Chuck Berry Dies at 90.

lizarddust · Mar 18, 2017

R.I.P Chuck Berry. Never forgotten..

trucker · Mar 18, 2017

i like to watch the chicks dance

trucker · Mar 19, 2017

but johnny country boy was good better aright video time 1:52 circular ~ leg movement with guitar

Paysan · Mar 19, 2017

Chuck Berry! A great musical innovator.

He is an icon for the 20th century. He suffered a lot of the Jim Crow and other racism this country offered to black people in those days, sometimes couldn't enter by the front door, yet he's one of our great musical figures.

His "Havana Moon" still gives me chills.

Texas Republican · Mar 19, 2017

Musical genius. No one before or since had more energy.

MVictorP · Mar 19, 2017

The true King of Rock 'n' Roll.

Requiescat In Pace, my inspiration.

waltky · Mar 20, 2017

Long live rock n' roll...

Chuck Berry's spirit lives on through countless songs
Mar 19,`17 -- Behind so many great rock bands and rock songs looms the music of Chuck Berry.

Like the time a teenage Keith Richards ran into a childhood friend, Mick Jagger, at a train station in England and discovered they were musical soul mates. "You know I was keen on Chuck Berry and I thought I was the only fan for miles," Richards wrote to a relative in April 1962. "I was holding one of Chuck's records when a guy I knew at primary school ... came up to me. He's got every Chuck Berry ever made and all his mates have, too." Berry died Saturday at age 90, leaving behind not only a core of rock classics such as "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven," but countless descendants in songs clearly indebted to him in sound and in spirit.

Chuck Berry performs during a concert celebration for his 60th birthday at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Mo. On Saturday, March 18, 2017, police in Missouri said Berry has died at the age of 90.

You could assemble a heavenly mix tape just of the hits built around his guitar work. You can hear it overtly in the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar," which closes with a near-verbatim homage to "Johnny B. Goode," in Bob Seger's "Get Out of Denver" and the Beach Boys' "Fun, Fun, Fun," or in brief passages to songs that might not otherwise remind anyone of Berry, like the Eagles' "Peaceful Easy Feeling" or the Who's "Who are You." "It started with Chuck Berry. He inspired us all," tweeted Rod Stewart, whose Berry-influenced songs included "Hot Legs" and "Stay With Me," a hit when he was with the Faces. "The 1st album I bought was Chuck's 'Live at the Tivoli' and I was never the same."

Berry also patented an animated, stream of consciousness storytelling style that artists have been using ever since. Listen to Bob Dylan unfurl his story of paranoia in "Subterranean Homesick Blues" or his old man's boast in "Thunder On the Mountain," or the Rolling Stones' mockery in "Respectable," songs inconceivable without Berry's "Maybellene" and "Too Much Monkey Business" among others. Berry's rocking groove and comic spirit inspire Creedence Clearwater Revival's sci-fi "It Came Out of the Sky," while Seger's "Rock and Roll Never Forgets" consciously brings Berry's teen world into adult life.

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Go Johnny go: Chuck Berry's seven best songs
Sun, 19 Mar 2017 - BBC Music reporter Mark Savage looks at the late rock 'n' roll legend's most influential songs.

"There's only one true king of rock 'n' roll," said Stevie Wonder. "His name is Chuck Berry." The St Louis bluesman, who has died aged 90, basically invented rock. Sure, there were other contributors: Bill Haley's northern band rock 'n'roll; Pat Boone and his New Orleans dance blues; and Berry's label mate at Chess Records, Bo Diddley. But no-one else shaped the instrumental voice and lyrical attitude of rock like Chuck. His recordings were lean, modern and thrilling. In the words of pop critic Bob Stanley, "they sounded like the tail fins on Cadillacs".

What are his best tracks?

He was the first to admit he drew inspiration from days of old. "There is really nothing new under the sun," he said in the mid-1980s tribute film Hail, Hail Rock 'n' Roll - citing the likes of T-Bone Walker and Charlie Christian as his forebears. Even the famous "Chuck Berry guitar riff", which opened hits like Maybellene and Johnny B. Goode, was lifted - by his own admission - from a Louis Jordan record. What he did with those influences, though, was something else. He gave country the bite of the blues, writing defiant odes to cars and girls at a time when rock lyrics were all Tutti Frutti and A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop. As Brian Wilson said, he wrote "all of the great songs and came up with all the rock and roll beats". "He laid down the law," added Eric Clapton. Here are seven of his most influential songs.

MAYBELLENE (1955)

Chuck's first single sounded like nothing that had ever come before - and gave him a top five hit in the US a full year before Elvis made his debut. It was based on Ida Red, a 1938 hit for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys - but was nowhere near as polite. Chuck adds a thunderous rhythm section and a scuzzed up guitar, while his lyrics lived out a teenagers' fast-car fantasy (even though he was in his mid-20s when he wrote it). "As I was motorvatin' over the hill, I saw Maybellene in a Coupe-de-ville / Cadillac rollin' on the open road / Tryin' to outrun my V-8 Ford." Disc jockeys Alan Freed and Russ Fratto were "encouraged" to play the song - by being credited as co-writers - and a career was born.

[ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN (1956)

"I wanted to play the blues," Chuck once told Rolling Stone. "But I wasn't blue enough. We always had food on the table." So he channelled his other frustrations into music. Roll Over Beethoven, widely believed to be a manifesto for rock and roll music, was in fact an affectionate dig at his sister, Lucy, who spent so much time at the family piano he couldn't get a look in.

Tributes paid to legendary Chuck Berry

Still, the swagger and the message - that Beethoven and Tchaikovsky had been rendered redundant by the sheer power of Chuck and his cherry-red Gibson - resonated with musicians all over the world. The song has subsequently been covered by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, ELO and even Iron Maiden.

SCHOOL DAY (1957)
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bigfella · Mar 20, 2017

Chuck wasn't the first rock star, nor the biggest, nor the most talented. In terms of the music itself, however, he is far & away the most important.

Rock music has four great pillars. Four performers from the formative years who created the genre. Elvis established rock music in popular culture. Little Richard added flair, a gospel sensibility and killer songs. Jerry Lee was a white equivalent to Little Richard - wild gospel shouter, though he preferred teenage girls to young men .

Chuck Berry brought a bluesman's ear & a bluesman's touch & a ton of great songs (many of which he apparently pinched from his pianist). He more than anyone else established the guitar as THE rock instrument (apologies to Scotty Moore, but Chuck was up front). His influence has gone deepest & longest. There is more Chuck in in the DNA of rock than any other performer. Kids in garage bands will be referencing Chuck without knowing it long after we are all dead & gone.

Oh, and Chuck is on Voyager, so his music will most likely outlive humanity somewhere in the depths of space. Perhaps some other species will get to enjoy him one day.

moon · Mar 20, 2017

Great performer, great songs, great taste in guitars. A wonderful role model. Sadly missed.

snakestretcher · Mar 20, 2017

I've been earning money gigging Chuck Berry licks for 40 years. Cheers Chuck!

Blackbeard · Mar 20, 2017

RIP Chuck, one of the true Founders of Rock n Roll

Johnny B Goode

MVictorP · Mar 20, 2017

I think the guy was a musical giant. But that being said, in person, he was quite... eeeerrr... special.

Case in point. He made a joint show here in Quebec with our own Offenbach: The guy was smiling, amicable up to the instant he got his check: From that moment on, he tried to flee the premises, but he couldn't. He got up on the stage with no backing band, just his gitter. Seeing this, Offenbach jumped on stage, offering Chuckie some backing. Poeple tought everything was alright, since everyone were smiling onstage, yet Chuck did tried to unplug Offenbach's guitarist a couple of times during the set - I kid you not.

At the end of the set, Berry left the stage in a vigorous manner, while Offenbach were left there playing his music for what they believed would be the encore. But Berry would never re-appear: With his own car he pushed away a car that was blocking the exit to flee into the night like a thief.

Ha ha ha. RIP, Chuck!

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Chuck Berry Dies at 90.

lizarddust Well-Known Member

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Chuck Berry Dies at 90.

lizarddust Well-Known Member

trucker Well-Known Member Past Donor

trucker Well-Known Member Past Donor

Paysan Active Member

Texas Republican Well-Known Member Past Donor

MVictorP Well-Known Member

waltky Well-Known Member

bigfella Well-Known Member

moon Well-Known Member

snakestretcher Banned

Blackbeard Active Member

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