Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry

RIP Chuck. Sad.

Yes very sad seeing so many going these days, he changed a lot in his time and will be remembered RIP.

Ashley

My all time favorite rock and roll memory happened in 1963 in a club in St. Louis's old Gaslight Square district. He had been released from prison that day and just walked in and sat in on guitar with the band. He blew everyone away. I was barely five feet away from him, and can still see him as clear as day.

Sad to see the end of an era may he R.I.P.
On of my recollections of him is when he released the record of “My Ding-a-Ling” when that stupid sad old woman called Mary Whitehouse started shooting her stupid mouth off over it being a rude record and tried to get it banned-if only she had listened to the lyrics at the beginning she would see it wasn’t so…… the result was that it sold far more than it should have in the UK , she did Chuck Berry a favour, he was laughing all the way to the bank :!:

pantah_good said:

My all time favorite rock and roll memory happened in 1963 in a club in St. Louis's old Gaslight Square district. He had been released from prison that day and just walked in and sat in on guitar with the band. He blew everyone away. I was barely five feet away from him, and can still see him as clear as day.

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What an excellent memory!! Rip Chuck berry

Bernhard said:

Sad to see the end of an era may he R.I.P.
On of my recollections of him is when he released the record of “My Ding-a-Ling” when that stupid sad old woman called Mary Whitehouse started shooting her stupid mouth off over it being a rude record and tried to get it banned-if only she had listened to the lyrics at the beginning she would see it wasn’t so…… the result was that it sold far more than it should have in the UK , she did Chuck Berry a favour, he was laughing all the way to the bank :!:

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She did the same thing with the Kenny everate show, according to Barry cryer !!

Bernhard said:

Sad to see the end of an era may he R.I.P.
On of my recollections of him is when he released the record of “My Ding-a-Ling” when that stupid sad old woman called Mary Whitehouse started shooting her stupid mouth off over it being a rude record and tried to get it banned-if only she had listened to the lyrics at the beginning she would see it wasn’t so…… the result was that it sold far more than it should have in the UK , she did Chuck Berry a favour, he was laughing all the way to the bank :!:

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She did the same thing with the Kenny everate show, according to Barry cryer !!

And that crap Monty Python film that wasn’t worth paying a cinema ticket for, called “The life of Brian”

I was lucky to meet Chuck once as he was escorting his mother through Soulard Farmer's Market on the near south side of St. L. He was very cordial and requested I not make any fuss so they might continue their shopping unmolested.

His music and the myriad musicians he influenced with it will live on in their recordings forever.

Danno said:

.................His music and the myriad musicians he influenced with it will live on in their recordings forever.

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You know,,,, this is so true. It is hard for me to believe but, many of the guys I work with over here in Iraq on this contract are young and when I read that Chuck Berry had passed away, I was talking about it in the shop, most of them had no Idea who he was.

cjandme said:

Danno said:

.................His music and the myriad musicians he influenced with it will live on in their recordings forever.

Click to expand...

You know,,,, this is so true. It is hard for me to believe but, many of the guys I work with over here in Iraq on this contract are young and when I read that Chuck Berry had passed away, I was talking about it in the shop, most of them had no Idea who he was.

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That's because they are familiar with musicians influenced by musicians influenced by musicians influenced by Chuck Berry's work. They probably don't know their great-grandfathers' names, either.

I daresay you'll get a blank stare from any of them if you ask if they know who Link Wray was, but if you asked Jimmy Page, you'd get a big grin.

Chuck Berry! it was a cool october afternoon back in 1973, I was just 15. my older sister Susan, who had recently learned to ride my SL100, asked me if I'd like to join her and a friend to go see Chuck at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom, about an hour away from our idyllic suburban home.

So Susan, I, and two other friends piled into mom's chevy vega, and headed into town. By the time we parked, the line to get into the Aragon was around the block. but it did move, and we were soon inside.

The Aragon was, and is still a remarkable place. Built in the 1930's for all that big band, ballroom dance kinda stuff, it had a (I'm guessing) 10,000 sq ft dance floor, which was surrounded by architecture meant to resemble a renaissance castle, with that dance floor being a courtyard. There were ramparts and turrets on the upper level, and stars and clouds as part of a night sky projected on the ceiling. Really breathtaking.

But of course the night belonged to Chuck. For two hours, everyone stood and danced on their folding chairs, assembled on that dance floor. I can still feel that energy and that joy today whenever I hear anything from Memphis Tennessee to Brown Eyed Handsome Man, and I laugh remembering the MC pleading with the crowd as we cheered for a second encore...
'Go easy on him, he's 50!" in 1973.... An amazing artist who enriched the lives of millions.