True story, from Chicago 1969. Chuck Berry was taping a show for TV,
and my sister's boyfriend knew someone whose father worked at the station.
Being an Avid Chuck Fan he wheedled his way into the studio audience
with my very pretty sweet-little-16 sister (also a Chuck Fan) in tow.
They enjoyed the hell out of that, as well they might, and when the show ended
they strolled back to the parking lot to make their teenage way back home.

While her boyfriend paid the parking fee my sister noticed - lo! - a guitar case on the ground.
"Odd!" she thought (as well she might!), and when she took a closer look she saw a label on the case
that said "C. Berry". "This can't be for real!" she and her boyfriend said to themselves and each other;
"It must just be some Chuck Fan's guitar, right?" But when they opened the case they saw what anyone could recognize:
that famous red ES-355, and they started to realize: Chuck must have parked in the very same parking lot
and then in his hurry to his next gig later that evening he had managed to drive off without his instrument.
"Jeepers - someone sure is in trouble now, huh!"

My sister's boyfriend was briefly tempted to keep the guitar but my sister firmly insisted that they Do the Right Thing.
A few hasty phone calls later they had ascertained that Chuck's show that night was at the Aragon Ballroom
(in a lineup that included Howlin Wolf and the Mothers of Invention), and that he was indeed fretfully lacking his guitar.
So they drove there. A series of backstage manager types tried to take charge of the guitar,
but my sister insisted on handing it over to Mr Berry personally. Which she did.
The hugely relieved and very grateful Chuck Berry took her hand and thanked her kindly
and invited her to visit him in St Louis just any time at all.

Hail hail rock & roll :E



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-13 11:47 by with sssoul.

Wonderful story ... Thanks for sharing here on IORR ....



ROCKMAN

Great story!! Good thing Chuck didn't back over it.

Great story



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-12 14:04 by geoffc.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-12 14:05 by Plink.

I'm glad you enjoy the story. I'm quietly hoping CBII will see it
and have a nice anecdote to share with his father, who might remember the incident and smile.

Hail hail rock & roll :E



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-12 15:53 by with sssoul.

...GREAT story, with sssoul!!

Cool family you got.

Great story!

That is way cool - Hope they stayed for the show in the Aragon Ballroom to see the guitar in action once again!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-13 01:40 by Plink.

GREAT story !!

[ I want to shout, but I can hardly speak ]

That's a cool story, with sssoul! Just asking: did your sister visited Chuck in Saint Louis or have met him again later?

Lovely thread and story with ssoul. Thank you.

Good story and nice to hear of honest people doing the right thing. Reminds me of that TV commercial where some young girl finds BB King's Lucille guitar in a storage shed and finds him and gets him to sign it for her. But, I always wondered how BB got separated from one of his trademark axes and half expected him to say something like "thanks for returning my guitar after all these years".

peace

That's a terrific story, with sssoul! And I'm still fantasizing about that Chuck/Wolf/Mothers gig . . . .

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Naturalust
Good story and nice to hear of honest people doing the right thing. Reminds me of that TV commercial where some young girl finds BB King's Lucille guitar in a storage shed and finds him and gets him to sign it for her. But, I always wondered how BB got separated from one of his trademark axes and half expected him to say something like "thanks for returning my guitar after all these years".

peace

A couple things that mystified me about that commercial...

The guitar she finds is a "burst" model of some sort. I had always thought that BB's various Lucille's were all black. No doubt some production models were probably built in other colors, but I thought the one's he played were always black.

2nd, in one of the close-ups of the truss rod cover showing the name "Lucille", the writing would have been upside down when viewed from the front.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed that commercial every time it came on, as I got to hear a bit of BB instead of just more noise. I just wished the producers of the commercial would have been a bit more "historically accurate".

Another thing that bugs me in commercials: Have y'all ever noticed that in every single credit card commercial that shows a card being "swiped" though the checkout reader, the magnetic strip is never going through the device? It's always the bottom of the card that's actually in the reader so that the cards logo will still be in the camera shot.

OK... That's more than enough from the department of honest advertising... We now return you to what truly is a great story from with ssssoul. And it was a great story... Thanks for sharing it with us ws

Peace,
Mr DJA

Ah, that's a nice story. thanks for sharing.

Sweet withsssoul, I'll add my thanks for sharing it.

Your family must love the re-telling of it, one of those wonderful stories that pass down through the generations.

Well ... our family - it's not one of those :E
But yeah, it's an appealing little story. Simple and true

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with sssoul
Well ... our family - it's not one of those :E
But yeah, it's an appealing little story. Simple and true

Those are the best kind.

An entertaining read & very cool story - thanks for posting

Awesome story! Can't believe you waited all these years to share it, and am glad you did. I also hope CBII sees it, and maybe his father even would remember the episode fondly. Wonder what happened on the other side of the story, as you say! You'd think someone would have been In Big Trouble

I thought you were from France. Did you-all grow up in Chicago? Or 16-year-old sister studying abroad/traveling?

thanks again, with sssoul!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-13 21:56 by swiss.

The Mothers of Invention, Chuck Berry, and Howling Wolf on the same bill. Those were the days...

You're right, Tele. I attended a great many double and triple bill shows, with top-shelf bands, some who would play 2 sets.

Wonderfull story indeed, very nice to read! Did your sister visit CB after that?

Thank you for sharing this, with sssoul!

Great story! But why didn't you post it sooner, did you only hear about it recently ?

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Koen
Great story! But why didn't you post it sooner

Because it's my custom to avoid posting personal stuff.
Press conference over. :E

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-03-28 15:08 by camper88.