Chuck Berry Dies at 90

[JamesG]

Chuck Berry Dies at 90; Helped Define Rock ’n’ Roll
by Jon Pareles
March 18, 2016


Chuck Berry, who with his indelible guitar licks, brash self-confidence and memorable songs about cars, girls and wild dance parties did as much as anyone to define rock ’n’ roll’s potential and attitude in its early years, died on Saturday. He was 90.

The St. Charles County Police Department in Missouri confirmed his death on its Facebook page. The department said it responded to a medical emergency at a home and he was declared dead after lifesaving measures were unsuccessful.





While Elvis Presley was rock’s first pop star and teenage heartthrob, Mr. Berry was its master theorist and conceptual genius, the songwriter who understood what the kids wanted before they did themselves. With songs like “Johnny B. Goode” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” he gave his listeners more than they knew they were getting from jukebox entertainment.

His guitar lines wired the lean twang of country and the bite of the blues into phrases with both a streamlined trajectory and a long memory. And tucked into the lighthearted, telegraphic narratives that he sang with such clear enunciation was a sly defiance, upending convention to claim the pleasures of the moment.





In “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “You Can’t Catch Me” and other songs, Mr. Berry invented rock as a music of teenage wishes fulfilled and good times (even with cops in pursuit). In “Promised Land,” “Too Much Monkey Business” and “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” he celebrated and satirized America’s opportunities and class tensions. His rock ’n’ roll was a music of joyful lusts, laughed-off tensions and gleefully shattered icons.

A full version of this obituary will be published shortly.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/18/a...erry-dead.html

[um]

Just heard on radio.

[Zoneboy]

Link

Chuck Berry, whose rollicking songs, springy guitar riffs and onstage duck walk defined rock & roll during its early years and for decades to come, died on Saturday. The St. Charles County Police Department confirmed the news on Facebook. Berry was 90 years old.

"St. Charles County police responded to a medical emergency on Buckner Road at approximately 12:40 p.m. today (Saturday, March 18)," the Facebook post reads. "Inside the home, first responders observed an unresponsive man and immediately administered lifesaving techniques. Unfortunately, the 90-year-old man could not be revived and was pronounced deceased at 1:26 p.m." It went on to confirm that the man was Berry and added that his family was requesting privacy at this time.

While the exact cause of death is currently unknown, Berry's son, Charles Jr., recently told Rolling Stone that he had suffered a bout of pneumonia. "Now what i can say is he's a 90-year-old man," he said. "And like most 90-year-old men, he has good days and he has bad days. In the not too distant past, he had a bout with pneumonia. He's recovering, but it's a much slower process for him to recover."

Starting with his first hit, 1955's "Maybellene," Berry penned a collection of songs that, in both groove and teen-life mindset, became essential parts of the rock canon: "Roll Over, Beethoven," "Rock & Roll Music," and especially "Johnny B. Goode" were witty, zesty odes to the then-new art form — songs so key to the music that they had to be mastered by every fledgling guitarist or band who followed Berry. As teenagers, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger first bonded over their love of Berry's music, and over the last five decades Berry's songs have been covered by an astounding array of artists: from the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, the Kinks, the Doors and the Grateful Dead to James Taylor, Peter Tosh, Judas Priest, Dwight Yoakam, Phish, and Sex Pistols. As Richards said when inducting Berry into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, "I've stolen every lick he ever played."


By fusing blues and country, Berry also invented a signature guitar style — like "ringing a bell," as he put it in "Johnny G. Goode" — that was imitated by bands from the Stones and the Beach Boys to punk rockers. His lyrics — largely about sex, cars, music and trouble — introduced an entirely new vocabulary into popular music in the Fifties. In his songs, Berry captured America's newfound post-war prosperity — a world, as he sang in "Back in the U.S.A.," where "hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day." ''I made records for people who would buy them," Berry once said. "No color, no ethnic, no political — I don't want that, never did.''

Yet Berry, in his role as rock & roll pioneer, also dealt with racism and bigotry, particularly when he was accused in 1961 of violating the Mann Act (transporting a woman or girl across state lines for purposes of prostitution). Berry claimed he had met Janice Norine Escalanti, a 14-year-old Native American, during a show in Texas and hired her to work at his St. Louis club, Club Bandstand. Imprisoned after a second trial (the first conviction was overturned due to the judge repeatedly using the word "nigra"), Berry, who pleaded not guilty, wound up serving nearly two years in prison and emerged a noticeably changed, bitter man. In recent years, he had mellowed somewhat, thanks in part to receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 1986 and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


Born in St. Louis on October 18th, 1926, Charles Edward Anderson Berry learned to play blues guitar as a teenager and first performed at his high school talent show. Music was his first love, but not necessarily his first career choice. The son of a carpenter, Berry worked on a General Motors assembly line and studied to be a hairdresser. With pianist Johnnie Johnson (a regular part of his band for years to come), Berry formed a band in 1952. After meeting blues legend Muddy Waters, Berry was introduced to Chess Records founder Leonard Chess in 1955. Berry brought along a song based on the country tune "Ida Red." With a new title and lyrics — and an immediately grabby, grinding opening guitar lick — the song was transformed into "Maybellene." On a return trip, Berry brought his recording of the song and was immediately signed to the label. "[Chess] couldn’t believe that a country tune (he called it a ‘hillbilly song’) could be written and sung by a black guy," Berry later wrote in his 1987 memoir Chuck Berry: The Autobiography.

"Maybellene" hit Number Five in 1955 and established Berry's career and sound. By the end of the 1950s, he had logged seven more top 40 hits: "Roll Over Beethoven" (Number 29), "School Day" (Number Three), "Rock & Roll Music" (Number Eight), "Sweet Little Sixteen" (Number Two), "Johnny B. Goode" (Number Eight), "Carol" (Number 28) and "Back in the U.S.A." (Number 37). Although he was already in his early thirties by the time he scored those hits, Berry was unabashed about why he wrote for a younger audience. "Whatever would sell was what I thought I should concentrate on," he wrote in his memoir, "so from 'Maybellene' on, I mainly improvised my lyrics toward the young adult and some even for the teeny boppers, as they called the tots then."


Each song was defined by the Berry trademarks: that blend of propulsive beat, rueful charm, and ringing guitar. "The beautiful thing about Chuck Berry's playing was it had such an effortless swing," Keith Richards wrote in his memoir, Life. "None of this sweating and grinding away or grimacing, just pure, effortless swing like a lion." During a 1956 concert, Berry was so self-conscious about only having brought one suit that he invented a new stage move "to hide the wrinkles," as he told RS in 1969. That move, the duck walk, also became part of the rock & roll lexicon.

Intentionally or not, Berry also set the template for the rock & roll bad boy beyond his Mann Act conviction. Early in his life, Berry spent three years in reform school for an armed robbery attempt. In 1979, he was indicted for tax evasion and filing false income tax returns and spent three months in jail. (At his sentencing, he burst into tears.) In 1990, he was sued by several women who claimed Berry had videotaped them in the ladies' room in his restaurant in St. Louis. (Berry reached an out-of-court settlement.)

When he was released from a Missouri prison in October 1963 after his Mann Act conviction, Berry was embittered, but he also saw his footprint all over a new generation of bands. The Beach Boys had released their first single, the Berry-influenced "Surfin' Safari," while a new band from England, the Rolling Stones, released Berry's "Come On" as their first single in 1963. At first, Berry picked up where he left off, writing fine new songs like "You Never Can Tell" and "No Particular Place to Go" that held onto his devil-may-care attitude.

In 1966, Berry left Chess, his longtime home, for another label, Mercury, but the result was a series of sub-par albums and weak re-recordings of his hits. (One notable exception: a jam with the Steve Miller Band captured on the 1967 album, Live at the Fillmore Auditorium). In 1969, he returned to Chess — and returned to form — on harder-edged songs like "Tulane," a drug-dealer romp that showed his newfound relevance. In 1972, he scored his first and only Number One pop hit with the novelty song, "My Ding-a-Ling." His last album of original songs, Rock It, was released in 1979.


Berry was a notoriously tough and irascible character offstage. On tour, he long traveled alone, using backup bands hired by the promoters. He demanded payment in advance, a specific kind of amplifier and a limousine (with no driver) for his shows. In 1986, Richards assembled an all-star backup band (including Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and sax player Bobby Keys) to play behind Berry in the documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll. Even then, Berry intimidated Richards onstage and off and only showed up on the first day of filming after he demanded an extra cash payment of $25,000. Despite those difficulties, the 1987 movie, directed by Taylor Hackford, became one of rock's most acclaimed concert films.

In 2012, while visiting Cleveland to accept the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s American Music Masters Award, the then-86-year-old musician told Rolling Stone that he was slowing down with age. "I am hearing very little," he said. "I’m wondering about my future. That’s news!
"Well, I’ll give you a little piece of poetry," he added, when asked to expand. "Give you a song? I can’t do that. My singing days have passed. My voice is gone. My throat is worn. And my lungs are going fast. I think that explains it."
Up until 2014, Berry continued to perform at clubs and casinos. Once a month, he played at Blueberry Hill, a restaurant and bar in St. Louis, where his October 2014 show marked his 209th consecutive show at the venue, according to Riverfront Times.

Berry lived in St. Louis but often spent time at Berry Park, a 155-acre property in nearby Wentzville, Missouri. (As he told Rolling Stone in 2010, he even still mowed the lawn there.) Asked by RS in 1969 about rock's role, Berry said, "Like any music, it brings you together, because if two people like the same music, they can be standing beside each other shaking and they wind up dancing, and that’s a matter of communication ... so I say it's a means of communication, more so than other music, to the kids."
He is survived by his wife Themetta "Toddy" Suggs, whom he married in 1948, and four children.

[Zoneboy]

Never again will I try to post anything with a damn Mac.

[Penny Lane]

A Rock and Roll pioneer. I didn't realize he was that old! May he rest in peace.

[Regulus]

Chuck. On July 4th weekend in 2001 I saw him in concert in Jacksonville, FL. If I only knew what would happen two months later.

[Edison]

"Just let me hear some of that rock and roll music", but if it's by Chuck Berry - just let me hear a lot of it.

[Edward216]

Weird coincidence that his middle names were Edward Anderson, since that's my name. But I wasn't named after him. I'm an adoptee and my adoptive family's last name is Anderson. But I haven't been able to find anything about why he was given those as his middle names.

Ed.

[Marvo301]

Chuck Berry

[um]

He was before my generation so I am far more familiar with The Beatles and Rolling Stones and other 60s groups. I was not even too familiar with Elvis at first.

But I eventually found out that Chuck Berry was a pioneer.

I hear he had a troubled past and has been in trouble with the law, sadly.

However he lived to be 90 which is an age the majority of people will probably not reach, certainly not Prince or George Michael, or Michael Jackson.
(David Bowie lived quite long for a rock star).

Not sure, it might be that people born at the time Chuck Berry was born might have a propensity to live longer. It might be genetic.
Who knows if millennials like Justin Beiber or Miley Cyrus will go on to regularly live to be 90.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-w...oll-dies-at-90

Legendary musician Chuck Berry, who was central to the development of rock 'n' roll beginning in the '50s with indelible hits like "Roll Over Beethoven," "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B. Goode," died today in St. Charles County, Mo. He was 90 years old. His death was confirmed by the St. Charles County, Mo., police department.

Charles Edward Berry grew up in Saint Louis, Mo., as the fourth of six children, developing a career that epitomized a bad-boy image, which musicians have tried to cop ever since. Berry was the real thing. He spent time in reform school for robbery at 18 (with a nonfunctional pistol, he claimed), went to prison for income tax evasion and transported a minor across state lines for quote "immoral purposes."

Initially beginning his career as a beautician with a lifelong interest in music (he first performed in high school), Berry began to slowly ease towards the St. Louis nightlife scene in the early '50s as a member of the Johnnie Johnson trio. As a solo musician, he emulated the smooth vocals of his idol Nat King Cole and admired the gritty blues of another idol, Muddy Waters.

"And I listened to him for his entire set," Mr. Berry recalled to NPR in 2000 of seeing Muddy Waters in Chicago. "When he was over, I went up to him, I asked him for his autograph and told him that I played guitar. 'How do you get in touch with a record company?' He said, 'Why don't you go see Leonard Chess over on 47th?' "


So early Monday morning, Berry made his way to Chess Records and positioned himself in a store across the street. When Leonard Chess arrived, Berry ran over and made his pitch. Chess was impressed by the young man's self-confidence and told him to come back with a tape of his own material. Berry returned the following week, bringing with him the other members of the trio, pianist Johnnie Johnson and drummer Eddie Hardy, and four new songs.

Searching for a name for his first hit on Chess Records, "Maybellene," pianist Johnnie Johnson told NPR that "we looked up on the windowsill, and there was a mascara box up there with 'Maybelline' written on it. And Leonard Chess said, 'Why don't we name the damn thing "Maybellene"?'" The record was the first by a black artist to outsell covers of it by white musicians (and led to a three-decade battle over its credits). Berry's first — and only — chart-topping hit came in 1972, with the louche novelty single "My Ding-A-Ling."

Through the late '50s and '60s Berry defined the contours of rock 'n' roll and, along with peers like Little Richard and James Brown, the full-throttle energy on stage that this still-developing high-tempo, electrified style of blues required. His work influenced nearly every popular musician that came after.

A recording of "Johnny B. Goode" was included on the interstellar Voyager spacecrafts' famed "Golden Record" — it left our solar system in 2013.

"Writing a song can be a peculiar task," he wrote in Chuck Berry: The Autobiography. "The kind of music I like then, thereafter, right now and forever, is the kind I heard when I was a teenager. So the guitar styles of Carl Hogan, T-Bone Walker, Charlie Christian and Elmore James, not to leave out many of my peers who I've heard on the road, must be the total of what is called Chuck Berry's style."

As John Lennon once put it, "If you tried to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might have called it Chuck Berry."

Six years ago Berry's health began to decline, though he maintained his signature defiance even then, refusing an ambulance and leaving the theater on his own after collapsing onstage.

Berry announced a record last October at the age of 90 following a 38-year hiatus. "This record is dedicated to my beloved Toddy," said Berry at this time of its announcement in reference to, Themetta, his wife of 68 years. "My darlin' I'm growing old! I've worked on this record for a long time. Now I can hang up my shoes!"

[MrCleveland]

So long Chuck Berry!...

[ABlairican Pie]

Chuck Berry was credited with being the man who invented rock and roll, but he was one of many who forged the world's greatest music.

Interestingly, Chuck Berry back in the 1950's considered being a country musician, perhaps because he felt he was past his prime at having appeal to younger listeners. He was in fact in his mid-late 20's when his signature song "Johnny B. Goode" came out.

Keith Richard even said, Before there was Jimi, there was Chuck Berry. While Jimi was known for inventing wild musicianship with his revolutionary style of guitar playing, Chuck Berry amazed audiences with his "duck walk" and his own upbeat style of super-charged blues.

"Johnny B. Goode" was included on a disc sent out to space on the spacecraft Voyager in the early 70's, a sample of human activity and music for aliens who may come in contact with Earth's technology and wish to know more about our terrestrial race. Chuck Berry was a good choice.