This Day in Music, October 18: Mr. Rock and Roll

By Neil Cossar, Contributor
October 18, 2011 1:00 AM 0



Born on this day in 1926, Chuck Berry, American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, with lyrics focusing on teen life and consumerism and his own brand of showmanship that became a major influence on subsequent rock music.

If I were Chuck Berry, I’d be a bit cheesed off. Although musicians like Keith Richards, John Lennon, Roy Orbison, and so may others have always cited Berry as a major influence, he’s never really received all the credit that other rock and roll stars have. Let’s face it, we all call Elvis Presley the King of Rock and Roll, but maybe that title is Berry’s? Chuck has the slightly boring title of the Father of Rock and Roll. Now, nobody wants to be known as someone’s Dad.



Without Chuck Berry, there’d be no Beatles and no Rolling Stones. Now can you imagine a world without the Stones? The only people who would’ve met Mick Jagger would have been his pupils at Dartford Boys Grammar School, where Mr. Jagger (or ‘Jumpin Jack Flash’ as he was known by his class) worked as a PE instructor. He retired when he was 60 and is now regularly sighted around local bars chasing young ladies. And Keith Richards? Well, I can’t actually think of anything The Human Riff could’ve done except play the guitar. So maybe Keith would be busking at the bottom of escalators deep beneath the London underground network in London.

Did you know that “Johnny B. Goode” was one of the examples of music sent out into space? In such good company as well. The musical selection was varied: Beethoven, Guan Pinghu, Mozart, Stravinsky, and … Chuck Berry. You see, he IS the King of Rock and Roll, no Elvis Presley records in sight!

The Voyager Golden Records were included on both Voyager spacecraft, which were launched in 1977. They contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or for future humans, who may find them. The Voyager spacecraft are not heading toward any particular star, but Voyager 1 will be within 1.6 light years of the star AC+79 3888 in the Ophiuchus constellation in about 40,000 years. Now that might seem like a long time to you, but if I was an alien, I know it would be worth the wait.

Voyager will come crashing down on planet Zonk, the door will burst open on impact, and out will roll that disc. The three-headed men will excitedly gather around the smoldering craft, get out their record player (where did that come from?), and marvel at the sounds coming from that small disc.

First that guitar riff…and then…

Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode
Who never ever learned to read or write so well
But he could play the guitar just like a-ringin' a bell

And you know, it will sound even better to those aliens, because having three heads, they’ll all have six ears. All the better for listening to rock and roll music with.

"Johnny B. Goode" is Berry's masterpiece, as it brought together all the elements of his unique musical sound. It cemented his place in rock history and inspired so many young men to learn the guitar and form bands. Without Chuck Berry, Bruce Springsteen would be a folk singer.

Chuck has out lived so many of his contemporaries, and is still going strong. I just went to his official web site to see the guy's still out there, playing a gig every couple of weeks.

Berry is like all great innovators, truly original, and unique.

Some say he only wrote one song, which has been re-worked over and over again, but I don’t agree with that. And anyway, if it was just one song, it was a bloody good one.

In 2002, Rolling Stone magazine published a list of the Top 50 guitar songs of all time. No.5 was “Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones, No.4 , “You Really Got Me” By The Kinks, No.3, “Crossroads”, by Cream, No.2 “Purple Haze”, by Jimi Hendrix and No.1 “Johnny B Goode”, Chuck Berry.

Now that’s a very nice list indeed to top.

“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'." — John Lennon




[www.themortonreport.com]





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-10-18 12:17 by Edith Grove.

Hell, no wonder his guitarplaying these days is a bit waddereyy...only 15 years left to 100 Chuck....GO.....

2 1 2 0

May You LIVE FOREVER CHUCK!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

yes happy birthday Mr Chuck Berry !
one of the inventors of Rock'n roll, hats off !

- October 16th 1986 by Neal Preston

happy birthday Chuck Berry!

Happy Birthday Chuck...have a good 1...

Yeah!!! Happy Birthday to the King of Rock And Roll. Best wishes and health to the man! In case CBII is out there, please thank him for all the good music and vibes he created through the years.

Happy Birthday, Chuck


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Happy Birthday, the Authentic FATHER of Rock and Roll!!!

Carlitos
Tenerife

I hope he has a great day. Heck, for all the joy he's given me over the years, I hope that every day is his best day and they all just keep getting better. Funny that I just bought his autobiography yesterday. One of my biggest regrets of my musical career is that I never took the chance of hiring Chuck to come to Knoxville when I could have actually pulled it off. Maybe it's better that way as he'll always remain larger than life and a legend in my eyes as opposed to a real person. Just the thought of sharing a stage with the man sends my imagination to levels of bliss that not much else can.

Happy Birthday, Chuck. Thanks for Everything. The Father, The King, Whatever. You Da Man!

Peace,
Mr DJA

Hence, the Stones movie with TWO Chuck Berry numbers... Not to mention a few that sound like Chuck Berry numbers... What a great tour 1978 was, rock n roll, straight up.

Happy Birthday To The Only King Of Rock & Roll

Hail to the King of rock and roll.

Who the @#$%& is Elvis.

Happy Birthday to a great man

-------------------
Keep On Rolling

Happy birthday Chuck! Thanks for some of the best songs and riffs in rock and roll history and for inspiring Keith, myself and many others!

Keep Rocking around the world HBirthday CBI

__________________________

Happy birthday!!!!!!!!

The fellow on the Gibson Flying V is none other then Chuck's son.
Carnaby, thanks for posting these great shots from Blueberry Hill in St. Louis.
I saw Chuck perform there last Wednesday. Johnny Rivers showed up, very cool.
I have tickets in my hand for his upcoming show on November 16th.
Let It Rock.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-10-18 20:44 by souldoggie.

Happy Birthday!

Quote
souldoggie
The fellow on the Gibson Flying V is none other then Chuck's son.
Carnaby, thanks for posting these great shots from Blueberry Hill in St. Louis.
I saw Chuck perform there last Wednesday. Johnny Rivers showed up, very cool.
I have tickets in my hand for his upcoming show on November 16th.
Let It Rock.

You mean CBII ?

__________________________

Quote
souldoggie
The fellow on the Gibson Flying V is none other then Chuck's son.
Carnaby, thanks for posting these great shots from Blueberry Hill in St. Louis.
I saw Chuck perform there last Wednesday. Johnny Rivers showed up, very cool.
I have tickets in my hand for his upcoming show on November 16th.
Let It Rock.

Let It Rock.

Hope I can get down to the Duck Room in StL again sometime soon! HBD Chuck!

And let's not forget that his lyrics were some priceless Americana.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHUCK BERRY!!!
Thank you for all of your music.

[savoirfaire-hoorayforhollywood.blogspot.com]

A birthday present has just been posted at Dime today :

Quote :
"Here is a big compilation of the Chuck Berry recordings i made from the radio (and TV for 2 songs) through the years.

First, the setlist (sorry for holes or errors).

01 Introduction by Eddy Mitchell
02 You never can tell
03 Roll over Beethoven
04 Come back baby
05
06 You never can tell
07 Reelin' and rockin'
08 The promised land
09
10 Instrumental
11 Roll over Beethoven
12 Ring the bell
13 ? - Carol - Little queenie
14 Memphis Tennessee
15 Johnny B Good
16 In the wee wee hours
17 Got a brand new suit
18 Baby what you want me to do
19 Johnny B Good
20 Reelin' and rockin'
21 Roll over Beethoven (in progress due to sound problems)
22 Ring the bell
23 Sweet little sixteen
24
25 Memphis Tennessee
26 Mexico way
27 Carol
28 Reelin' and rockin'
29 Come back baby
30 Memphis tennessee
31 Everyday i have the blues medley
32 Carol
33
34 Nadine
35 It hurts me too
36 Johnny B Good
37 Reelin' and rockin'
38 Memphis Tennessee
39
40 You never can tell
41 R'n'roll medley
42 Maybelene
43 My ding a ling
44 Around and around
45 Johnny B Good
46 Rock'n'roll music
47 Honest i do
48 Reelin' and rocking

On the second part of the torrent i had to do fades because DJ ...

And now the sources.

All recordings made on cassettes, except for the 2004 set recorded on MD (Sony net MD MZ N710).
All are from radio FM, except for 10 and 16 (AM radio) and 14 and 15 (on line sound from TV).

The live shows took place in:
Paris, Olympia (01, 02) 1965, Musicorama show Europe 1, rebroadcasted in the 90's
Paris, Olympia (03) 1967 february 21th, Musicorama show Europe 1, rebroadcasted in the 90's
Paris, possibly Hippodrome de Pantin, (04 - 10), 1977 april, from France Inter
Nice Jazz festival (11 - 17) 1979 july from France Inter and TV (A2 or FR3)
Nice Jazz festival (18 - 20) 1981 july from France Inter (featuring Ingrid Berry)
Deauville jazz festival (21 - 27) 1995 july 6th from France Inter
Antibes Jazz festival (29 - 37) 1995 july 23th from France Inter
Vienne jazz festival (38 - 48) 2004 june 30th from France Inter

Olivier (Lyontapes) made an upload from a Nice 1979 broadcast here; the songs were recorded on TV, my sources are not the same (see above).

Cassette played on a Marantz 4051SD deck, MD played on the original recorder, to ZOOM H4, SD card to PC, Audacity editions, FLAC (TLH).

Recorded and uploaded by SM (LETSGO)"

Thank you Lets'Go