I knew Chuck Berry and worked with him several times over the years.
He was my first guitar teacher. Like so many other young players, I learned off his records. We always had great talks about music, and I told him how much his music meant to me.
I'll never forget when we worked together with Bob Hope at the tri-centennial celebration of Rhode Island. We had a lot of laughs together.
Chuck was a friend of mine and I'll really, really miss him.
There will never be another like him.
Tommy James
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How long until someone writes "Roll Over Chuck Berry"?
Not me, not going there. I don't think. Cheap shot.
Eric Bazilian
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It should be called The Chuck Berry Hall of Fame.
Todd Devonshire
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Bob… I played the Stone Balloon in Newark, Delaware years ago and got there around 11 a.m. to do a sound check. As I walked into the club, I noticed a guy asleep in the backseat of an old Cadillac. I told the manager there was a homeless guy passed out in the club's parking lot. He said, "No, that's Chuck Berry. He had a show, last night, and was too cheap to get a hotel room." R.I.P. Chuck Berry
Pat Godwin
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Amazing feedback. RIP Chuck. A true original in every sense of the word.
Justin Bartek
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....god damn, that Seymour Stein is a national fukking TREASURE!!!
Tommy Allen
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In Toronto at our first POP Festival in June of '69, Chuck stole the show...despite acts like Sly, Steppenwolf, The Band, Johnny Winter all giving stellar performances. Hell, Doctor John even stopped the rain. But Chuck had 30,000 kids doing or trying to do the Duck Walk and the cheers of the crowd was second to none that weekend. So much so that we put a whole festival around he, and Little Richard, Jerry Lee, Bo Dddley and Gene Vincent in September. It didn't take John Lennon more than a few seconds to say, when invited to emcee, "We wouldn't want to come unless we could play" I guess not. John Lennon knew if all his heroes were going to play, so was he. And thus was born The Plastic Ono Band and the first live performance of Give Peace A Chance. Those were the glory days for we who got in early and got the concert and festival scene going, mostly so we could see the bands that no one else was bringing in. Chuck of course, always got local musicians as a pick up band, and to this day they still tell how thrilled they were to be on stage with him and to be the guys he took across the road from the stadium and bought hamburgers, since they only sold hot dogs at the venue.
John Brower
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Saw Chuck Berry at the Fox West Coast theater a place owned by Bill Graham back in the 70's he never traveled with a band he would always pick them up in the town he was playing because if you didn't know Chuck Berry music you didn't know Rock & Roll ~ RIP ~
RS ~
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Our band gets requests almost every performance for C'est la vie. What a classic. Goes to show you, you never can tell.
Lina Myers
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Love that piece in Back to the Future
Neil Lasher
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Please keep in mind Lloyd price with the mentions .. he was a great who was the first black musician who would not play the record company...grammy....game...
He stood up to the segregated system.
Mitch
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First 45 I ever bought. Chuck Berry's reeling n rockin b/w sweet lil 16.
James Lee Stanley
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Somewhere 25 yrs ago, late night, club NYC, WASTED out of my mind. Seeing Chuck. Pulls me up on stage. And we do the bump....(I'm only 4'11). Will never forget how much fun...
Julie Coulter
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Thanks for your brilliance here and for publishing Seymour Stein's words.
Ken Freundlich
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From: Kenny Weissberg
Rest in peace, Chuck Berry.
All of us who are rock 'n' roll lifers owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Chuck Berry. His contribution to our lives can't be quantified. What an innovator and trailblazer!
And a mythic character.
Chuck Berry's music jumpstarted my lifelong passion for rock 'n' roll. Working with him professionally (twice) sent me to the medicine cabinet in search of Advils and Xanax.
The image with this post is Chuck's signature on a Humphrey's note pad when he gave me his home phone number in St. Louis in 1988.
"Call me directly from now on," Chuck said. "There's no reason to cut my agent in on our deals."
http://twitter.com/Lefsetz/status/844322943786086400?utm_source=phplist5782&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=More+Chuck+Berry
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One of my most memorable life experiences was seeing the legendary pioneer of "Rock and Roll Music", Chuck Berry, perform at a small dinner club called The Strand (now defunct) in Redondo Beach, California on August 13, 1990. The venue only seated approximately 200 people, and I was given a table at the foot of the stage, where I got an up-close unobstructed view of his performance and the famous "duck walk" guitar playing.
In typical Chuck Berry fashion, he arrived at the venue with no touring backing band (using a local band instead), no crew and no entourage. After the show, he exited the club alone, walked to the parking lot and got into his "coffee-colored Cadillac" with a tall, statuesque blonde woman as his only companion. Before driving off, he stopped and signed my copy of his "The Great 28" CD. This was Berry's first L.A. performance since his recent arrest in St. Louis for "Too Much Monkey Business", so as he drove off into the night he was unfortunately tailed by an unmarked police car whose officers were following his every move.
"Bye Bye Johnny", Rest in Peace you "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man".
Best Regards,
Phil Stanley
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I ran into Chuck Berry one time - literally - almost knocked him down. August 1970 I was going out the front door of the venue for some air and he was coming in. Walked straight through the crowd, carrying his guitar case, climbed up on the stage, plugged in, tuned up, and started the show. It was August 1970, Washington DC, the middle of the Viet Nam war. The crowd was made up of hard hats from the subway construction, Congressional aides and interns in their suits, hippies of all ages, suburbanites, black folks, white folks, guys in uniform - all the polarized groups, keeping with their own, wary of everyone else. Then he played Johnny B. Goode. And the house became one, everyone knew the words, everyone sang along. Everyone was together for 3 minutes. And despite the Kennedys and King, and My Lai and Kent State and Nixon, I knew we would be ok.
Thomas Cokenias
El Granada CA
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Hi Bob,
saw Chuck for the 1st time about 15 years ago. The venue was the Westbury Music Fair on LI. I was warned by veteran attendees, "Stay the course."
Chuck comes out a begins to berate the local band because of where their amps were on stage (too far from his). I told myself, "Stay the course." He gets into the first song and stops it all to teach the piano player the correct part. Took ten minutes. I told myself, "Stay the course." He gets into another song and stops it to fix his guitar sound that from the downbeat was terrible (way too much bottom from the rented amp). This tweaking went on for an additional ten minutes with him returning to the vocal mic from time to time to say something uninterestingly anecdotal. Now a group is booing and heckling.
I told myself, "Stay the course." People are now leaving. I told myself, "Stay the course." A third of the audience is now gone. Johnny makes another adjustment to his amp and now it's perfect. He launches into "Carol" and from there on, it was pure rock and roll perfection til the end. I stayed the course, wore out "The Great 28" and looking back to just last last week while on tour with Johnny Rivers, am so glad that I was able to get a nightly dose of Chuck while grooving to Johnny's version's of Maybelline and Memphis.
Rich Pagano
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The very first show we did to launch our long residency at the hollywood palladium and put it on its way to becoming one of the top rock emporiums in the america....and who would be more fitting for this grand opening but Chuck....leading the way for The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart & Faces, Roxy Music, David Bowie, ZZ Top, Alice Cooper, Grateful Dead, and countless others that followed for a nice long very fun run....Thank you Chuck...for many many great shows and not a dull moment at any one of them.....as a side note, johnny otis who was retired when i reached out to him to do this epic event, spent months putting his old revue back together and rehearsing for this show....he was a wonderful guy....and also my favorite DJ on the radio back in the day, along with Huggy Boy and Art Laboe when I was a young teen...remember, Johnny discovered Etta James as well.
http://twitter.com/Lefsetz/status/844323968647516160?utm_source=phplist5782&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=More+Chuck+Berry
Sepp Donahower
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Let's not forget his innovative and immaculate guitar playind - at least on record. And unbelievably great slide on for instance "Deep feeling".
Peter Gunn, London, England.
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So this quote has been flying around everywhere "If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it '?Chuck Berry.'"
-- ?John Lennon
Fairly profound, right?
Except the quote comes from when John Lennon appeared on the Mike Douglas Show and Mike is about to introduce Chuck Berry and instead of himself reading the intro from the cue card, Mike tells John to handle it. Thus the "great" quote seems to have been written by some production assistant on the show who handled the intros.
When John reads the now famous line, he even ad-libs "right!" as if he heard it for the first time and is certainly agreeing with the notion.
At the end of the day, we know Lennon was a fan.
David Hughes
https://youtu.be/ULJZbNQRNgU?utm_source=phplist5782&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=More+Chuck+Berry
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I love your work and and especially the recent Chuck Berry tribute.
Chuck was very vocal about his love of the guitar style of Carl Hogan who played in Louis Jordan's band. One listen to the guitar intro of Louis Jordan's 1946 hit "Ain't that just like a woman" will give you an idea of how he used it to create his own intro.
Keep up the great work!
Mark O'Neill
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bob, i played a hs band in the 80s...we did plenty of the pop stuff...but the number that brought the house down (as much as a bunch of 16 olds playing to 16 year olds could) was Johnny B. Goode....it was either the opener or the closer. you cant even call it 'classic rock'...it is more like 'original rock'. i was on bass but i loved that song so much i learned the entire thing on guitar and yet another 3 chord hero was born.
the song was ~ 30 years old by then but highschool kids in the 80s were screaming 'go go, gooo johnny go, go!
Chuck Berry's influence stretches out infinitely...literally from garage/basement bands in rural america to small quartets from rural liverpool, uk.
amazing.
- gary mendel
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I'm a little late to the tribute party, but....
In 1972 or '73 I saw him at a rock festival in Germany. He was cooking and everyone was singing along. In the middle of the song he hollered "Sing it children! You're all my children!"
Truer words were never spoken.
Dave Thorn
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The story about this I have heard for years was yes, Chuck had in his
contract rider a requirement for two 19xx Fender Dual Showman Amps.
Caveat was, Fender happened to not make Dual Showman's in 19xx, thus always giving Chuck an out on any gig that he had a contract for.
Regarding his playing with local bands, on the occasions I had to mix him,
his command to the band were simple "you figure out the key and watch my
foot. When I put it down you stop When I do it again you start again."
I can't watch any Chuck Berry Video to this day without having my eyes
trained on that foot . . .
Perry/Chicago
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Nice obit Bob.
I've been a musician for 45 Years and from my first band, when I was 15, up to today there's still some Berry that creeps in once in a while. I wouldn't have it any other way--and it's not just Johny B Good.
Rock Around the Clock may have shown what Rock could do, but Chuck was certainly the first poet, and I don't think anyone did it better.
Bill in MN.
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Great piece. As you point out, Chuck Berry was certainly punk before there was punk and he knew it, perhaps that was central to his attitude.
Thought you might like to check out his reviews of punk albums in 1980:
http://m.riverfronttimes.com/musicblog/2014/06/19/chuck-berry-reviews-classic-punk-records-in-unearthed-jet-lag-zine-from-1980?utm_source=phplist5782&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=More+Chuck+Berry
John Kuch
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We opened for him a couple times. Always local pickup guys, always showed up a few minutes before, always left with a briefcase that had $2,000 in cash (that would be worth about $14,000 today). But he was neither rude nor particularly friendly to us. He had his gig and did his gig, we had our gig and did our gig. It was that simple. But they were simpler times.
Craig Anderton
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If you didn't know the guy then you might believe all the BS that was written about him. I grew up in the 60's and I always thought it was the Beatles that kicked the door down. So wrong! Chuck Berry could write & sing & play like nobody else. He was there first.
I booked several shows with him back starting in 1992. First show scared the hell out of me. I wasn't sure how it would go. He walked in the club, checked the guitar amps I was to provide & then looked at me and said "ya did good son". It was the beginning of a great friendship.
No one tells the stories of him speaking to our high school students everytime he visited Columbia, Mo. That guy was ripped off by so many people back in the early days of rocknroll. I paid up front even after we became friends. Best times I ever had in the club biz.
Thanks for recognizing him for what he was- THE FATHER OF ROCK N ROLL!
Richard King
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I'm a kid in the bush of Australia and I hear Chuck Berry hitting my then
virgin R&R ears, I knew my life was to change. Thank God for Chuck and
the other pioneers of R&R. RIP.
Don Grierson
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Hi Bob
Perhaps, one of the unsung markers that ensures Chuck Berry's music and impact will reach way beyond the magnetic pull of the Earth, is contained in this letter that he got from the late and great Carl Sagan some years ago, that confirms that his music and its impact will be very far-reaching, and go way beyond our planetary sphere. Who else from the rock n roll era can claim this credit ?
One day, I have to tell you the story of my visit to Wentzville, Missouri, to spend a day with Chuck Berry, when I was trying to sign him to Capitol Records. He had written a long melodic and lyrical tone poem about his life, which he played me in full, in his home studio, and which excited me, as it was a simple but lyrically effective summary of his life story, his music and his belief in the impact of music. All the while as he was unfolding the tone poem to me in his little home studio, his wife, Themetta, whom he married in 1948 and survives him today, was at the kitchen table assiduously reading the Bible - which Chuck told me was what she did for most of every day. I figured then (back in 1995) that it would be fitting to release the musical tone poem and have, what might be his last album. For a variety of reasons which I'll tell you about sometime, and despite Chuck's enthusiasm for doing a deal with me, it couldn't get consummated. However, that day with Chuck, getting into the raw and the deep of his creative psyche, gave me a special insght into his deep well of creativity and expression, and the way he and Themetta lived their own personalised rock n roll dream.
Here's the Carl Sagan letter:
http://twitter.com/Lefsetz/status/844327859804004352?utm_source=phplist5782&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=More+Chuck+Berry
Ralph Simon
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Judas Priest's cover of Johnny B Goode is a fucking monster! It also convinced me to go back and check out the original source as a pre-teen.
Tim W
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In the U.K., Chuck Berry's records came out via the Pye label, which had a deal with Chess. A lot of kids in Britain discovered him, during his second wave in the early '60s, via some great double-header EPs Pye International issued, with a couple of Chuck Berry's hits on one side and a couple of Bo Diddley's on the other.
Les Cocks, who was second in command at Pye at that time, once told me a great story, much embellished I'm sure, about cutting the album "Chuck Berry In London" in 1965
Chuck agreed to make an album while he was in the country to do some shows, and it was arranged that he would record the whole thing on the day of his London appearance. The only instructions to the producer were to find him a group of musicians who knew his stuff, and be finished in time for Chuck to soundcheck at around 5pm. So the studio was booked for 10am, allowing time for two standard three hour sessions and a break. It was going to be tight, but possible.
10am arrived and the musicians, all of them rockers on the circuit who were in awe of Chuck and knew his songs backwards, turned up and set up their gear. By 11am, Chuck hadn't showed. The producer called his hotel and was told not to worry, Chuck was on his way. 12 noon came and went, still no Chuck. Another call elicited the same response: Everything's cool, Chuck's coming. At 1pm, the musicians' union rep was obliged to call the end of the first session and a lunch break. The producer was going nuts. The band went to the pub, under strict instructions to cone back after one pint and a sandwich in case Chuck showed up. They did. He didn't.
Finally, around 2.15 Chuck saunters through the door, doesn't explain or apologise, walks over to his amp and plugs in. Then he asks each member of the band in turn to accompany him on one of his tunes, he plays eight bars of No Particular Place To Go to test the bass player, a burst of Maybelline to assess the drummer and so on. Audition over, and apparently happy with their playing, he unplugs his guitar and says to the producer. "OKay man, you got an office in this place? I need an office. " The producer says "Yes, there's an office here." "Great," says Chuck, "show me where it is. " And the producer, who's having a heart attack by this point, shouts , "Chuck what do you need an office for? it's almost three o clock and we have two hours left to cut this album." And Chuck says: "Well, first I gotta write the fucking songs."
Jim Irvin
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Hey Bob,
I have a unique and funny story to share with you about the late great Chuck Berry... One that I know you'll appreciate...
My uncle Bobby Barnes was in a group in the 60's called the IMPACS that toured extensively with Dick Clark's tours and he was fortunate enough to have played with everyone from Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty (in his Rock and Roll days), Patsy Cline, and so many others as a back up band while the IMPACS were up and comers on KING Records...
He also had the opportunity to play for Chuck... As you know Chuck would often show up to many of his dates with the promoter supplying the back-up band...My uncle just happened to be the drummer on one of those dates at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg Florida...
Now, knowing from insiders in the industry that Chuck could be demanding and at times difficult for promoters and hired guns to work with my Uncle decided he was not going to allow Chuck to have any regrets or apprehensions about playing with him as a drummer...
Prior to the Show, my Uncle took the opportunity to introduce himself and they had the conversation that earned my uncle a personal bow from Chuck in front of his drum kit at the end of the Show (which you know didn't happen that often with a guy like Chuck)...
The conversation went as follows:
My Uncle: "Hey Mr. Berry... I'm Bobby Barnes from the IMPACS and I'm going to be your drummer tonight"...
Chuck: "Uh huh! I see that"!
My Uncle: "Well Mr. Berry, I think I've got you all figured out and after tonight I hope I can call you Chuck"..
Chuck: "Oh yeah Son? You've me figured out? Well enlighten me boy" !!!
My Uncle: "OK Mr. Berry"... (My Uncle began to swing his arms as if holding a guitar and said) 1."Guitar neck down means stop" 2."Guitar neck up means Go" 3. "Most importantly you're ALWAYS right and we're ALWAYS wrong"!!!!
Chuck: (Standing looking at my Uncle, he looked perplexed and then smiled and put his hand out to shake my Uncle's hand and said) "FINALLY"!!!!!! As he shook his hand he said "You Son, can now call me Chuck"!!!!!
I hope this story made you smile as much as it does every musician that hears it Bob...
Gary Bridges
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The year was 1981. I took my 2 year old son to the Bumbershoot festival at the Seattle Center Coliseum to see Chuck Berry.
We were standing backstage chatting with John Bauer, the concert promoter. Just before showtime, Chuck walks through the backstage door with his guitar and a hooker on each arm. He strolls up to Bauer and says, "You got my money?" John handed him an envelope with $50,000 in cash (Chuck only takes cash). Berry opened the envelope, flipped through the bills - and I witnessed this conversation:
?Chuck: "There's only $50,000."
Bauer: "Right, our contract was for $50,000."
Chuck: "Not anymore, I need another $10 grand. Somebody's got to pay for these fine ladies."
Bauer: "But we have a contract."
Chuck: Fuck the contract. I ain't playing unless you pay me another $10,000."
Bauer: "But our deal was for $50,000."
Chuck: "Look man, you got two choices. Either go on stage and tell 15,000 people that I ain't playing - or find another $10,000. Cause I'm not going out there until you do."
Bauer begged Chuck to start playing while he rounded up $10,000. Meanwhile, the crowd was growing restless, shouting, "Chuck...Chuck...Chuck". Berry laughed and said, "Ya hear that? If I was you, I'd be running to the bank." Realizing that Chuck was serious, Bauer looked pale as he ran out the backstage door, headed for his car.
About 30 minutes later, Bauer rushed back in, handed the $10,000 to Chuck and breathlessly said, "Okay, here's your money, now go play". Chuck smiled, stuffed the bills in his pocket and walked onstage...the guys from Heart were his back-up band. With my son on my shoulders, I stood next to Chuck's hookers and watched him tear it up from the side of the stage.
But I give the man his due. Without Chuck Berry, I wouldn't have had a radio career.
Beau Phillips
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It has been fascinating to read so much about who invented Rock and Roll since the passing of Chuck Berry. Clearly, no one person, but many of the names forwarded certainly played a part. Or perhaps a bunch of really good cooks perfecting a dish - two parts blues, one part country, a dash of gospel. Whatever!
That said, take a listen to Chuck Berry's Thirty Days for a significant, but partial answer to the question. A tribute to Hank Williams and "rebel" country music. A genius songwriter - singer, guitar player, performer, story teller, paying tribute to a genius songwriter - singer, guitar player, performer, story teller:
If I don't get no satisfaction from the judge
I'm gonna take it to the FBI and voice my grudge
If they don't give me no consolation
I'm gonna take it to the United Nations
I'm gonna see that you be back home in thirty days
So much more to it than blues and country - black and white - one tradition or another. There were so many musical ingredients defining the American experience over generations - a few dozen or so master chefs created some awesome recipes. Since then, our pallets have been in a state of Nirvana - or any one of the thousands of musicians that do in fact come from somewhere.
Pete Campbell
Toronto
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Love the newsletter.
Feels like Chuck Berry was hugely influenced by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, would be great if she was considered the godmother of Rock'n'Roll…she even used a Gibson SG way before ACDC were about, but then again she was a woman and would not have had the same level of opportunity.
Chuck berry and the boys basically took it and rolled with it.
Would be great to have one of your insightful posts on women in the industry again (I am sure you have done many, I still have not read though all previous posts to know)
Have a nice day,
Best,
Orpheas
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