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Well, except for the 3 years in the slammer he did for armed robbery back in 1944, and the 14 year old runaway girl he solicited at the restaurant on his El Paso stop in 1959, with a job offer at his St Louis club. He took her out of there and did right by her, having sex with her multiple times on the road and back home in St Louis when he was 35 years old. Then he fired her 3 weeks later and gave her a bus ticket back to El Paso. She hesitated and returned to the club, where good old Chuck went thru her purse and took back the ticket, then booted her out, for which he got 20 months in the big house for that deal. But he did write some pretty good songs while he was in there, like No Particular Place to Go, and made a nice comeback, touring as soon as he was released in 1963.
He stayed pretty clean until 1979, when he did 3 more months for income tax evasion. But he got lucky on his last rap in 1989, for putting cameras in the women's bathrooms of his club and making a stack of video recordings from that. I wonder if he spent any time with Bill Cosby in those years? Fortunately for Chuck, the prosecutor for his case was involved in a financial scandal of his own before the trial was to begin, and the case was eventually dropped, I guess he was considered too great of a musician at that point to retry him for that offense, because it might have been racist or something, lol.
Other than that, yeah, I really liked his music and was real proud of that My Ding A Ling song he taught me when I was 7, and of course the influence he had on the other musicians of that era, like Jerry Lee Lewis perhaps? Someone had to say it, lol.
I remember being little and dancing with my Father to Chuck Berry, Chubby Checker, Fats Domino and so many others. The memories make me smile every time and yet another musical giant is gone.
RIP Chuck Berry and B. Goode with the other rock and roll stars.
Well, except for the 3 years in the slammer he did for armed robbery back in 1944, and the 14 year old runaway girl he solicited at the restaurant on his El Paso stop in 1959, with a job offer at his St Louis club. He took her out of there and did right by her, having sex with her multiple times on the road and back home in St Louis when he was 35 years old. Then he fired her 3 weeks later and gave her a bus ticket back to El Paso. She hesitated and returned to the club, where good old Chuck went thru her purse and took back the ticket, then booted her out, for which he got 20 months in the big house for that deal. But he did write some pretty good songs while he was in there, like No Particular Place to Go, and made a nice comeback, touring as soon as he was released in 1963.
He stayed pretty clean until 1979, when he did 3 more months for income tax evasion. But he got lucky on his last rap in 1989, for putting cameras in the women's bathrooms of his club and making a stack of video recordings from that. I wonder if he spent any time with Bill Cosby in those years? Fortunately for Chuck, the prosecutor for his case was involved in a financial scandal of his own before the trial was to begin, and the case was eventually dropped, I guess he was considered too great of a musician at that point to retry him for that offense, because it might have been racist or something, lol.
Other than that, yeah, I really liked his music and was real proud of that My Ding A Ling song he taught me when I was 7, and of course the influence he had on the other musicians of that era, like Jerry Lee Lewis perhaps? Someone had to say it, lol.
No doubt, Chuck wasn't exactly what one would describe as a "nice guy", but his inventiveness and influence on music can't be denied.
It's a shame that his only Number One hit was the very atypical for him (and not written by Chuck) novelty tune, "My Ding-a-Ling".
Other than that, yeah, I really liked his music and was real proud of that My Ding A Ling song he taught me when I was 7, and of course the influence he had on the other musicians of that era, like Jerry Lee Lewis perhaps? Someone had to say it, lol.
I seriously doubt that Jerry Lee was influenced by Berry. He thought Berry was too sedate. There are reports that on the mid-late 1950s tours, after blazing performances by JLL before Berry was slotted to close the shows that Berry refused to follow JLL after that.
No doubt, Chuck wasn't exactly what one would describe as a "nice guy", but his inventiveness and influence on music can't be denied.
It's a shame that his only Number One hit was the very atypical for him (and not written by Chuck) novelty tune, "My Ding-a-Ling".
What was strange for me, when I heard of Chuck's passing yesterday I started listening to his music and was also saddened by his death. I intended to get some background on him and perhaps make a flattering obituary post about him, as I did for the recent passing of Al Jarreau. After reading up on Chuck, I'm not giving him a pass, nor will I name call, the record speaks for itself. There was so many juicy tidbits on him, I was just amazed at what I was reading for the first time about Chuck Berry. I don't recall ever seeing an E-hollywood gossip show about him, and never recalled anything on the news in 1989 about his peeping tom tapes, or heard anything about the 14 year old hooker he played with in Dec of '59, or the armed robbery thing either.
Then it occurred to me that his problem with the girl occurred at the zenith of the civil rights movement and right after rock 'n roll had been hit hard with some fierce criticism in the late 50's, and that Chuck was the black face of early rock 'n roll. They downplayed everything he did to try and help him, the media gave him a pass. Pretty miraculous how he was able to tour right after something like that in 1963, which was still a very conservative time I had thought. To be forgiven so quickly and right away be able to perform after something like that seems unusual for that time. Jerry Lee had no such luck with his deal, and he married the girl so WTH? Was it because she was his cousin? Lol, I don't know what to think here.
I think I'll go with Chuck being a bit over rated. His guitar licks were innovative but when you listen to his half dozen or so major hits, a lot of them are the same dang song with different lyrics, each hit seems to have a clone, lol. I'm not so sure he did such a great favor to other black artists of that time, his music was great, but he sure didn't give rock 'n roll artists such a good image like Jackie Robinson did for baseball, to use for an example. Gee, I wonder why so many parents of that time were so uptight about rock 'n roll's influence back then? Lol, with Chuck grabbin' those young white girls and all. Duh, bad move Chuck!
Johnny B Good and No Particular Place to Go are my favorites from Chuck Berry. Not like I'm gonna change the station now when I hear one of his songs, just because he was a perv. But I'm not going to glorify him either. Someone in music forum posted some caption below his picture "he's in heaven now" or something like that. I seriously doubt he's on the way to heaven !!!
I'm hoping we'll get a statement from his cousin - Marvin Berry.
I got that!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mofford
What was strange for me, when I heard of Chuck's passing yesterday I started listening to his music and was also saddened by his death. I intended to get some background on him and perhaps make a flattering obituary post about him, as I did for the recent passing of Al Jarreau.
I didn't hear that Al Jarreau died.
Googling....
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