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• • • • • • • CHUCK BERRY • • • • • • •
Few artists can claim to have influenced popular music
in the twentieth century in as
many different ways as Chuck Berry. Casual listeners, fans and musicians alike will imme-
diately point to his much-imitated signature guitar sound, which involved combining a
rhythm derived from boogie-woogie piano and lead guitar playing that synthesized the
work of T-Bone Walker, Charlie Christian, Carl Hogan and other guitar greats of his era.
Some will point to his charismatic personality as a performer, and his ability to whip a
crowd into a frenzy with a look here, a gesture there and his trademark duck walk. Serious
critics will point equally to his songwriting, and his uncanny ability to turn a vivid phrase
and to capture the exuberant teenage spirit of the 1950s, despite the fact that, by the time
of his greatest success, he was a father to two girls who were fast approaching the average
age of his audience.
In fact, like all creative innovators, it was his ability to tie all of these disparate influences –
jazz and blues guitar styles, country and pop songwriting, and a knowledge of popular culture
and teenage sensibilities – into one package that would guarantee his position in the pantheon
of popular musicians, songwriters and entertainers of the twentieth century.
But just a handful of music history students will know that he was among the first of a new
generation of popular singers who eschewed the music of Tin Pan Alley and the Brill Building
to write and perform their own compositions. And only the most seasoned industry observers
will be aware of Berry's astute control over all aspects of his own career. At a time when too
many performers were at the mercy of an unscrupulous business, he was among the first to
take charge of his own management, his own bookings and, perhaps most important, his own
copyrights.
The fact that a high-school dropout, the great-grandson of African slaves and American In-
dians and the son of a contractor and a school teacher in the midwest of America, managed to
parlay such diverse abilities into an international career that has spanned almost six decades
is remarkable. The fact that he was black, and began his career at a time when racial segrega-
tion was the law of the land, makes it nothing short of a miracle.
Rock And Roll Music
by Bruce Pegg