Rock’s Great Oldies Don’t Act Their Age

Contentious Chuck, cordial Carl, wicked, wailin’ Wilson--three of rock’s greats headlined an oldies bill Saturday, the opening day of the first Lakewood Rock & Country Festival, and none was in anything less than full form, at least personality-wise.

Soul man Wilson Pickett provided the sweatiest set of the day before the crowd of several thousand at the Long Beach Naval Hospital Field. His vocal prowess was such that it almost seemed he had a hidden supply of phlegm in the throat, whether reviving “Mustang Sally” or just encouraging individual women (including his bassist) between stanzas to shake their stuff.

If the bill was full of men who do a workmanlike job of re-creating past glory, and who at least appear to enjoy their work, the one who seemed to enjoy it the most was friendly gentleman rocker Carl Perkins, who went-cat-went to his rockabilly well with tight, spry results--especially on a stinging “Honey Don’t.” Said he: “ ‘How old are you?’ people ask. That’s up to the audience, I always say.” Perkins was about, oh, 28 or so Saturday.

Chuck Berry’s closing set threatened to be his shortest ever; on stage less than half a minute, he stopped the show when he spotted a Fox TV news crew covering the festival. Protective of his image, Berry demanded that the crew give him their videotape. The reporter refused. After about 10 minutes of back-stage negotiations, however, Berry returned to the stage after being assured that the crew had not taped any of his performance.

Berry returned in surprisingly good spirits for an unusually long set. He almost seemed to revel in the knowledge that his out-of-tune guitar sounded like a wounded freight train.