh, Pretty Woman" and a previously unseen "Blue Angel." Then, unbeknownst to just about everyone but those that were there in 1987, Roy and friends and the full band regathered onstage after the show had ended and after the audience had left. A 'secret concert' of five songs followed and is presented here for the first time. The "secret concert" features alternate takes of "Dream You," "Comedians," "Candyman," "Claudette," and "Uptown" with shooting stopped only after film ran out in the middle of the latter song. These 'secret' performances have been highly sought after by fans for decades. All tracks, including all 'secret concert' alternate versions have been freshly remastered by Richard Dodd. The audio for the concert is available on CD with buyers of Black & White Night 30 receiving a download code for access to the audio records of the 'secret concert.'
