Rollover Ms. Glickert, and tell Ms. Whitehouse the News

Here's a pretty detailed story about the city council meeting that gave the green light to putting up the statue of Chuck Berry in University City.  (Mary Whitehouse tried to ban his "Ding a Ling" in the U.K.)  Here's a photo of Ms. Glickert, who looks nice enough.  Maybe she'll like the statue when she sees people enjoyng it.

This Was Written By A Sportswriter?

"Rounding third," my friend...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/sports/baseball/in-baseball-blue-eyed-hitters-are-wary-of-glare.html

Oh Maybellene: Chuck and Earl Slick

Earl Slick doing some Chuck Berry style riffs to Maybellene.



Chuck was thinking about girls!  (You could hear Nadine almost get going there.)  Here's Carol, and Little Queenie.

Earl Slick and John and David

Here's Earl Slick, who played with Chuck and his band last night, talking about how he started working with John Lennon.



Here he is playing one of John's songs on what should have been Lennon's 70th birthday.



And here with his long time used to be, Mr. Bowie.

Chuck Berry at Blueberry Hill, 6-22-2011

Ten full minutes!  Haven't even watched yet.

What It's Like

I always LOVE to read stories by journeymen musicians who get the call to back Chuck Berry.  Here is a great one!  http://www.polkarioty.com/chuckberry.html

A Tease

Robert Lohr and CBII are teasing Facebook friends with news that there will be surprise guest at Chuck Berry's show at Blueberry Hill tomorrow.  (I want to go!)

Muddy Zimmerman and Robert Morganfield

I think of Dylan as one of America's great bluesmen.  Here he is, interviewed about nterviewed about his new record...

Q:  A lot of this album feels like a Chess record from the fifties. Did you have that sound in your head going in or did it come up as you played?

A:  Well some of the things do have that feel. It’s mostly in the way the instruments were played.

Q:  You like that sound?

A:  Oh yeah, very much so. . "

Likes it enough, in fact, to recreate the sound almost verbatim-- but with David Hidalgo's accordian subbing for Little Walter's harp:  Here's "My Wife's Hometown," done like Muddy's version of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want To Make Love To You."  (Dixon gets writing credit for the song on Dylan's CD.)



And here's where it came from:



Dylan also did his own twist on Rollin' and Tumblin'-- one of the first songs recorded by Muddy Waters on Chess Records.  Here's Muddy's:



And here's Bob Dylan's version from "Modern Times."



(Lest you think Bobby is a simple thief, remember that Muddy used to play exactly like Robert Johnson, and Chuck Berry took the opening lick of Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny B. Goode from Carl Hogan and Louis Jordan.  It's the way it works!)

And, since this is a Chuck Berry blog, I'll requote from the May 14, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone :

"A friendship has developed between Dylan and Berry over the years. "Chuck said to me, 'By God, I hope you live to be 100, and I hope I live forever,'" Dylan says with a laugh. "He said that to me a couple of years ago. In my universe, Chuck is irreplaceable... All that brilliance is still there, and he's still a force of nature. As long as Chuck Berry's around, everything 's as it should be. This is a man who has been through it all. The world treated him so nasty. But in the end, it was the world that got beat."

Rolling Stone 1078 May 14, 2009.  (Here's to friendship!)

With Youtube All Things Are Possible (Except Those Two Women): Booker T. Laury in Paris

When I was about 25 I was lucky enough to travel from West Africa to Paris, France (and Italy!) for a little holiday.  I met my brother in Paris and the two of us hit the town, eating pepper steak, drinking Bordeaux wine, and, one fine evening, sat right next to the piano at a club where Memphis Slim was playing.  I mean right next to the piano-- so close that Memphis Slim talked to us between songs and sets, because it was like we were at his table.

We weren't alone at the table, either.  We sat on one side, to get a better look at the keyboard, and the hostess brought two extraordinary women to sit across from us.  At one point they went to the restroom or something, and Memphis Slim complimented us.  "You guys got good taste," he said, pointing to the place where the women had been sitting.

"Oh no!" we protested.  "They're not with us!"

That was sure.  Memphis Slim left the bar with both of them half an hour later!

But before leaving, Slim introduced us to someone I'd never heard before or since: the amazing Booker T. Laury, who snuck up to the piano and stole the show as surely as Memphis Slim stole our tablemates.
I've never forgotten the sound of his voice or the piano, but I never heard it again until just now.   So here you go.

 Imagine we were sitting right where those guys are.  Imagine Memphis Slim going out the door behind us, a beauty on each arm.

Can't Be Satisfied-- and I Just Can't Keep From Cryin'

I have been lucky to see lots of my musical heroes in my lifetime. Chuck Berry lots of times. Bo Diddley many times. Same for B. B. King. Bob Dylan several times. Miles Davis twice. Paul McCartney. And lots of people whose music I love. Billy Preston. Roland Kirk. Sonny Rollins. Taj Mahal. Freddy Hubbard. Dizzy Gillespie. The World Saxophone Quartet. Cecil Taylor. It goes on and on.

Sometimes I was just in the right place at the right time. J. B. Hutto got stuck in Seattle for a couple of months and I kept seeing him in small bars. Albert King opened a show at the Memorial Auditorium when I was a kid. So did Freddie King. When I was in college I went into a small coffee house on campus and saw the blues pianist Dave Alexander.

And there was a time in Seattle, just after I returned from three years in Africa, when many of the best African and reggae musicians came through town. I wrote about them for local papers and got to see most of them for free—Tabu Ley Rocherau, Fela, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Kanda Bongo Man, Alpha Blondy, Sonny OkossunsThe Bhundu Boys, Jimmy Cliff, Toots Hibbert, Mutabaruka, The Mighty Diamonds and Burning Spear.

Once, in Paris, my brother and I sat three feet from Memphis Slim during a show at a small but luxurious show there. (We were accidentally seated next to two beauties from Israel.  When they went to the bathroom Memphis Slim complimented our taste.  Once he'd established our incompetence he moved in for the kill and left with both of them.)  The next night we saw Nina Simone at a bigger club, and we saw the Gil Evans orchestra perform at night, outdoors, in a beautiful square in Italy.

I am a cheapskate, but a lucky one. At Jazz Alley in Seattle the shows used to be free with a two drink minimum. It cost me $5 to see and hear musicians like Ahmad Jamal, McCoy Tyner and Abdullah Ibrahim, to name only a few of my favorites. (When it first opened I sat a few feet from Earl “Fatha” Hines—a close up glimpse of jazz history.) In Sacramento I saw Queen Ida Gilroy and L. C. “Good Rockin’” Robinson at a free outdoor blues festival.

More cheap treats: For 6 weeks one summer I worked at a Lake Tahoe Casino. We were given drink tokes with our check to get us in a spending sort of mood. But I was thrifty. Two drink tokes and a tip got me into the free lounge, where, on different weeks, I saw Bobby Bland and B. B. King.

Seattle’s labor day music festival, Bumpershoot, also used to offer an unbelievably inexpensive (cheap) (subsidized!) way to see and hear great music-- $5 a day to hear people like Miles Davis, B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Wilson Picket, Little Richard (he essentially lost his mind on stage), Smokey Robinson and Ornette Coleman. I didn’t see him (I was in Afrcia at the time) but Chuck Berry once played there and evidently was a huge success. Years later I saw Johnny Johnson do a show at Bumpershoot with an audience of many hundreds. Pretty amazing to me that I got that opportunity.

The list goes on and on. I’ve seen various rock and roll acts. Some passed through the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium—Van Morrison, Elton John (a new guy—tiny crowd), Tower of Power and Buddy Miles. I saw Elvis Costello on his first tour (he was obnoxious), and Bruce Springsteen on one of his early national tours.

There are a lot more people if I could make the brain work.

So I have been lucky. And I need to keep this luck going.

But the reason I’m writing this is that I’ve been reading Robert Gordon’s biography of Muddy Waters, “I Can’t be Satisfied,” and I’ve been supplementing that reading by listening to as much of his music as I can find and even trying, in my lame-ass way, to play some of it. (I ask your forgiveness Muddy. As you used to say, I cannot send that message. But I like trying.)

Then, this morning, I see the website http://www.muddywaters.com/, which includes a great list of his final tours. And I see that the great Muddy Waters came to Seattle several times while I was living here, and I didn’t go.

I wonder if I saw those notices? I wonder if I drove past the clubs or theaters and saw his name in lights and just ignored them?

I’ll admit—in those days my Muddy Waters collection consisted of a few songs on compilations. I didn’t know his music well enough. I was an ignorant fool when it comes to Muddy Waters. I knew Hootchie Cootchie Man, and Mannish Boy.  But that should have been enough. 

Besides-- I was a Chuck Berry fan—and that should have got me to buy a ticket.  Muddy Waters pointed the way for the man I idolized.

I want to kick myself, even today.

And think of it now—how many others I am missing today, too ignorant to know, or too lazy to buy a ticket.

Well baby I can’t be satisfied, and I just can’t keep from cryin’.

(Actually, I'm blessed.  And blessed by youtube.  Here's a great version, recorded live, at a show that I missed!)



Song Lyrics: I Can't Be Satisfied
Written & Recorded by Muddy Waters (1948)

Well I'm goin' away to leave
Won't be back no more
Goin' back down south, child
Don't you want to go?
Woman I'm troubled, I be all worried in mind
Well baby I just can't be satisfied
And I just can't keep from cryin'

Well I feel like snappin'
Pistol in your face
I'm gonna let some graveyard
Lord be your resting place
Woman I'm troubled, I be all worried in mind
Well baby I can never be satisfied
And I just can't keep from cryin'

Well now all in my sleep
Hear my doorbell ring
Looking for my baby
I couldn't see not a doggone thing
Woman I was troubled, I was all worried in mind
Well honey I could never be satisfied
And I just couldn't keep from cryin'

Well I know my little old baby
She gonna jump and shout
That old train be late man, Lord
And I come walking out
I be troubled, I be all worried in mind
Well honey ain't no way in the world could we be satisfied
And I just can't keep from crying

Roll Over Amadeus, and Tell Ms. Glickert the News!

Here's the latest on the (losing) battle to stop a simple statue from being put up across from Blueberry Hill.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_41b084ed-687b-52dc-9ddf-cd20c9b2942f.html

And if she's still on the war path, here are some other pieces of St. Louis public art that she can go after.  Maybe by removing these the city could scrub a few more cents from her tax dollar.

Lonnie Johnson

It's good to know who your heroes listened to.  Both B. B. King and Chuck Berry mention Lonnie Johnson as an early influence.  Here he is in 1963, when King and Berry were already stars.



Here's a song from 1939...



I'm not familiar with Johnson's music, so if you have a song to recommend, don't hesitate...

Makes Me Like Him!

Keith Richards as cute old man!

A Wonderful Chuck Berry Story

Everyone's got a story about Chuck Berry and his contracts. This is one of the best-- complete with photos! Enjoy.

http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2008/Dec/My_Amps_Date_With_Chuck_Berry.aspx

How to SOUND like Chuck Berry

Actually, you can't.

But I have tried, in a lame way, for 35 years. And about one year ago I stumbled on a chord whose twang struck like a message from God.

Chuck Berry is mostly known for his double string lead guitar. Most people who play "Chuck Berry" simplify this style into oblivian, emphasizing the bluesier aspects and missing all the major scale and rhythmic complexity of Chuck Berry's best work. Check out the Johnny Carson interview below. The guy wanted to play in big bands. He listened to T-Bone Walker and Elmore James for sure, but he also listened to Charlie Christian, Illinois Jaquette and Tommy Dorsey.

But beyond the "lead" guitar, he does wonderful, weird rhythm work. One of my favorite bits in his live performances is a chord he uses to punch out rhythms, often while trading beats with a drummer. He alternates between the low and high notes of the chord-- boom-cha, boom-cha, boom-cha-boom-boom-cha, cha. (Again, kids, learn music notation. Otherwise, you get stuck writing gibberish that means absolutely nothing.) I used to copy it in a weird, weak way using strings on different frets, but I knew it wasn't right. Then I saw this chord in a book, hit it once, and knew. Sure enough, saw Chuck do it on youtube!

This is for the key of C- the key for most of Chuck Berry's guitar jams on Johnny B. Goode, etc. Throw it in sometimes instead of the regular C.

But you still won't sound like Chuck Berry. Ah well.

New, From the Entertainment Editor

These came in the night, gifts from Doug.

A rare "Too Much Monkey Business."





This one I'd seen...

Oh, Baby Don't You Want to Go

...back to the land of California, to my sweet home, Chicago, where I'd certainly take an interesting sounding tour of the former Chess studios.  (Back in 1978, when I wound up stalling my car in Chuck Berry's driveway, I stayed at a $4.32 YMCA about half a mile from this place, but I didn't know and walked in the other direction.  (Those pre-internet days were a mother.)  Ah well, The Art Institute is good, too.

Mea Culpa! (Will the Real Slim Einarsson Please Stand Up!)

When I first posted the interview of Thomas Einarsson I included a video clip of a Swedish blues band that called itself "Bad Sign."  There was a guy with a shaved head playing guitar.  I said it was Thomas.  I thought I was safe.  How many Swedish blues bands fronted by a shaved headed guitarist can there be?

Well, one too many!

So here is Bad Sigh with Thomas Einarsson!

(I hope!)

Haven't Watched

But you might want to... (It's an hour long!)



Sort of "live blogging" as I watch.

This is the old way of telling the story, that puts Elvis in front of Chess and Chuck.  Since his first hit came a year after Maybellene, that telling doesn't really make sense.

I say "the old way."  That old story about Elvis being the "King" died with Elvis.  Eventually the truth will out.

They put Bo after Elvis and Chuck.  Also wrong.  Not saying there's any intention to mislead, just that how you tell a story shapes the story.

They call Pat Boone a "cover artist" but don't call Elvis a "cover artist."  But that's what he was for the most part, especially in the early days.  He was just a better cover artist than Pat Boone.  Chuck and Bo weren't covering any of it.

Fats gets it right: "What they call rock and roll was called rhythm and blues before.  I been playing it 15 years in New Orleans."

Little Richard comes after Fats in this show-- but his first hits were in the very early 1950s, weren't they?  But this show put Bill Hailey first.

Good thing they do is contrast Boone's bad covers-- but he gets as much time as Richard.

The pictures of the mixed audiences are cool-- best I've seen.  This was the huge contribution these artists made to U.S. culture.

(I'm up to 25 minutes.  That's enough!)

If You Had to Give St. Louis Another Name You Might Want to Call it Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry Prior to a Show for and by
Inmates at Lompoc 

I was surprised to read there was some controversy in the St. Louis area about putting up a statue of Chuck Berry.  That's crazy.  I only hope the “controversy” is as ineffective as it is silly and misguided.  (You can read the story here.)

When my brother Stevo first told me about Chuck Berry, one of the things he told me was that Chuck Berry had been to prison.  At the time the jail sentences probably enhanced his reputation.    We knew that good people went to jail all the time: civil rights workers went to jail, war protesters went to jail, and people went to jail for silly things like smoking pot.  There was a certain cache to doing time.  And in Chuck Berry's case there was always an understanding that his adult crime-- the conviction under The Mann Act-- was probably a bum rap.  (I'm using all the lingo of the time.)  It added something to the power of his performance-- him up there joking and carrying on and entertaining us after he’d been wrongly prosecuted three times on a bogus charge. 

In his Autobiography he calls it his “naughty-naughties.”  He admits that every 15 or 17 years he gets in trouble.  Once, on Johnny Carson, he accurately predicted it was time for another fall, and then almost fell.  


The only one of his legal problems that ever made me squirm was the the last one-- one that may or may not have had a basis in fact-- a sad story about cameras hidden in the women’s room of the restaurant he once owned.  Who knows if it was actually true?  The charge was brought by former employees who seemed bent on some sort of revenge.  There was a civil suit, but no criminal charges.  The authorities invaded his place in Wentzville looking for other stuff the claimants said would be there and found nothing.  So about the video equipment, who knows?  

If the story is true, it makes me squirm.  First, it’s just embarrassing.  But I remember reading as a teenager a quote from Chuck Berry himself saying that the key is not to infringe on other people.  He used Berry Park as an example.  He said something like “If you are alone in Berry Park, you can do whatever you like.  But if there are other people there, you have to be careful not to infringe on them  The key is not to infringe on others.”  As simple philosophy, I liked that.  “Thou shalt not infringe on others.”  It’s a good start.

But after reasonably careful study (two biographies, and a bit of noodling on the internet) I don’t know what to make of the allegation about cameras in the bathrooms, except that it was never proven, even in court.  (As a lawyer, I say “even in court” with some authority.  Lots of things are “proven” in court that are not necessarily true.  Take Chuck Berry’s conviction under the Mann Act, for example.) People say lots of stuff.  People settle cases for lots of reasons.  So who knows?  

Chuck Berry and his buddies did commit an armed robbery and highjack spree in Kansas City at age 18.  That was pretty bad.  But I know lots of 16-25 year olds who have made mistakes.  (I probably committed a few felonies of my own at that age, and certainly committed some misdemeanors, but they were victimless crimes!)  Chuck Berry admits to the robberies in his Autobiography and tells all about it.  He was stupid, got caught, and he did the time.  If he got out of prison and kept robbing people I’d feel different about him.  But he didn’t and I don't.  

Another crime he admits to in his book is tax evasion.  I know that I benefitted directly from that because I saw Chuck Berry close two great Richard Nader Rock and Roll Revival shows.  I would be willing to bet half of the United States, and virtually every corporation and CEO, is guilty of some measure of of tax evasion.  When Ronald Reagan ran for office one time there was a story that as a rich private citizen he paid something like $604 on hundreds of thousands of dollars in income.  It probably wasn’t a crime, but it was tax evasion.  General Electric had $14 billion in profits last year and paid no taxes.  Did GE’s accountants and CEO go to jail?  No.  GE got a refund, and its CEO got a job at the White House.  Chuck Berry paid the taxes and served his time.  

One thing I admire about Chuck Berry is the way he served time.  He didn’t waste it.  At Lompoc he wrote his Autobiography.  In Missouri, after being convicted under the Mann Act, he studied business and typing, and wrote songs like “Nadine” and “Promised Land."  He must have practiced on the guitar, too; he put on a dynamite show about three weeks after his release that, lucky for us, was recorded.

That Mann Act conviction is the one that sticks in the craw.  It never sounded legitimate.  The first judge was so racist that a reluctant Missouri Supreme Court had to throw out the conviction.  They got him the second time.  

The real purpose of that arrest and conviction was to crush a bright and rising career and put a handsome, Cadillac driving black man down.  He was arrested on charges of good employment.  


It didn’t work.  More than half a century later he’s still going, still giving St. Louis and Missouri a big reason to be proud.

A statue is a start.  Someday they'll figure that out. 

If you want to read fair summaries of all these legal proceedings try Bruce Pegg's Brown Eyed Handsome Man.  Pegg seems fair and balanced and thorough.  In the meantime, thank you to all the folks who got the statue project started, and have carried it through to completion.  As for the naysayers, lighten up a little.  Play a Chuck Berry song.  And go down to the unveiling.  You might enjoy it.  

Floats Like a Butterfly, Rings Like a Bell

I was out jogging this morning with my i-pod and heard, in quick succession, a very nice version of a Chuck Berry song by his friend Billy Peek, and then "Too Much Monkey Business" by the man himself.  Peek's version (I'm afraid that I forget which song it was) was well done with a solid sort of rock/country feel, and fitting enough for a man who grew up singing country songs in a honky tonk and then found his hero Chuck.  Chuck Berry himself adapted over time.  Compare the heavy sound of the studio songs from the Chuck Berry London Sessions or the laid back sound of the Elephant's Memory songs from Bio with the skipping, ringing, swinging, light sound of the original "Too Much Monkey Business."  Chuck Berry songs swing.  Rhythmically they have more in common with Charlie Parker than much of the rock and roll that followed.  (I often think rock and roll lost the back beat.)  In "Too Much Monkey Business" (and most of the earliest songs) there's none of the chugga-chugga boogie rhythm guitar that later became his trademark.  In "Too Much Monkey Business" he's strumming.  The chords are simple, but the sound is light and almost jazzy. When he plays lead it literally rings (the opening notes sound like a hand bell the nuns at our school would ring to end recess) and his solo skips lightly like a rock across water.  I saw a kid on "So You Think You Can Dance" doing a sort of hip hop dance from Oakland California.  One of the elements of the style is to glide across rough ground like a dancer on ice.  That's the sound of Chuck Berry.  Kids could dance then.  They could twirl their partners.  Chuck himself could do impossible things while playing-- the duck walk and the scoot.  It was all impossibly light, effortless, rhythmic, like Muhammed Ali skipping backward and sideways while pummeling the competition, making it look easy.  And as with Ali, there was a sting included.  The fed up cat at the filling station.  The 29 or 30 year old rock and roller telling Tchaikovsky the news.  "You can't catch me," he said.  And he knew it was true.

New Video: Chuck Berry at Blueberry Hill 10-20-2010

Suddenly, from nowhere, fuzzy video from the October 20, 2010 performance at Blueberry Hill.  And I was there!

Four nights prior Chuck and crew had played at The Pageant.  THAT show had been sublime with Chuck just feeling it.  He played almost every note perfectly and with great flair.  Here's my review of that spectacular show at The Pageant.

At Blueberry Hill it was rougher, especially during the slow blues "Rock Me Baby" that led to Chuck using the Stratocaster.  The tuning of his big Gibson got totally out of whack for that one song, and you can see him begin to tweak the Strat on this one.  I wrote two pieces about it-- a review HERE and post of pictures HERE.But hey-- it was a fun show, as you can see from these videos!

I love this quiet version of "School Day," a song he strips to the bone.

(When he mentions the Cubs he was pointing to this guy!)

According to my original, flawed notes, (typed in exhaustion after the show that night) the next song he played was "Sweet Little Sixteen," and our beloved videographer caught it.



What my flawed notes don't reflect is that he played "You never Can Tell" when he had the Stratocaster.  I do remember him beginning to tune that guitar, and the meaningful look he got from CBII.  He laughed, stopped tuning, and, with a cue from Ingrid, started singing one of my favorites.



Towards the end he played a song I hadn't heard in my previous two Chuck Berry shows: Johnny B. Goode.



I shouldn't reveal that someone was kind enough to send me a long tape of last number-- "Reelin' and Rockin" and "House Lights."  It's too long to post, and I don't know how to use YouTube.   But I'm really pleased to have these clips-- rougher than at The Pageant, but rough in a beautiful way.

One of the pleasures of the evening was meeting Chuck's friends Karen and Judy for dinner and the show.  Karen and Judy did something special that night, presenting Chuck with a painting of himself by artist Brian Tones.  Read about that (and see the painting) HERE.   Hail! Hail!

Stumbled Into This, TOO!

I guess it's the English class I never had...

Stumbled Into This...

A nice letter...  Read it HERE.

The Man Worked (Still Does)

When I was lucky enough to meet Chuck Berry for a moment or two he mentioned a job he had as a child in a location directly below The Pageant Theater.  I also read somewhere that before the three night, two city tour that led to his collapse from exhaustion last January he spent a morning pushing a wheelbarrow at Berry Park.  The man worked, and still does.  I've often felt that his 60 year record of professional performances, from 1952 until present, (I leave out the semi-pro stuff he did earlier,) is one of his most outstanding legacies.  He went out night after night, to clubs, stadiums, bars, barns, fairs, fraternities, colleges, casinos, theaters, gyms, television studios, movie studios, festivals—wherever they booked him.  He demanded cash, an amplifier, and a band, and he supplied the rest—in big towns, small towns, in auditoriums all over the world.  One day, thinking about that, it occurred to me that a great tribute might be a list of those performances, etched in stone—a wall where people could come and find the show they saw, and where non-believers could perhaps be moved by the sheer magnitude of the endeavor—thousands of one nighters, spanning more than half a century, in towns and cities across the United States, the Americas, Europe, Asia and beyond.  As a lifetime’s work, even absent the song writing and recording, the carpentry, the family, the property management, it is phenomenal.  The man worked, and still does. 

(And I think he plays tomorrow night at Blueberry Hill!)

Someone Who's Lived It and Seen It (Visionary)

This is such a great, powerful shot that I couldn't help stealing it from Ian's Facebook site.  I don't know who took it, but whoever you are, you obviously got his full attention and his trust.

Lost Posts, Returned

Photo by Alan White (See "Particular Places to Go," Right.)

So who is he really?

On the one hand, he wrote a 300 page book. It’s relatively straight forward. He tells about his childhood, his career, his imprisonments, highlights of his romantic life, a few of his opinions about celebrity. It’s a lot.

And despite protests to the contrary he has given hundreds of interviews over his career, and most are still there. There are long ones in Rolling Stone, and short ones on television.

We know that he is proud of his diction, fond of his family, funny, speaks in a flowery sort of language, is sometimes quick to anger, and is patient with the same old questions over and over.

What I think I like about him is that he is grounded in family, property and place. He knows who he is. He has remained who he is.

On stage, performers like Keith Richards want him to rehearse, to follow a script, to play the same song exactly the same way (while other critics complain that that’s exactly what he’s done on his records). But he wings it every time, recreates it every time, for better or for worse, depending on the quality of the band, his mood, and his fingers or hearing on a particular night.

At home he has property—who knows how much? He bought a simple piece of land in Wentzville with his first earnings and has stayed there. He owns other homes and properties. It’s something tangible, that can’t be taken away.

He mows his own property, at age 84. Imagine driving down Buckner Road and seeing him bumping along on his tractor. Presumably you can.

He has been known to make crop circles.

He wrote some of the wittiest, most intelligent song lyrics known to man and sold them to an unsuspecting world. They are now perceived as words for white kids, but they originally rose highest on the rhythm and blues charts.

He is often credited with inventing rock and roll guitar, and making guitar the lead instrument and symbol of the genre.

He is a great showman, dancer, and clown.

He is often portrayed as a money grubber, someone in it only for the dough—and true, he admits that he wrote his songs commercially, and played music because it paid more than painting, or construction, or hairdressing. Its true, too, that he insists on being paid to perform—paid in advance. It’s true that he fought and fights for his rights as an artist, and by doing so taught others to do the same.

Also true that he performs each month for 350 people at a St. Louis bar/restaurant and that the tickets are cheap and that he can’t be earning much at those shows or doing it for any reason but a little spending money and love.

I don’t know who he really is.

What I know is that he has remained absolutely true.

For me, 99 % of the time, he lives only in my imagination. But even there he is solid.

He could have put on the cape and glitter, but he didn’t.

He could have hidden behind a big band and a choir of backup singers, but he didn’t.

He could have surrounded himself with management, hangers on, body guards and such, but he didn’t.

He could have tried to “update” his sound, but except for a one disk flirtation with the wah-wah and a 20 minute monstrosity that I think was supposed to be psychedelic, he didn’t.

He could have moved to Vegas or Branson, but he didn’t.

He could have quit, but he didn’t.

Instead, at 84, he gets out there, in better shape than his (somewhat) younger audience, and he mesmerizes. And sometimes he absolutely nails it.

Who is he really?

In some ways I have no idea.

But like so many of you, I love him.

Thank you, Chuck Berry.



(What you are, really, is a national, world, treasure.)

Sad Stuff About Bo

I don't know what caused me to google news about Bo Diddley.  Never did it before.  And sad about what I found-- legal scuffling over his legacy.

Ah well-- his real legacy is the music.  But it shouldn't have had to come down to this.

Read more Here and Here.  Some of the notes and comments are more interesting than the stories.

56 Years Ago Today (If I've Done the Arithmetic Right)

Chuck Berry recorded Maybellene on May 21, 1955.  I was - 374 days.

Blogspot Took My Song!

A song I wrote when I was 18 or 19 and recorded a week or two ago.  It's one of the things blogspot took away.  They said they'd put it back, but they didn't, so I'm putting it back.  It has nothing to do with Chuck Berry, but I like this song.  Pretty smart kid for a kid.