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Chuck Berry

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Chuck Berry was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1926, as Charles Edward Anderson Berry. He is one of the Black pioneers of rock 'n' roll, alongside Fats Domino, Little Richard and Bo Diddley. Berry made the electric guitar the main instrument of the new music, and he wrote his own lyrics about cars, school and teenagers who dreamed of another life.

Music and breakthrough

In May 1955 the bluesman Muddy Waters advised him to go to Leonard Chess, of the label Chess Records in Chicago. That same year Maybellene was released, an adaptation of the old country tune Ida Red. It reached number 1 on Billboard's rhythm and blues chart. Roll Over Beethoven (1956), Rock and Roll Music (1957), Sweet Little Sixteen and Johnny B. Goode (1958) followed. His style was a blend: the riffs of jump blues, the storytelling of country, the tempo of rhythm and blues. On stage he did his duckwalk, hopping across the stage in a crouch with the guitar in front of him.

Influence

The Beatles and The Rolling Stones recorded his songs, and his riffs became the foundation of rock guitar. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted its first names in 1986, Berry was among them. Johnny B. Goode is the only rock 'n' roll song on the Golden Record that travelled into space with the Voyager probes. How far the music travelled you can hear in Peter Tosh, who recorded the song as reggae in 1983. Berry died in 2017.

Listening

Listening tip. Johnny B. Goode begins not with singing but with a guitar intro. Berry borrowed it from Carl Hogan, the guitarist of Louis Jordan, and played it harder and with two strings at once (double stops). Listen to how those two-note chords give the riff a sharp, almost horn-like sound.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (en): Chuck Berry
  2. Wikipedia (en): Johnny B. Goode
  3. Wikipedia (en): Mama Africa (Peter Tosh album
  4. jamplay.com
  5. shop.thaliacapos.com
Categories: ArtistsRock 'n' roll