Send more Chuck Berry!
Back to Wentzville.
I haven’t heard much of his music. Other than the hits on classic rock radio. He was a skilled guitarist and pioneer in Rock.
I guess Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis are the last ones standing?
RIP Chuck and tell Elvis I said hi.
This just made me smile! (I know you meant “recordings actually sung and played by him”) … but in a very real way, you have heard tons of “his” music, almost every day of your life.
Thanks for everything, Chuck, you changed the world.
Greatest rock n’ roller ever in my book.
I may have to wear black on Monday in his honor, though it won’t be easy to find black scrubs.
Reputedly Maybelline, at the time it was written, was a parody of country music, that was riotous to the crowds in the R and B clubs he played. “Play that country song again” A goof. But it fit the bill for the Chess brothers to make an upbeat record, and it launched Chuck as the reverse of the white boy singing the blues. And he was the Shakespeare of that whole era, black or white.
Yeah, the father of rock n’ roll IMO. He had the music, he had the guitar, he had the lyrics, he had the attitude, he had the look. The influence he had was gargantuan.
Much of his output sounds fresh today. Damn could that guy write lyrics. Damn that guy developed an elementsl guitar style.
The last song of his that I fell in love with was Tulane – which had escaped my attention somehow. The words give detailed instruction on beating a bust for marijuana.
Fats Domino is still around. So is Don Everly.
Roll over Beethovan and tell Tchaikovsky the news.
Heh. I have spoken online with a number of musicians who had the, erm, “privilege” of playing with Chuck Berry.
His method was to call ahead to tell somebody to hire a backup band. There was no rehearsal, because he expected everybody to just know his stuff (50-60 years later).
The band would set up. They’d be ready to play.
Chuck showed up late. He’d call out one of his songs and launch into it, just expecting the backup band to know the song and join in. And do the same thing for every song.
These people all respected Chuck, but rightly considered him an asshole.
But, still, props and RIP /pours out a bottle of wine
They lampshaded this in Back to the Future when Marty played with the band.
“This is a blues riff in ‘B’, watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?”
Even though others have preceded him, you could say he created rock and roll heaven so they’d all have a place to go.
Yep, for all of his bizarreness, his first few records were a landmark in music. See ya, Chuck!
I served him breakfast at about 1 a.m. in the '80’s. He looked like he was already dead back then.
I wonder if the just letting the local musicians play with you was a more common thing back in the day, certainly my grandfather was never a famous musician but when they toured through his city he got to play the drums for Roy Orbison and Les Paul.
Does it make me a bad person if I admit I thought he died about, like, 20 years ago?
It does?
Ok, I’ll slink away now…
Records indicate it was actually a young man reportedly named Calvin Klein, known to his friends as Marty.
That bit from Back to the Future always grinds me. I know, lighten up Francis, it’s a fun little movie.
Chuck Berry invented the language of rock n’ roll guitar more than pretty much anybody. His use of guitar double-stops - all of his famous song intros - was started because he had a low-rent band playing the Chitlin Circuit and couldn’t afford horns. He was doing Louis Jordan and T-Bone Walker, but on the cheap and made it work. And an electric guitar and fizzy amp made playing on the cheap work and gave new teenagers with post-war money to spend something to shoot for.
Those double stops and his chuggy version of rock n’ roll’s 12-bar structure are the blueprint. Thinking you may not have heard him is like wondering if the Internet has affected your life if you don’t use Facebook. We’re so immersed in Chuck Berry; he’s part of the main design of our sonic wallpaper.
pool, the impression I get from my friend who played twice with Chuck in that pickup way, and was the music director for a couple of touring oldies bands is that yes, there tends to be a network of journeymen bands and musicians that know this stuff. Back in the day, there were more of them - assembled on short notice for “casuals” - straightforward gigs where you can play anything from American Songbook to rock.
C’est la vie, say the old folks
It goes to show you never can tell
See, he made Pulp Fiction better, too.