Chuck Berry Quotes

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was an American singer and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", Berry refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B. Goode" . Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.Born into a middle-class African-American family in St. Louis, Missouri, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, Berry began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues chart.By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry's Club Bandstand. However, he was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines. After his release in 1963, Berry had several more hits, including "No Particular Place to Go", "You Never Can Tell", and "Nadine". But these did not achieve the same success, or lasting impact, of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgic performer, playing his past hits with local backup bands of variable quality. However, in 1972 he reached a new level of achievement when a rendition of "My Ding-a-Ling" became his only record to top the charts. His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service, for tax evasion.

Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine's "greatest of all time" lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry's: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music". Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record. Wikipedia  

✵ 18. October 1926 – 18. March 2017
Chuck Berry photo
Chuck Berry: 47   quotes 4   likes

Famous Chuck Berry Quotes

“You know, my temperature's risin'
and the jukebox blows a fuse
My heart's beatin' rhythm
and my soul keeps on singin' the blues
Roll Over Beethoven and tell Tchaikovsky the news”

"Roll Over Beethoven" (1956) ·  Live performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT3kCVFFLNg
Song lyrics

“As I was motivatin' over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a Coup de Ville
A Cadillac arollin' on the open road
Nothin' will outrun my V8 Ford
The Cadillac doin' about ninety-five
She's bumper to bumper, rollin' side by side
Maybellene”

"Maybellene" (1955); this song was also credited by the record company to other "co-composers", in what has been generally accepted as a form of "payola".
Song lyrics

“Just like a bolt of thunder and a streak of heat
Leo covered Jo Jo with all four feet
Jo Jo was screamin' with tears in his eyes
Said," Please Mr. Leo, I apologize"”

"Joe Joe Gun" (1958)( aka "Jo Jo Gunne") *traditional, new lyrics by Chuck Berry
Song lyrics

Chuck Berry Quotes

“Milo Venus was a beautiful lass,
She had the world in the palm of her hand.
But she lost both her arms in a wrestling match,
To get a brown eyed handsome man.”

"Brown Eyed Handsome Man" (1958), Pop Chronicles Show 5 - Hail, Hail, Rock 'n' Roll: The rock revolution gets underway. Part 1 http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19751/m1/.
Song lyrics

“Hail, hail rock and roll; deliver me from the days of old.
Long live rock and roll; the beat of the drums, loud and bold.
Rock, rock, rock and roll; the feelin' is there, body and soul.”

"School Days" (1957), Pop Chronicles Show 6 - Hail, Hail, Rock 'n' Roll: The rock revolution gets underway. Part 2 http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19752/m1/
Song lyrics

“I wanted to write about school because most of my audience at the particular time was of a school element.”

Introducing "School Days" on The History of Rock and Roll, (1978), Hour 1: "The Birth of Rock & Roll"

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