Photograph by Lynn Goldsmith/CORBIS
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Chuck Berry: Creator of Rock and Roll
By Gwen Gibson, May-June 2003
Raised to the beat of Baptist hymns, Chuck Berry ignited the rock and roll revolution with "Maybellene," his first hit.
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As a child, he was steeped in gospel music and Baptist hymns. As a young man, he absorbed the down-home blues of Muddy Waters, the smooth love songs of Nat King Cole, the phrasing of guitarists of T-Bone Walker, Charlie Christian and Elmore James and the fascinating rhythms of boogie, swing, soul and "hillbilly" music.
Chuck Berry drew on all of these influences to create his special brand of the hard-driving, youth-focused music called rock 'n' roll. Other black innovators, notably Little Richard and Bo Diddley, contributed to the advent of rock. But Berry's first hit, "Maybellene," released in 1955 on the Chess label, was the lightning bolt that ignited the rock and roll revolution. As John Lennon put it: "If you tried to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry."
Fiercely energetic, Berry wrote and recorded a series of hits between 1955 and 1962 that formed the bedrock of the rock 'n' roll repertoire. These included "Roll Over Beethoven," "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," Rock and Roll Music," "Johnny B. Goode," "Sweet Little Sixteen," and more.
Berry's fast-moving career was derailed in 1962 by his troubles with the law. But the 76-year-old rock 'n' roll icon has never stopped writing, recording, or performing.
These days, he doesn't "go on tour," says Dick Alen, Berry's long-time friend and agent. "He goes out when the dates are right for him. He's well off; he has taken care of his own money. He doesn't need to work."
Berry still performs at Blueberry Hill, a club in St. Louis, and he has "special" dates scheduled into 2004, Alen adds.
One recent special date found Berry performing in Washington, D.C., with Aretha Franklin, Lee Ann Womack, Richard Chamberlain and the National Symphony Orchestra in the annual July 4 concert on the west lawn of the United States Capitol.
Wearing a shining red-sequined shirt, the still tall and trim "poet laureate of rock" had the crowd rockin' and rollin' with him the moment he pranced on stage. His act was short—only two numbers. But he executed his famous "duck walk," crouching down and "motorvatin'" across the stage on one leg while playing piercing, rapid-fire riffs on his electric guitar.
Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born October 18, 1926, in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in a close-knit, church-going family. His mother, who played piano, and his father, a carpenter, often sang Baptist hymns at home. "Long before I could walk, I was patting my foot to those Baptist beats," Berry writes in his autobiography, published in 1987 by Harmony Books. "Sometimes I wonder if that was the roots of my rockin' rhythm."
Self-taught, Berry was playing a six-string Spanish guitar in high school shows and backyard parties by his early teens. But he was precocious, and at age 17 he had his first run-in with the law when he and two friends stole a car on a weekend romp. For this, Berry spent three years in a Missouri reformatory.
Released, he went "straight," working as a janitor, carpenter, and hair dresser. But Berry, a born showman, was also a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and comedian, and he was soon fronting a trio with the great boogie-woogie pianist Johnnie Johnson and the wonderful drummer Ebby Hardy playing behind him. The trio played weekend gigs in St. Louis bars for several years.
Berry's big break came in 1955 when he went to the Palladium club in Chicago to hear his idol, Muddy Waters. The old blues man advised the young guitarist to take his material to Chess Records. A week later Berry presented owner Leonard Chess with a tape of four new songs: "Thirty Days," "You Can't Catch Me," "Wee Wee Hours," and a jumping country tune called "Ida May," that Berry wrote as a black man's satire of hillbilly music.
Chess released "Ida May," renamed "Maybellene," and created the first Chuck Berry blockbuster. Berry's career was on the fast track until 1962, when he was imprisoned for violating the Mann Act for driving an underage white girl across state lines. The often-sensational press coverage of his trial, which was marked by racism, left Berry, in his words, "averse to ever giving interviews."
He used his 20 months in federal prison to earn his high school diploma and to write five more rock standards: "No Particular Place to Go," "Nadine," "Tulane," "You Can Never Tell," and "Promised Land."
Meanwhile, Berry was becoming the "sung hero" of the rock world. The Beatles recorded "Roll Over Beethoven," taking it to the top of the charts and giving Berry highly deserved credit. The Rolling Stones drew heavily from his catalog. And the Beach Boys rewrote "Sweet Little Sixteen" as "Surfin' U.S.A." to win their first million seller.
Berry was soon back in full swing—touring, recording, making movies, and television appearances. In 1972, he scored a number one hit with his impish rendition of the ribald song "My Ding-A-Ling," recorded live at an arts festival in Coventry, England.
In 1979, Berry was imprisoned for a third time for income tax evasion. He used his four months in California's Lompoc Prison Camp to complete his autobiography.
Alen paints this flamboyant old rocker as "a very private person who goes to clubs, but doesn't drink, doesn't hang out with the bands, and doesn't go back stage to have his picture taken."
While he admits to many affairs, Berry has been married since 1948 to Themetta "Toddy" Suggs. They have three daughters, a son and a dozen grandchildren.
Alen says Berry is working on a new album in his studios at Berry Park, the estate in Wentzville, Missouri, outside St. Louis, that he has owned since 1957. Once an amusement park, complete with nightclub, Berry Park is used today, says Alen, only for picnics, private parties and other special events.
Through all of his triumphs and troubles, Berry has remained philosophical. A long original poem on the last pages of his autobiography ends with this quatrain:
"Some days are like hours of music
Some songs are like stories you'd tell
Some views that came down from the hippies
are now classics, like rock is as well."
Gwen Gibson is a freelance writer, specializing in arts and entertainment.
Now, check out AARP The Magazine's online jukebox, read about Les Paul, Father of the Electric Guitar, and find out who ranks among the Top 10 Pop Stars of all times.
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