Ever hear of John Hammond for instance? Just because some dudes were white doesn't mean a) they didn't know what they were doing, b) they were criminals and c) been down so long it look like up to me.

Oh, shut the fuck up.

I'll see the movie. Sounds wonderful, especially the music.

I haven't seen the movie yet, as it opens today, but I hope it's in the spirit of "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" or "Only the Strong Survive," both semi-documentaries, but not like "Dreamgirls," which was slow and somewhat dull, mostly because Beyonce's character (who, of course, was not Diana Ross) was not developed. She preened instead of acted.

I also like "Ray" and "Walk the Line," though Joaquin Phoenix seemed more angry and less folksy-charming than Johnny Cash on stage. And, going way back, I liked "Coalminer's Daughter" and "Lady Sings the Blues."

So I hope people who see the movie will post about how it compares with the others, and/or suggest listservs where such a discussion might take place.

Or whatever the new female Michael Jackson calls herself now, has a 3 or 4 note range, at best. Needs massive post production to sound normal. She can't dance, she's as graceful as a rhino and basically has no musically or artistically redeeming qualities at all?

In her review Stephanie Zacharek says, "This isn't your stock reading of the white businessman who made good money off black performers and never quite paid them their due (a sin that Leonard Chess, like plenty of other white guys in his day, was probably at least somewhat guilty of)."

Leonard Chess wasn't just "somewhat guilty" of ripping off black performers. In the BBC 10-part series, "Rock & Roll" he admits to blatantly stealing publishing rights as well as residuals for songs he didn't write because he felt the artists "would make their money gigging". In trying to recover money stolen by Chess Records, one performer discovered a song he had authored was listed by ASCAP as being co-written by Leonard Chess's accountant. People like Chess didn't just fail to pay black performers their due; they failed to pay them.

Just looked through the IMDB cast list, and it looks like Bo Diddley isn't in the film. I don't think they necessarily need to include everyone who was on Chess, but I'm a little surprised by that omission. He was an interesting character in his own right, and I'll bet someone would have loved to play him.

A few observations, corrections, though:

I don't think Chuck Berry actually sued the Beach Boys over "Surfin' USA/Sweet Little Sixteen." The story I heard (probably from the BBs' biography) was that Berry's lawyers asked for cowriter credit for Berry on the album, cowriter's royalties on all copies sold and legal fees but no punitive damages, a deal the Boys wisely accepted. Berry, being in the business, didn't want to destroy a new group with their first hit.

The Chess brothers were like virtually every other white producer dealing with black musicians in the Fifties and Sixties; they stole everything the could from artists who were more familiar with music than business. Ray Charles was the first to break the pattern when he moved from the musically pioneering, financially embezzling race label Atlantic to mainstream ABC on his own terms, as shown in "Ray." Ruth Brown, Atlantic's number one artist in the Forties and early Fifties who had descended to cleaning houses by Sixties, led the fight in court to recover royalties for herself and many other swindled artists. As Zacharek says, it's a complicated story; producers like Chess, John Hammond and Atlantic's Ahmet Ertegun promoted black music relentlessly, often at personal cost but then stole everything they could and frequently misrepresented the artists as more backwoods than they often were.

Not surprised the filmmakers chose not to cover Bo Diddley, who's such a complex artist he deserves a movie of his own. Too bad he didn't live to see it; British artists like Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend, Ron Wood and Jeff Beck valued Diddley above most of his contemporaries. As Bo said, "I opened the door and all these white boys came charging through."

And no mention of Willie Dixon in the article. He's usually cited as the genius behind Chess, with one foot in the white business world and another in the blues and a separate career in the more sophisticated Nat Cole/Charles Brown club style. I've sometimes had my doubts though, especially as to whether he wrote everything his name's on. Wonder how the film handles him, or if it omits him altogether.

Yes, stick it in my CD player.

I love Etta and have several of her CDs.

I was in HS in the 50's and spent more time in bands with some black guys & girls than hanging around with whom I went to a suburban white school.

I feel so lucky in so many ways to have been able to do that.

He reminds me of Russell Crowe in the way he disappears into his characters. Now that he's playing Felix Leiter in the Bond franchise, he's part of the reason I pay for a ticket.

White music producers, like the black artists, were products of their history and environment. Most producers were first or second generation immigrants who grew up in slums, and lived through the depression. They needed to be tough, sometimes felt that they had to be ruthless, but to a man they were open , smart, non-judgmental, and remarkably free of prejudice. They cared about two things making good music and selling it. To criticize them for "sharp" business practice is to deny their fears and desire never to let their families fall on the hard times that they had known. If many of the artists used drink , drugs, and violence to "deal" with their past, their producers "American" roots left them respecting and actually loving their artists but also using them.