Saw America's Troubador At His Best (money, top, selling)

[Calvert Hall '62]

It was junior yr. at UB, late '64 or early '65, Chuck Berry was top billed at the Lyric. Now this was surprising in itself because his brand of rock 'n' roll in the mid 60s was passe; at best, it shared fame along with other genres like soul and Motown. This wasn't 1957 anymore, and if not for the British Invasion paying homage to Chuck and the other 50s pioneers, his brand of R 'n' R would've been totally out of the loop. Furthermore, this particular concert, except for him, was all soul artists: Little Walter, Joe Tex, Solomon Burke, et al.

Except for myself and a few mud sharks and coal burners, the audience was black. And they didn't come to see Chuck whom many regarded as "selling out" his blues roots in favor of the style of R 'n' R that whites -- with more spending money -- favored. And sure enough, the applause he got was polite but lukewarm, unlike the rousing cheers the audience gave the "soul" performers.

But I thought he was spot on. He didn't do any of his duckwalking or other fancy footwork; that would never do in front of a black audience. He didn't lazily talk the lyrics as he would later do beginning in the 70s and which irritated the hell out of me. He didn't joke and clown around.

What he did was simply stand in one spot, tap his left foot for rhythm, play guitar just like ringin' a bell, and sing like he sounds on recordings. Saw him several times over the yrs., including at the old Coliseum in '58 when he shared top billing on a card with Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis -- wow, what a show that was, with each of those superstars trying to outdo the others -- but this '64-'65 performance was his best that I saw.

[B.K.]

Oddly enough, Chuck felt the winds of change at about that time, and released a string of blues oriented albums that continued until "My Ding-a-Ling" was a chart topper in the early seventies. Since then it's been nothing but the oldies review with local pick up bands.