Now Run, Run Real Fast: The Richard Berry Thread

You can get this for under $15 on Amazon--must have close to everything:

http://www.amazon.com/Louie-1953-1962-Richard-Berry/dp/B01M0GFHFY/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1505388714&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=richard+berry&psc=1

I sent in an "Ask Greil" about Berry the other day--I'll reprint his response here:

I’ve written about Richard Berry here and there. For me, it’s always been the prison trilogy: the Coasters’ “Riot in Cell Block #9” with Berry doing the spoken parts, his own “The Big Break,” and his little known “Next Time.” Legal-jeopardy discs were a big part of early Los Angeles R&B and rock & roll, partly because everyone knew the LA police force was racist and murderous to the core. In the fifties the likes of the Rodney King beating was about as remarkable as a traffic stop.
In 1994, for an Oakland conference of the Center for California Studies at the Oakland Museum called “Bright Lights, Mean Streets: California as City,” I set up the panel “Bop City: LA’s ’50s Rhythm & Blues” with Danyel Smith and Richard Berry himself. He was a complete charm, though there because he wanted recognition as a pioneer and an artist. He wasn’t scheduled to perform afterward, but he insisted on it. He was a powerful physical presence, but a legend in the flesh: I AM SITTING NEXT TO THE MAN WHO WROTE “LOUIE LOUIE”!

http://greilmarcus.net/ask-greil-2/