When I see certain videos and images of Howlin’ Wolf in his khaki work pants and thick rimmed black reading glasses I see my father. My dad was ten years older than Wolf. They came from different worlds but from the same time.
And when I see Son House falling to pieces under the influence of tragic amounts of alcohol I see my father, too.
He died when I was fifteen, before I could really know him, and it’s probably not accidental that I found Chuck Berry at about the same time.
In the video excerpt posted below, Howlin’ Wolf first talks about the blues in financial terms. I’m not going to argue about the blues with Howlin’ Wolf-- he wins.
But Wolf’s greatest suffering, from what I've read and heard, was caused by his mother’s steadfast rejection of her own child. She cast him out, and never let him back into her life. She didn’t approve his singing “the Devil’s music.” When he tracked her down in his 60s she pulled a crumbled bill he had slipped into her apron and crushed it under her foot. Her rejection was steadfast even when her son lay dying of kidney disease and called for her. (Did she ever listen to his version of "Going Down Slow?") Luckily, when his mother sent him packing as a child, he was able to find his dad, who was a good one. Wolf walked 75 miles barefoot to find him.
According to Wikipedia one old song goes:
If I mistreat you gal, I sure don't mean you no harm.
I'm a motherless child and I don't know right from wrong.
So much of the blues is about that link, broken or not, between parent and child. So much of what brings us to the blues is about that link.
Wolf’s son rejected him, too; and maybe with reason. Wolf treated Hubert Sumlin like his own child, and they fought and argued and loved each other till the end and beyond. Other musicians in his band over the years say that Wolf acted “like a father,” giving them “fatherly advice.”
The relationships are always so strong. Read anything by Bob Margolin talking about Muddy Waters. Watch how Wolf, Waters and Chuck Berry work and worked with the young musicians who idolized them, working to get it right. It’s no accident that one of Muddy Water’s records was called “Fathers and Sons.” The arguments with Keith Richards are family matters, not possible with a stranger or aquaintance.
Keyboardist Bob Lohr remembers Chuck Berry on stage first introducing his son, Charles; then bassist Jimmy Marsala as “my other son;” and then acknowledging Lohr at the electric piano, saying “You’re my son, too, Robert—more than you know.” The acknowledgment affected Lohr more than Berry probably knows.
And I can remember him on stage, rushing left, rushing right, eyes wide, mouth agape, acknowledging a crowd of shaggy young people by hollering “All my children! All my beautiful children!”
Berry seemed to have the strongest possible bond with his mother and father. And today you see it carried onto the stage where he performs with his son, his daughter, and his grandson, and calls the other musicians his children. Wolf was rejected by his own mother but raised two stepdaughters and a guitar genius as if they were his own offspring.
I think a lot of what we look for in this music is something like that bond. This music goes deep. It goes to the very bottom of all things.
Anyway, when I see Wolf scolding his old friend House, I wish the Wolf side of dad had somehow whooped the House side. The Wolf side was so much stronger; but unlike Wolf, I’m not sure he knew that.
I'm in a Howlin' Wolf stage, that's certain. In the past few years I can remember a Beatles phase, a Dylan stage, a Muddy Waters period. I've veered into Sonny Boy II and Little Walter, too. I'm always in a Chuck Berry stage.
But Howlin' Wolf has hit hardest, for sure.
Part of it is my pwrsonal history-- that "Best of the Biggest" record I bought as a kid with "Ridin' in the Moonlight."
Part of it is inherent interest. He was an interesting man. I saw the book "Moanin' at Midnight," and had to buy it. And as I read it I respected him more and more.
Part of it is finding the deeper roots of so much that I had loved. I was a kid when I found Taj Mahal, and a kid when I found two tracks by Howlin' Wolf-- but I was full grown and fading before I put two and two together to realize how closely they had always been linked.
Tonight I watched the first half of the documentary "The Howlin' Wolf Story." I've seen snatches before. I'd never watched it straight through. (I guess I still haven't.) It's a GREAT movie, with full songs by a great artist.
By great artists.
I've said before that what happened in Clarksdale and its suburb, Chicago, was like what happened in Florence, Italy, 500 years before: an explosion of incredible art and culture. There are home movies by drummer Sam Lay showing Wolf and Sumlin and Sonny Boy II and Otis Spann at Silvio's having a good time. It is like dreamtime-- impossible to believe and incredible to envision.
But the saddest thing-- the most powerful thing--- was Howlin' Wolf telling off Son House.
If you've read the biography of Muddy Waters you'll remember a page where one of Muddy's musicians asks "who's that old man?" And Muddy scolds him. "That's Son House."
I just saw parts of "It Might Get Loud." The White Stripes guitarist holds a Son House record (the only one I own) and talks about how it hit him when he heard it, and how he has been trying to acheive that sound throughout his career.
Howlin' Wolf travelled with Son House in the 1930s, revered him, and considered him a teacher.
But while Wolf played, back in 1964, House, drunk, grabbed his arm and started babbling. And that's when Wolf scolded him. "You had a chance with your life but you ain't done nothin' with it." He tells him "We ain't talkin' about the womens, we talkin' about the life of a human being. See you don't love but one thing, and that's some whiskey, and that's plumb out of it." House keeps babbling, trying to respond, but Wolf starts playing, and his band joins him, and the babbling is lost.
I's an incredibly powerful moment. It answer's B.B.'s question. It's how blue you can get.
A few weeks ago I posted a link to the blog Roll Call (with it's great pictures of Chuck and Bo on tour in Europe in the early 1970s). On that site I found the link to this beauty, with editions of the magazine Let it Rock!! Both appear to be the work of Alain Mallaret (who sure knows how to make a blog look good!)
Matt Murphey played with Chuck Berry on a couple of sessions in mid-1960. Murphey and Odie Payne both played at times with just about all the Chess stars.
Odie Payne played drums on a bunch of later 1960s Chuck Berry songs including "Nadine," "Promised Land," and "No Particular Place to Go." Imagine meeting him in a place like this! (I wish I'd been there.) History's all around us.
My brother Stevo was in a bar once listening to some old man talk on and on about his piano playing days. Stevo assumed it was all ^%$#&. Then the guy sat down at a piano.
I’m pretty sure that the first instant replay in rock and roll history occurs in the movie “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll.” After weeks of rehearsal the birthday concert begins. While the band is wailing, Chuck Berry moves back and whispers something to Keith Richards who squeezes his lips shut and shakes his head “no!” Chuck laughs. There’s a moment of musical mayhem when Chuck momentarily changes keys, but then he goes back to the mike and the show continues. Later the replay is shown, with color commentary by Richards. He explains that after all the rehearsals, Chuck immediately comes back and says they’re going to change keys. Richards says no.
But that’s color commentary, after the fact.
For a new first, let’s travel to Bussey Park, in Bussey, Iowa, for the early bird July 4 concert, where, for the first time in rock and roll history, we get actual real time play by play commentary of a rock and roll performance.
I think at one point we hear “I’m going to hide under my chair!” (Could that be Marilyn?)
Later someone asks “Was the original this long?” (Is that the banker, or the guy who took a break from bailing hay?)
The comments make it clear they are delighted to see their friend, neighbor and family member on stage singing the songs he loves. It's exactly what rock 'n' roll is about.
It's folk music-- of the people, by the people, and for the people: perfect for the Fourth of July. And it's the most American of all songs, "Johnny B. Goode," in what looks like one of the most American of places, Bussey, Iowa.
Google Maps tells me that Bussey is a town about 6 blocks high and 6 blocks wide located somewhere west of Givin, south of Harvey, and north of Lovilia. The City Park is uptown.
But here’s what I really know about Bussey:
It’s the home of Busseybootleger.
If you’ve ever gone to http://www.chuckberry.com/forumyou’ve probably seen posts by Busseybootlegger. If you’ve ever posted there yourself, you’ve probably been greeted by Busseybootlegger, a/k/a Doug, or Doug Spaur, to be precise-- a man obviously devoted to his wife, Marilyn, but also clearly vexed by that vixen in the Yellow Cab, Nadine.
When I tentatively started this blog, one of the first people I told was Doug Spaur—not because I knew him—I’d never met or corresponded with the man-- but because I KNEW him.
I could tell from 2000 miles away that Busseybootlegger was a man smitten with the same bug I had. (Not Nadine. Although, dang-- the girl moves like a wayward summer breeze!)
No-- I knew from 2000 miles that Busseybootlegger was another true believer: a superfan of my hero, Chuck Berry. A brother in fanaticism.
What I especially love about Busseybootlegger, at least from the posts, is his attitude-- or maybe the lack thereof. I’ve never seen a negative or cynical word from him. When a newcomer arrives he hails the arrival. When the website shut down, he kept it going almost single-handed. When he answered some questions for me below I had to remove explanation points to save gigibytes on my hard drive. He exudes optimism and an umblemished love for Chuck Berry.
After I wrote something about my quickie cross country visit to Blueberry Hill in the winter of 2009 Busseybootlegger said that he was going, too. Since then he’s made the pilgrimage several times—but unlike me, he thinks to bring a camera, and take pictures. If you read this blog, you’ve seen some of them—but there are dozens more: great shots of Chuck Berry and his band on stage, and great shots of Chuck Berry’s fans enjoying the moment. (One day one of the best of them arrived in an envelope from Bussey. Dang! Next time I go to BBH myself, I'm going to try to get it signed.) And the pictures-- always accompanied by set lists and enthusiastic descriptions of the evening.
Then there are the videos. I’ve given up trying to find interesting new videos of Chuck Berry on youtube. There’s no point. All I have to do is open my e-mail, and I’ll find something new and rare that Busseybootlegger has sent me. I say that he’s optimistic, but in some ways he’s like an evil pupteteer, pulling strings and making me post video after video after video. I can’t help it. Whenever I decide to shut this thing down, three more arrive, and up they go. Chuck in Italy. Chuck in Canada. Chuck on Ukelele. I've told Doug that he's got to send a bio-- he's got to go onto the masthead of this website.
But the best video came today—Busseybootlegger as Chuck, Captain’s hat and all, duckwalking, scooting, doing splits, and making his neighbors happy.
All I can say is: we need to get the fellow a guitar.
And thanks!
Here is Doug on stage. (It made my day this morning.)
And here are a few words with the man. (All the pictures are from Doug and Marilyn.)
How did you first become addicted to Chuck Berry, and what is it that got you?
I have always loved his music. As a child my first taste was his only number one seller – “My Ding-a-Ling,” backed by “Johnny B. Goode.” the greatest Rock & Roll song ever. I was probably 9 years old, give or take, and wore out both sides equally, playing it over and over on a little 45 rpm record player thrown up on the bed mattress. You know the kind that looked like a little typewriter suitcase and the lid folded open? All the while I was singing along with Chuck, I wondered what my mom thought when she was within earshot!!?? Chuck once said of “Ding-a-Ling - "This was wrote with the tiny tot in mind – it’s the adults that had a problem with it." And so goes it with me-- its nothing dirty to me, just " Silver bells hangin' on a string - the cutest little song you ever seen." From there I got more 45's: “School Days,” “Rock & Roll Music,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” and “No Particular Place to Go” from the ‘Oldies” section at the store. Then came my only album - the soundtrack to "American Hot Wax" with “Reelin'& Rockin'.” Chuck boogied in the kitchen & boogied in the hall.... I was a teenager by then, oh man!! Back then you didn't have Youtube or cable television, VHS, or DVD's that you could pop in and see Chuck anytime you wanted, so the only time you might catch Chuck was on TV during a late night movie or during fundraiser week for the Iowa Public Television Channel when they would show “American Hot Wax” or “Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll.” Those movies were always a special treat. I remember watching in amazement seeing him on Saturday Night Live and the Grammy Show, you know the one with Michael Jackson in the audience with Brooke Shields and Webster. I never was one to go to live concerts but in the late 1990's I thought I want to see some of these guys that made this great music I love - rock & roll, you know they’re not getting any younger! I saw Little Richard; then "The Killer" Jerry Lee at the Iowa State Fair annual Rock & Roll Reunion. I remember telling a guy there beside me, the person I REALLY want to see is Chuck Berry"!! He told me Chuck played at the fair a couple years ago - Darn!! So I waited, then in mid August of 2002 at Tama, Iowa, the thing that got me "hooked" happened. From front row seats I saw CHUCK BERRY LIVE!!!!! Chuck was just shy of 76 years old. Now in my mind I had an image of what this 76 yr old was going to be like and was wishing I'd seen him 10 years earlier. I figured he'd shuffle on stage, slumped shoulders, all stoved up, no scoot, and mumble some songs like a 76 year old should. Was I mistaken! He "leaped" onto the stage like a person at least 25 years younger!!! At that very moment I got tears in my eyes for I knew I was in for something special. It was a perfect concert, Chuck came out and absolutely Rock & Rolled us the first 3 songs - If I remember right- “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Sweet Little Sixteen” with his legs flapping, then “School Day,” with Chuck telling us to "Repeat After Me"!! And then it happened - Chuck said - "Can you hear us"? Are we coming through loud and clear? With your permission then, we'd like to open our Show!!!!!” And with that we got “Let it Rock!!” He sang “Nadine” that night and a blues song or two, “Johnny B.” and he told us to "Sing Children Sing!!!” and “Reelin' and Rockin'” with “House Lights.” "Do you want me to leave"??? NOOOO - "Do you want me to stay"?? YEEEESSSS!!!!! So to make a long story short-- I've loved Chuck's music since childhood, and there is no one - I mean no one that compares to him live!
Tell us about the show in Bussey Park
It is our annual 4th of July celebration, its been going on close to 130 years now. Our little town of 400 people comes to life this one time of year, like Chuck's lyrics – “many people come from miles around!!” We have a huge parade and carnival rides in the park and entertainment on the stage and a big fireworks display that is let off directly across the road from my parents’ house. I've had a front row seat for them all my life!! Every thing got bumped up a day being’s the 4th is on Sunday this year. The show was the evening before during the annual Bussey Fireman's Pulled Pork Supper. I got my friend Paul Gott and his Band "Rabbit Trax" lined up for the gig this year and they let me come up and sing one with them. It was one big Chuck Berry medley with full versions of “Nadine” and “Let It Rock,” a couple verses of “Roll Over Beethoven,” ending with a complete “Johnny B. Goode” all rolled into one. My voice had had it by the time it was over!!
You do understand that whenever you send me a video, it goes up, right?
Peter, please spare the world, I'm horrible......
(Editor’s note: not possible. And as you’ve seen, he’s wonderful. Made my 3rd of July!)
Who did the play by play commentary on "Johnny B. Goode?"
My wife was taping. Also my mom, my banker and his wife, who are also my neighbors, and another good friend that stopped baling hay to come see me.
Just where (or what) in tarnation is this Bussey business?
It's my hometown, Bussey, Iowa! I'm very proud of it and never want to leave. I've lived here my whole life. Now if we could pack the whole town up and put it about 10 minutes outside of Wentzville, that might be an option.
And speaking of Bussey business, what business are you in? Bootlegged tapes? Videos? White Lightnin'?
I used to make homemade wine. That’s where the name comes from. I do like seeing footage of Chuck I've never seen though. Thank the Lord for the Chuck Berry website, Youtube and Ebay!!
What do you do for a living?
I have 17 years in at the Vermeer Mfg.company. I’m currently running a laser that cuts parts out of steel. I welded for them for over 14 years. Things were slow at work because of the economy so I took on a second job last fall working for the City of Bussey - mowing, cutting brush, weed eating, reading water meters and such-- general handyman, so I'm working well over 70 hours a week!!
You once mentioned something about purchasing a guitar on the chuckberry.com forum. Did you do it? And how's that going?
No, I'm still looking and wishing. In my mind I've failed before I have ever tried. It so amazes me people that can play a musical instrument, whatever it is.
When's your next trip to see Chuck?
I'm trying to finagle another Blueberry Hill trip maybe in August or September. It all depends on the ok from Marilyn, my wife. I want to go every April. That’s my birthday month. I keep hoping maybe Chuck will play in Iowa somewhere.
It ain't the oil companies' land. It ain't the insurance companies' land. It ain't of, by and for the corporations. It isn't for the banks. It isn't for Halliburton. It isn't for them.
They're supposed to be for us. Remember that. Make them remember that, too.
Lately I’ve been reading a book about Howlin’ Wolf called “Moanin’ at Midnight: The Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf” by James Segrest and Mark Hoffman. Wolf is a fascinating character—first and foremost because of his voice and his music, but also because of his contradictions. He’s said once to have chopped the top of a man’s head off with a cotton hoe; on the other hand, he’s almost universally acknowledged to be a fatherly figure and gentleman. On stage he was a wild man, crawling on all fours, dragging his “tail” to erase any tracks from his creeping; off stage, he was a quiet family man, with only occasional resort to the gun or knife.
Once, while reading B. B. King’s autobiography, I wrote about similarities between King and Chuck Berry. There were a lot of them.
Not quite so many between Berry and Wolf—but they exist. For example, while both men are renowned entertainers, hard working and happy to mug it up on stage, both are also known to be reserved off stage.
They both were annoyed by band members drinking.
Both were professional and on time for their gigs.
Both worked continually on self improvement and continuing education. Berry used different jail terms to study business and typing and to write his book. Wolfe learned to read and write as an established star, and took mid-career classes in guitar and music theory.
Both worked at Chess Records, sharing backup musicians like Willie Dixon, Lafayette Leake, Otis Spann, and once, even Hubert Sumlin (who backed Berry on “School Day” and “Deep Feeling.”
But the most important commonality that I see has to do with money.
I’ve seen and read dozens of references about Chuck Berry and money over the years. That he insisted on cash up front. That he charged extra if a promoter provided the wrong amp. That he insisted on cash in advance during “Hail! Hail!” Some of the comments are snide—insisting that money is all he cares about.
Chuck Berry talks about money himself in “Hail! Hail” He remembers his pay at early engagements before Maybellene. He remembers how much he was paid for a paint job at The Cosmopolitan Club and then says “When the money got bigger, I put the paint brush down and picked the pick up!” He offers to sell his old Cadillacs, to YOU, for 50,000 dollars!
I remember as a young man considering with fear a statement he made in the 1960s to Ralph Gleason that he would never perform for less than $1000—and that if some “pumk promoter” offered him $950 he’d tell him “Son, you’ve just retired the great Chuck Berry.”
I had an irrational fear I would become that punk!
At least one musician in “Moanin’” said the same about Wolf. “He was mostly about money,” the musician is quoted as saying. “He conserved his money and he was always singing about money…. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him broke… He really was into that money thing and he had some money!”
But what’s important to me is that these two actually protected their own financial interests—and by extension the interests of those around them.
Wolf insisted on following the rules of the musicians’ union. Once Elmore James put his name on a poster without permission. Wolf made James pay him $25.
Wolf paid his musicians’ taxes, social security and unemployment insurance—all unheard of in the blues world of the 1950s. When he fired a musician, or there wasn’t work, that musician could still get a check. When the musician retired, he’d get a social security check.
Chuck Berry insists on getting paid up front because he knows that otherwise he might not get paid at all. He insists on union musicians. He insists on proper equipment. He shows up on time and does his job. He’s done that professionally for six decades now and as a result he is an immensely wealthy man. He owns property all over the St. Louis area.
His musicians say they are treated well—paid what they are owed, lodged at nice hotels, sometimes flown first class.
And he fought for the rights to his own songs.
In other words, Wolf and Berry, entertainers and sometimes clowns on stage, are and were serious business people, who insisted on being treated with respect, dignity and fairness in the financial rough and tumble of the music business.
It’s just another area where they deserve respect and thanks.
This to me looks like a good one with plenty of tickets available at a fine theater in the Washington D.C. area. For more information and to buy tickets Check Here! For more about the Strathmore Arts Complex and Music Center, Check Here! For more about the amazing Daryl Davis, check out the start of my Interview Here!
Here's a long clip with CB sitting down to the piano while Billy Peek and Jimmy Marsala keep it moving on the guitar front. Note the two finger, double note right hand style that Daryl Davis mentioned in his piece on the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival. And the bonus: "Do You Love Me?!" We do, Mr. Berry, we do!
I started this blog more or less by accident in March 2009, during a temporary breakdown at the www.chuckberry.com/forum. I had posted three or four things there in the winter and realized that I enjoyed spouting off about my old hero. (I enjoy spouting off about lots of things, whether I know about them or not.) Then one day the forum conked out, locked some of us out, and my old posts disappeared. It turned out that the forum was being targeted by spammers, and the first effort to block them ended up knocking off lots of other people and jettisoning hundreds of posts, including mine.
You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry. I had the rolling arthritis-- so I started this blog. And somehow I just kept blogging, even after the forum got going again and my old posts returned. Whenever I’d run out of ideas, I’d head towards youtube and type something like “Odie Payne,” and the rest took care of itself.
Which is a typically long-winded way of saying that I started this thing, and it’s here, and now I have to figure out how to end it.
So, in the manner of James Brown, I'm donning my cape just one last time!
(Mr. Berry--- I love you. Bye Bye!)
Now can anyone beat that? What more is there to write about?
I've known for years there was a bronze statue of Chuck Berry somewhere in Seattle, and I showed some images of it once that I found on the internet-- but it's exact location somehow eluded me. Then a few weeks ago my friend Al told me to go check out the entrance to a new apartment building in an alley off Broadway. And lo! There it was. (Fittingly, it's on the other side of the block from a statue of Jimi Hendrix, which I think was done by the same artist.)
It's hard to trap lightning in a bottle, or to put motion and life into realistic bronze. As a fan with my own idea about Chuck Berry, I'm not sure it happened here, or that it's happening in the St. Louis project. (Surprisingly, the biggest problem with sculpting Chuck Berry seems to be the face! I don't get that. But in this one I give kudos to the right foot and lower leg. It looks like real duckwalk to me.) But hey-- an apartment building with a statue of Chuck Berry near the entrance? If that's not my future retirement home, what else could it be?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Good stuff HERE about Chuck Berry's performance (and presentation) in the T.A.M.I. Show, where he had to share the stage with Gerry and the Pacemakers.
I went to my piano to plumk out the melody of "Garden Party" (it is catchy; it is caught inside my head tonight) and I realized I was actually playing the melody to "Brown Eyed Handsome Man!"
Someone opened up the closet door,
(Two and three count, with nobody on)
And out stepped Johnny B. Goode
(He hit a high fly into the stands)
Playing guitar like a ringing a bell
(Rounding third he was heading for home
Jeeze Louise, My Sweet Lord and Oooo-Lang oooo Lang, too. If stolen tunes were all I sang...
Anyway, RIP Ricky Nelson. It's a good song, too. But dang!
I always had mixed feelings about the Ricky Nelson song “Garden Party.” It came out in 1972, pretty much at the height of my early obsession with Chuck Berry. It told the story of the first big Rock and Roll Revival show at Madison Square Garden in 1971. According to Wikipedia:
“Nelson came on stage dressed in the then-current fashion, wearing bell-bottoms and a purple velvet shirt, with his hair hanging down to his shoulders. He started playing his older songs "Hello Mary Lou" and "She Belongs to Me", but then he played The Rolling Stones' "Country Honk" (a country version of their hit song "Honky Tonk Women") and the crowd began to boo. While some reports say that the booing was caused by police action in the back of the audience, Nelson took it personally and left the stage. He watched the rest of the concert backstage and did not reappear on stage for the finale.”
It’s a great song, with an interesting sentiment—and one that hit pretty close to home. I became a Chuck Berry fan at the time of “Back Home” and “San Francisco Dues.” I knew Chuck Berry wasn’t only singing memories—but on stage it was usually just the hits and some classic blues.
Still—I felt the punch Nelson took at Berry was unfair.
The song opens hopefully:
I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories and play our songs again
When I got to the garden party, they all knew my name
No one recognized me, I didn't look the same
But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well.
You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself
The concert itself was an event. There’s some big time name dropping.
People came from miles around, everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus, there was magic in the air
And over in the corner, much to my surprise
Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise
lott-in-dah-dah-dah, lot-in-dah-dah-dah
Then comes the self pity.
Played them all the old songs, thought that's why they came
No one heard the music, we didn't look the same
I said hello to "Mary Lou", she belongs to me
When I sang a song about a honky-tonk, it was time to leave
lot-dah-dah-dah (lot-dah-dah-dah)
lot-in-dah-dah-dah
I have a little trouble seeing the change in Rick Nelson in the two shots here. Looks pretty much the same, except that the earlier shot is a bit more timeless. But then the dig at Chuck Berry…
Someone opened up a closet door and out stepped Johnny B. Goode
Playing guitar like a-ringin' a bell and lookin' like he should
If you gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang, I rather drive a truck
I understand the sentiment-- but it's wrong.
It's wrong in part because it's just wrong. I haven’t found any photos of that particular show, but I doubt Chuck Berry was “lookin’ like he should.” If he wanted to “look the same” as he did in the 1950s he’d have a white suit and a big fat blond guitar—but I’d be willing to bet that in 1971 Chuck Berry was wearing his psychedelic paisley shirt and playing a cherry red semi-hollow body. See example below!
Who was more of a "hippie" in 1971 than our hero? He wore his hair longer. He wore Sly Stone sideburns. He usually wore purple or red bell bottom pants. He had a green flowered jacket.
So I doubt he looked any more “like he should” than Mr. Nelson.
The real difference was the repertoire. Ricky had “Mary Lou,” and ultimately “Garden Party.”
Chuck Berry, on the other hand, jumped “out of the closet” with Johnny, and Maybellene, Nadine, and Marie.
He had Sweet Little Sixteen and that dirty look giving teacher.
He had the “po’ boy” on a bus from Norfolk to the Promised Land. He had Beethoven on the run. He had “Wee Wee Hours” and “Deep Feeling”.
He had Rock and Roll Music.
And though he didn’t play it much on stage, he had Tulane, and the merciless judge, and Louisiana.
And he had a guitar style that, in the words of Eric Clapton, "Pretty much laid down the law" for rock and roll.
He wasn’t singing memories. He was making history.
But I suspect that if he could have made a better living driving a truck, he probably would have been happy doing that too.
Follow the LINK to an article and an mp3 of a Bruce Springsteen song about the death of Elvis. It's called "Johnny Bye-Bye." I'd never heard it, but I sure recognize some of the lyrics! (They have become part of the vocabulary of rock and roll-- just like the guitar licks).
The T-Bone Walker clip I posted below is also part of the post from Gibson Guitars, which talks about the guitars used by T-Bone, Chuck, B. B. and others. It includes a clip of Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I've read, but haven't seen, that Sister Tharpe did something like the duck walk. She sure as hell is worth listening to during the guitar solo-- and Chuck Berry says in his autobiography that he did just that.
A few weeks ago I wrote a piece distinguishing Chuck Berry from modern acts that rely on a cast of hundreds to create music and videos. I used Lady Gaga as an example. I meant no disrespect to Lady Gaga-- simply wrote the piece after seeing a video that had obviously required the help of dozens or hundreds of talented make up artists, dancers, directors, editors, sound people, etc. But check out this woman, Kim Yeo-hee, a 22-year-old music producer from Korea. She does it all by herself.
When I see certain videos and images of Howlin’ Wolf in his khaki work pants and thick rimmed black reading glasses I see my father. My dad was ten years older than Wolf. They came from different worlds but from the same time.
