I'm going to preface this review with a bit of personal background, so bear with me. I was born the year that Chuck Berry hit the radio airwaves, so I experienced his music secondhand for the most part. Well, except perhaps for "My Ding-A-Ling." But, what I experienced had an impact on me.

I remember my Dad singing "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" to my mother. I remember Chuck Berry on black and white television in the '60s scooting across the stage in his might-as-well-be-trademarked duck-walk while wailing on his guitar. I remember playing my own very first air-guitar to "Johnny B. Goode."

While I knew that Chuck Berry was responsible for, and had the first hit with, "Roll Over Beethoven," I was of the age where "which Beatle is the cute one" was on my mind. Now I listen to both artists and I like Chuck Berry's original version so much better.

My parents liked his music; I liked his music. When I was so very young, I didn't know much of how race issues played for rock and roll performers. I was very aware of civil rights issues affecting the nation on a whole, but tended to love rock and roll, or rhythm and blues, no matter the race of the artist. I didn't care about payola. I just liked the music. As I've grown older, I've looked more into the background of Chess and Sun Records, the early pioneers of the rock 'n' roll industry.

That, my friends, is where this four-DVD set is a valuable and intriguing history of an era.

The first two discs in the set are a re-release of the concert material and documentary bits leading up the original Hail, Hail Rock 'n' Roll concert movie celebrating Chuck Berry's 60th birthday in 1986 (released in 1987). I must have been living under a rock or something back then, because I never saw it in theaters. It's okay, though - the new DVD set is remastered and a better quality production!

The concert footage, the banter, the personal bits... all make for a interesting ride through what looked at times to be a frustrating production for director Taylor Hackford. The Two-Disc Special Edition is a must-have for any rock 'n' roll musicologist's collection. Keith Richard's official gig in it was the music director trying to form the ultimate band for Berry's music in the concert, sometimes against all odds - or, at least against a stubborn Chuck Berry.

In the band were folks like Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Steve Jordan (drummer from NBC's original World's Most Dangerous Band with Paul Shaffer); taking over vocals on his songs in the concert were Linda Rondstadt, Julian Lennon, Etta James and members of the band. Bruce Springsteen was interviewed about his own band's back-up gig at one of Chuck Berry's concerts some years back. Oh, and Chuck Berry was the sometimes difficult, man about the money honey, poet, singer, songwriter, and without a doubt, a mesmerizing character throughout the footage.