RIP Chuck Berry

[entresz]

Big loss to R&R - part of me is relieved that he has passed away; he can finally rest. Was watching some live footage of him from more recent concerts and it was hard to watch; was forgetting the words to his songs and was visibly struggling to play his guitar.

Mind you, if I can even still hold a guitar by the age of 90 I will be very happy.

[Doctor Jeff]

I always thought that Subterranean Homesick Blues was inspired by Too Much Monkey Business.

"Runnin' to and fro hard working at the mill never fail in the mail yet come a rotten bill"

"Johnny's in the basement mixin' up the medicine I'm on the pavement thinkin' 'bout the government"

Actually they're both talking blues, a form that started in the 20's and was popularized by Woody Guthrie in the 40's and 50's. Here's Woody's Talking Blues:

Mama's in the kitchen fixin' the yeast
Papa's in the bedroom greasin' his feets
Sister's in the cellar squeezin' up the hops
Brother's at the window just a-watchin' for the cops
Drinkin' home brew ... makes you happy.

Being a folk artist of any kind means you are ripping off, I mean borrowing, from somebody somewhere along the line.

[Doctor Jeff]

I think Chuck Berry was successful in fusing country, rhythm and blues (the earlier "race records") and a jump blues style of jazz. What really got him over the top was that he sounded white and he could be sold to a white public of teenagers who were eager to hop on the latest pop culture bandwagon.

What supercharged rock'n'roll though was Elvis. My own father thought Chuck Berry was a white guy until he saw him on TV, but Elvis sounded black. A charismatic white artist playing black music was proof that this was a product with staying power.

Sam Phillips has said essentially this in his many interviews about Sun Records and Elvis. It's quite possible without Elvis and the other guys who passed through Sun Records in the 50's that RnR would have remained a much narrower niche genre, not the powerhouse it became.

Not to diminish Chuck Berry's accomplishments in songwriting, playing and entertaining. He was sui generis.

[mrcee]

Chuck was older than any rock and roller that quickly comes to mind. He was 30 in 1956, only 3 years younger than Hank Williams and 12 years older than Eddie Cochran. When he was singing about teenage activities it was with a certain detachment.

[goldenwave77]

[QUOTE=Doctor Jeff;754115]I think Chuck Berry was successful in fusing country, rhythm and blues (the earlier "race records") and a jump blues style of jazz. What really got him over the top was that he sounded white and he could be sold to a white public of teenagers who were eager to hop on the latest pop culture bandwagon.

What supercharged rock'n'roll though was Elvis. My own father thought Chuck Berry was a white guy until he saw him on TV, but Elvis sounded black....

Not to diminish Chuck Berry's accomplishments in songwriting, playing and entertaining. He was sui generis.[/QUOTE]


There is a "sweet spot" in being a successful crossover artist. Often, appearance and superficial things can mean a lot. In Chuck Berry's case, he was smart, because a lot of the stuff he sang about, e.g. interracial love ("Brown Eyed Handsome Man"), would have put him in danger, in certain parts of the U.S. (Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute (outlawing interracial marriage) was not overturned until 1956 or so, in a court case curiously entitled Loving v. Virginia.)

Later on, Gordy Berry spent a lot of time, and money, "grooming and coaching" artists on appearance, manner, clothes, etc. for MoTown. There was a sort of charm school matron who was pretty close to a full-time employee, acc'd to what I was told on the MoTown official tour.

The Mills Brothers, who were hugely influential, for later groups like the Four Tops, Gladys Knight with her Pips, etc., even did this musically. Often, the 1st chorus of their songs is very straight and slow....the next choruses get progressively looser and swingier, and syncopated. They were also able to mimic the sounds of instruments vocally, and some of their records contained the legend, "No instruments, other than a guitar, were used in recording this." You went from almost Barbershop stuff to pretty sophisticated scat singing, in 3 or 4 choruses. Another brilliant group.

[fasstrack]

FWIW: A (hopefully) amusing tale re myself and Johnny B. Goode:

Back in the mid-'80s my friend Jared (a then-bassist, now famous economist/blogger/talking head) was dating a singer, Judy &***. A mutual friend, well-meaningly but boneheadedly got that singer and myself a gig at a bar in SI.

We took the ferry and talked about tunes---deciding on 'lounge fare' like Going Out Of My Head.

VERY bad idea: It was a white metal joint, populated by obnoxious drunken 'hitters'.

3 or 4 tunes in, I looked out and saw a bunch of pissed-off, metal-hungry animals---whose next move was surely to have us for dinner.

Choosing fight over flight---and out of desperation---I started singing Johnny B. Goode. If you've never heard me sing you are DAMN lucky.

We were in even DEEPER after my little ploy. Thankfully, the management saved our asses from certain death by giving us $40 each after the first set and dispatching us home.

Manager: 'Yiz are good, but this ain't no lounge'...

Gee, d'ya think?...

[Al_F]

Marc Myers from JazzWax blog has a cool POV on Chuck, good read.

Chuck Berry: (1926-2017) - JazzWax

"But by mid-decade, the saxophone was running out of steam. For one, a leader couldn't sing and play the sax at the same time the way one could with an electric guitar. Second, a growing number of teens found the saxophone outdated—a product of the swing era. Third, few inspired teens could pick up and play the horn without years of experience, since the reed instrument was unwieldy and tricky to play with compliance. Fourth, a sax was expensive and required lessons and hours of practice in a place that wouldn't disturb households, which eluded many teens. But perhaps the saxophone's biggest handicap in 1955 was that its volume couldn't be cranked up."

[rfmando]

Chunk freaking rules no bones about it!

Like Monroe was to Mandolin...Berry was to the advent of rock and roll guitar and really many variations of it that came along after....right place right time and all that but that's what much of it amounts to....give me some dinner baby!