WordMan, John Pareles’ obit in The NY Times mentions the T-Bone Walker connection, and I thought of you.
Yeah, I just read that, too. Nice to see.
[Moderating]
Merged threads.
Gotta be rock-roll music,
If ya wanna dance with me!
For decades I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to Berry, I figured he just wrote the same song over and over again.
Then, in my quest to hear the 100 Best Albums of All Time (according to Rolling Stone magazine), I bought his CD The Great 28. (It was number 21)
I surprised myself at how much I enjoyed that album. Played the hell out of it.
RIP Chuck
mmm
Any word on how cousin Marvin took the news?
I just listened to a few of his songs last night, for the first time in quite a while. I was struck by how natural (for lack of a better word) his lyrics were. I don’t know that he ever aimed for a lot of social impact with the lyrics, but they just worked perfectly. He didn’t beat the lines into submission to get a rhyme. No odd inverted sentence structure, no reliance on stretched pronunciation. Just natural spoken sentences that rhymed. That’s not easy to do.
Man, he doesn’t even have an opinion.
I was interested to read that at one time he successfully sued the Beach Boys for plagiarizing “Sweet Little Sixteen” to create “Surfin’ USA”, and was given writing credit. Growing up with his early rock music was just great. You couldn’t just sit in your chair when one of his songs came up.
Johnny B. Goode was the first song I could play and sing. The double-stop intros to JBG and Roll Over Beethoven were rights of passage. His grooves are in my bones.
Bruce Springsteen wrote the intro to Berry’s autobiography - I have an autographed copy because I got lucky - and he basically tells the tale of being one of these backing backs with the early E Street Band.
Paraphrased:
Bruce: Mr. Berry, what songs are we playing tonight?
Chuck: Son, we’re gonna play some Chuck Berry songs.
And then he starts playing.
Bruce said in the intro that one of his guys was sort of into old rock and roll so they all formed around him so he could try to keep them apprised of what they were supposed to do.
For many years Mr. Berry didn’t have a band, he travelled with his guitar, depending on local musicians for backup. No setlist, no tuning, soundchecks or rehearsal. Just plug-in and try to follow along. This didn’t always work out too well. He also required upfront payment in cash. He got into trouble with the taxman as well. I bet his estate is a mess, unfortunately.
I have to admit that I had to look up what “double stop” was. I’ve played them, but didn’t know that it was called that in shorthand.
Yeah, sorry: one finger fretting two strings right next to each other.
Happy 90th Birthday to Chuck Berry.
I’m sad you won’t have any more. Your influence on rock and roll cannot be overstated.
A reporter once asked John Lennon who his musical influences were. Lennon replied “If you want to give rock and roll another name, maybe it’s Chuck Berry.”
I image the two of them are jamming in heaven now.
It also appears (according to one video) that it can include things like octaves or the combination of a fretted and adjacent open string, or two adjacent strings fretted with two fingers on separate frets. An example being the opening licks of “Pride and Joy” by SRV.
I read that he often asked the audience for requests.
“What do you wanna hear?”
“Johnny B. Goode!”
And the band would just go right into it.
Maybelline was his break-out song, but I preferred the lyrics to his other girlfriend, Nadine:
I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back
And started walkin’ toward a coffee colored Cadillac
I was pushin’ through the crowd to get to where she’s at
And I was campaign shouting like a southern diplomat
Sublime.
His lyrics are brilliant.
Heck, Johnny B. Goode as a coded version of his own life story is amazing - he was going to use the word “colored boy” instead of “country boy” but stuck with the less direct choice, and the song is that much more timeless because of it.
He died at a good age, lived a full life I suppose. RIP.