That's why he went with the 5 string setup/tune.
Posted on 07/27/2021 4:45:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Chuck Berry's rocket ride to fame hit more than a few bumps along the way: Unscrupulous industry professionals tried to scam him, and racists pushed back against his boundary-defying music.
Berry persisted, however, building a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame career outlined in tonight's PBS broadcast of In Their Own Words: Chuck Berry. You can watch an exclusive clip from the program below, as the son of Chess Records cofounder Leonard Chess, Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish, Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash and others discuss Berry's early career struggles.
Berry actually went to court to win back credit for his groundbreaking crossover song "Maybelline," which reached the Top 5 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and rhythm-and-blues charts in 1955. The powerful DJ Alan Freed played a big role in breaking the single but only after extracting a payoff from Chess and then adding his own name as songwriter without Berry's knowledge.
In the clip below, Marshall Chess remembers his father saying, "All that money we pay off to get the record played, that's part of the artist expense." But Berry lost untold thousands on royalty payments.
He decided to focus on performing, since income earned out on the road could be counted on more reliably. But that didn't mean there weren't other challenges: Berry was playing in front of boisterous teenage crowds, and the intermingling of races at local music venues created an issue in the Jim Crow era.
"They just didn't want Black and white folks to get together," Rucker says in the clip. "They knew, at a Chuck Berry show, you can't stop kids from partying. You can't stop kids from dancing. When you've got that music, and they want to hear it, they don't care who they are standing next to dancing. The authorities and the powers that be didn't like that – and that made Chuck even more powerful, I think."
Other featured interview subjects from In Their Own Words: Chuck Berry include Keith Richards and Robert Cray. The program premieres at 8PM ET tonight on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS Video app. Check listings for local times.
That's why he went with the 5 string setup/tune.
Even on their drug use?
There it is!
The other Chuck Berry lawsuit of which I’ve personal knowledge was when he was sued for allegedly videotaping the women’s restroom at his restaurant in Missouri. He mounted a good defense but had a hard time explaining why on one of the tapes a large black hand appeared in front of the camera on which one of the fingers a large gold ring was clearly visible with the initials “CB”. Granted, that’s purely circumstantial and the initials of lots of people, but enough to prompt a big settlement.
I think if you read on he is stating they KNOW more about RR history than anyone. That those 2 are historians.
Again, I think Richards and Dylan...perhaps T Bone Burnett...are the keepers of American music.
As much as Beethoven and Brahms were the keepers of the German musical tradition.
They’ll be listened to centuries after we’re gone.
“Why do I always find you saying such dumb things lately.”
It’s not me.
It’s you.
????????????????
Uhhh, Keith Richards is British.
And an expert in the American musical tradition.
To emulate my FR community around here. I need to point out that Chuck was a BLACK guy and is NOT to be appreciated...
If you are going to stick to it, then don’t give exceptions...
Too bad he had to creep out with the potty cams.
Lol, see my post below yours, you sanctimonious fart.
I went to a Rolling Stones concert at Auburn University in 1969, their Sympathy for the Devil tour, and the opening act was Chuck Berry.
It was scheduled for 8:00 or 9:00 pm, but no one showed up onstage. Everyone sat there chattering and fidgeting. Around 10:45 pm, there was an announcement on the loudspeaker, that the "young women of Auburn University" must observe their 11:00 pm curfew, and report back to their dorms. You can imagine the shrieks and groans, but the proper southern ladies obediently left and some of their boyfriends left also to escort them.
I was in my 20s and was there with my husband, who was stationed at a nearby base preparing to go to Vietnam. Although it would be a spectacularly memorable evening, I sincerely do not recall if there were blacks as well as whites in the crowd—we were military, had previously been living up north, and to us it would have been a feature, not a bug. We rushed forward to grab a couple of the vacated seats in the front row.
Chuck Berry soon appeared to rock the house, and he was the best part of the program, better than the Stones who would follow him. We stood at the rim of the stage with several other young people and rested our arms on the stage near his feet, slapping along with the beat. He was an awesome performer and made friendly but not salacious eye contact with those of us within inches of him.
Everyone just assumed that the delay was the fault of the Stones, who were notoriously late. It never occurred to me that Chuck's appearance might have been manipulated so the white southern girls didn't get to see Chuck. That's just horrible to think about.
See post 34...
Yes. Notoriously late.
Awesome! The link below is one of my favorites, in which Chuck uses his guitar to imitate the sound of an oncoming train. My granddad lived near a railroad trestle and used to take us up the hill to the tracks to let the onrush blow us away, and we would cover our ears and scream really loud as the train went by. The engineer would sometimes look for us and blow the whistle Aaaaaargh! (Fun, before electronics...) There is another version without piano, but you will appreciate this version's piano backing!
Great story, great posts, great tagline. I was 13 in 1969 so those times and that music means a lot to me too. Did manage to see Chuck at a rock and roll revival show. Saw many bands from the front of the stage asyou did - the Who, Zeppelin, and Pretenders to name 3. Not the stones though (saw them from a long way away in the Cotton Bowl in 81).
Dylans lune seems particularly apt today.
They still don't like it, thus the constant race instigators like Omaba, and Gayle King and Jesse Jerkson and Al Sharpton. Kids don't have race prejudice, the teachers unions have to teach it.
You’re unaware of a Chucks mercurial personality and his tendency to wait to go onstage for his money first...
And I hate to break it to you...but Chuck had a thing for young white girls...sometimes too young....
He shared both those traits with his brother of another color Jerry Lee Lewis
I saw black acts all my life in Mississippi in the 1960s and nothing like that ever happened
I know I know northerners know better on race...
Funny I could never figure that ....living in Manhattan in the 80s enjoying the pristine views from the Major Deegan
Shucks today would I rather be a poor black agri grunt in rural Mississippi or a black slum dweller in south Chicago or Cleveland or Detroit
I know the answer to that...
What always strikes me is how the south runs 20-90% black about everywhere except Appalachia
And the north rarely over a few points except in big cities
Yet which today has more issues with blacks ...
Ever examine where the Wilson era klan was strongest
No question the south resisted segregation and in white minority areas I don’t blame them...what would you do in a county 80% black?
I can tell you you don’t send your daughters to private schools
Hard realities sorry to beak it to u and I’m fresh out of give a shit
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