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RIP Chuck Berry


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RIP Chuck Berry, The Founding Father of Rock
by Dan McLaughlin

 

FTA:

 

Berry’s influence is almost impossible to overstate. He was rock’s first ‘guitar god,’ a complete package who wrote and sang his own songs, supported them with guitar theatrics, and had his own manic, mesmerizing stage presence complete with his signature duck walk. He wrote many great songs, and while a number of them shamelessly ripped off his earlier work, that just made him the first of an almost endless list of people who stole from Chuck Berry.

 

Among his many timeless contributions, I have long argued that Johnny B. Goode remains rock’s greatest single song. It’s one of the first rock songs to do two things, let alone combine them – tell a story and feature a guitar solo – and in unorthodox fashion then as now, it opens with a guitar solo. It’s one of the very few songs recorded in the 1950s that sounds as crisp and clear and vibrant today as it did in 1957, when Berry was already 30 years old. It’s also a song about rock, and the possibilities it offers, even to a barely-literate African-American teen in the age of Jim Crow, modeled rather obviously on Berry himself; its lyrics contain the timeless promise of rock immortality:

 

His mama told him someday you will be a man

And you will be the leader of a big old band

Many people comin’ from miles around

To hear you play your music when the sun go down

Maybe someday your name will be in lights,

Saying “Johnny B. Goode tonight”

 

Is there a more American promise than that? Proof of the power of Johnny B. Goode can be found in the fact that just about anyone who has ever picked up a guitar has felt compelled to take a crack at it. Even a partial sample shows the pervasive influence of the song.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner

 

Elvis:

 


John Lennon: https://youtu.be/dYTqzcc-WNk?t=2

 

Springsteen: https://youtu.be/-2CdjOX8kas

 

Stones: https://youtu.be/facz5L35D-I

 

Hendrix: https://youtu.be/G6OedBFkxWU

 

AC/DC: https://youtu.be/hV11HRcbCJU

 

Dead: https://youtu.be/rbYTyEnbWZg

 

Prince: https://youtu.be/B24ou49OOSI

 

 

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RIP. his music is just fun.

 

RIP Chuck Berry, The Founding Father of Rock
by Dan McLaughlin

 

FTA:

 

Berry’s influence is almost impossible to overstate. He was rock’s first ‘guitar god,’ a complete package who wrote and sang his own songs, supported them with guitar theatrics, and had his own manic, mesmerizing stage presence complete with his signature duck walk. He wrote many great songs, and while a number of them shamelessly ripped off his earlier work, that just made him the first of an almost endless list of people who stole from Chuck Berry.

 

Among his many timeless contributions, I have long argued that Johnny B. Goode remains rock’s greatest single song. It’s one of the first rock songs to do two things, let alone combine them – tell a story and feature a guitar solo – and in unorthodox fashion then as now, it opens with a guitar solo. It’s one of the very few songs recorded in the 1950s that sounds as crisp and clear and vibrant today as it did in 1957, when Berry was already 30 years old. It’s also a song about rock, and the possibilities it offers, even to a barely-literate African-American teen in the age of Jim Crow, modeled rather obviously on Berry himself; its lyrics contain the timeless promise of rock immortality:

 

His mama told him someday you will be a man

And you will be the leader of a big old band

Many people comin’ from miles around

To hear you play your music when the sun go down

Maybe someday your name will be in lights,

Saying “Johnny B. Goode tonight”

 

Is there a more American promise than that? Proof of the power of Johnny B. Goode can be found in the fact that just about anyone who has ever picked up a guitar has felt compelled to take a crack at it. Even a partial sample shows the pervasive influence of the song.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner

 

 


 

missed one

Edited by Boyst62
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RIP. his music is just fun.

 

missed one

 

 

 

I missed.............hundreds....................here's a few more.

 

 

Judas Priest: https://youtu.be/2zxoGFjFJlk

 

 

Buck Owens: https://youtu.be/TPfj-wHMm0M

 

 

Sex Pistols: https://youtu.be/O_D3KD3CyqY

 

 

Thorogood: https://youtu.be/Dr12EBWDN2Q

 

 

Green Day: https://youtu.be/O9XUc5O_54w

 

 

The Killers: https://youtu.be/Q0VN5jz9-sM

 

 

AND finally, the man himself

 

 

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Of all his songs, this was my favorite. I also like that since this is from the last segment of a television special about him, it ends with Chuck playing blues on a pedal steel while the end credits roll. RIP - his legacy is still being handed down among generations of guitarists, and will be for many years to come.

 

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