Biography of Chuck Berry

It's impossible to give the reader a suitable description of Chuck Berry's rock & roll, and you really don't need one: the innovations he brought to the music, his dazzling, lucid lyrics, a guitar lick that everyone who's ever picked up a guitar has attempted to duplicate, vocals that place you dead-center into his detailed vignettes, can be heard everywhere. They are ingrained in rock's collective conscience, from the '60s shimmy of The Beatles up to the latest heavy metal raving.The St. Louis-born Berry brought his unique stylings to pianist Johnnie Johnson's jump-blues boogie trio in 1953; he quickly became the band's leader and began filtering Johnson's tinkly, omnipresent piano runs into his guitar style. In 1955 Muddy Waters suggested that Berry pass a demo tape to Chess-label head Leonard Chess. Chess jumped on a Berry original called "Ida May" (based on an age-old country tune), changed the name to "Maybellene" and gave Berry his first hit in 1955. The song's choogling guitar sound, flowing lyrics, and tight, driving rhythm laid the groundwork for an amazing string of hits that have inspired generations. "Johnny B. Goode," "Too Much Monkey Business," "Little Queenie," "Carol," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Back in the USA," "Roll over Beethoven," and dozens more just like them dealt with everything from tragicomic social drama and teen love and heartbreak to urban protest, all the while giving rock & roll a good deal of its language and most of its style. A list of rock & rollers who've used Berry's hits for their own jump pads reads like a Who's Who: the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Yardbirds, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen; the list is endless. Chuck Berry hasn't made a worthwhile record in decades and slops through concerts with only a paycheck on his mind. But if it weren't for Berry's legacy, books like the one you're reading would be considerably smaller. ~ John Floyd