Here's a video of Chuck Berry singing Johnny B. Good, one of my all time favourite songs. (One good thing about broadband internet is that you get to play the songs on Youtube without buffering.) He is and has been one of my most loved singers and performers. Watch how he fools around, dances, and does his antics without any self-consciousness. He is credited with turning rhythm and blues into what is today known as rock 'n' roll and has had admirers such as Elvis Prestley and John Lennon. He is also one guitar players whom I rate even higher than Bruce Springstein and Eric Clapton. Clapton is said to have remarked:
'If you wanna play rock and roll - or any upbeat number - and you wanted to take a guitar ride you would end up playing like Chuck...because there is very little other choice. There's not a lot of other ways to play rock and roll other than the way Chuck plays it; he's really laid the law down..."
At 85 Chuck Berry still plays and gives performances in the Blueberry Hills restaurant in St. Louis. (Ah, that's some life an artiste should aspire to.) He is one successful musician who hasn't fallen victim to the addictions (I think of Jim Morrison, John Lennon, Michael Jackson in this context), which the profession has been susceptible to.
We talk of Bob Dylan as the "Pied Piper" of Pop. Why not give the sobriquet of "Mover and Shaker (He is the original pelvis, see how his pelvis moves!)" of Rock to Chuck Berry, since the mantle of "King of Pop" is already taken.
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