03-18-2017, 09:09 PM
Chuck Berry died today. He was 90. RIP.
My dad loved his music and always listened to his records when I was a kid. His favorite was Johnny B. Goode; mine is Maybellene. Really good stuff.
Mr. Berry, who was born in 1926 in St. Louis to middle-class parents, had kept active until fairly recently, performing once a month at the Blueberry Hill bar in his hometown.
A pop-music pioneer rivaled only by Elvis Presley, Mr. Berry fused rhythm-and-blues and country music into a bright, modern-sounding hybrid called rock ’n’ roll with a danceable 4⁄4 beat and witty wordplay.
In the early 1950s, America’s pop charts had three categories—pop, rhythm-and-blues and country-and-western—that reflected the nation’s racial and class divisions. Mr. Berry, along with Mr. Presley, Little Richard, Bo Diddley and Buddy Holly, helped break down those barriers.
Through detailed depictions of adolescent life and wry, crisply enunciated lyrics about driving, sex and rock ’n’ roll, Mr. Berry fascinated black and white teens alike—one of the first black artists to do so.
Full story: https://www.wsj.com/articles/rock-n-roll...1489878271
My dad loved his music and always listened to his records when I was a kid. His favorite was Johnny B. Goode; mine is Maybellene. Really good stuff.
Mr. Berry, who was born in 1926 in St. Louis to middle-class parents, had kept active until fairly recently, performing once a month at the Blueberry Hill bar in his hometown.
A pop-music pioneer rivaled only by Elvis Presley, Mr. Berry fused rhythm-and-blues and country music into a bright, modern-sounding hybrid called rock ’n’ roll with a danceable 4⁄4 beat and witty wordplay.
In the early 1950s, America’s pop charts had three categories—pop, rhythm-and-blues and country-and-western—that reflected the nation’s racial and class divisions. Mr. Berry, along with Mr. Presley, Little Richard, Bo Diddley and Buddy Holly, helped break down those barriers.
Through detailed depictions of adolescent life and wry, crisply enunciated lyrics about driving, sex and rock ’n’ roll, Mr. Berry fascinated black and white teens alike—one of the first black artists to do so.
Full story: https://www.wsj.com/articles/rock-n-roll...1489878271