HOW CHUCK BERRY OVERCAME ROYALTY RIPOFFS AND RACISTS: EXCLUSIVE CLIP

UltimateClassicRock ^ | July 27, 2021 | Nick DeRiso

[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.

[Albion Wilde]

Saw many bands from the front of the stage asyou did - the Who, Zeppelin, and Pretenders to name 3.

A golden age of progressive rock.

[Albion Wilde]

Berry was quite a character and his eccentricities and hard-nosed insistence on getting paid up front had a lot to do with his way above average intelligence, which needed some outlet. Glad he stuck to his guns over getting paid, because blacks were treated badly, along with underrepresented whites, in the music business; but blacks undoubtedly had it worse. Thinking of the many Delta bluesmen whose works were exploited by the Stones and others.

As for Berry’s womanizing and related issues, my above anecdote was not a character review, but merely my one-time personal experience in an era when many men of all colors in all situations felt free to come on to women inappropriately. His warm friendliness that particular evening actually surprised me; but given the times and where he was performing, doubtless he felt some kind of restraint.

I agree that the attitudes towards southern “racism” by northern whites are mind-boggling, given the difference in demographics. Democrats, then as now, were the major racists in government and society, harming everyone with their wicked ways, all blamed on the civil, tolerant or courteous folks.

[firebrand]

Here's a video where you can see Johnson play.

[firebrand]

The universities were never like that, in that day anyway, so I kind of doubt that story is true. I saw Ray Charles in 1960 at Yale. The place was packed and one guy even tried dancing but was soon ushered back to his seat.

[Albion Wilde]

That was totally fantastic! All three of them — wow! Love the big roar and applause that Johnson got — well deserved!

[firebrand]

Love that train number.

Further to my statement above, the fraternities at northeast colleges pledged black members in the early sixties, probably still do.

[Albion Wilde]

The universities were never like that, in that day anyway, so I kind of doubt that story is true.

It was my personal experience, and totally true. Auburn U is in the deep south in Alabama.

Even in the college I went to in the north in the mid-sixties, women had a housemother and had to sign out to a destination if they left campus, and no men in the dorms. Things didn't start changing until the early 70s. Sex outside of marriage, birth control for the unmarried, and abortion (although they may have taken place on the sly among a much smaller minority of women than today) were not even yet legal, the age of majority was still 21 (not 18), and Uni's and colleges had a policy of in loco parentis, where the university was responsible for the students in the place of parents.

Auburn is at the red pin:

[Albion Wilde]

I see that I misunderstood your meaning that “the universites were never like that” with regard to making the girls go home early, when you meant race relations.

I may never know if race played any part in the lateness. But I did see continuing segregation not only of the races but also of social classes when I lived in the deep south in 1969. The janitor at my place of business was black and had a college degree. One day I talked to him in the lunchroom as he swept the floor. He was astonished that I took any interest in learning about him and his family and soon began looking around furtively so he wouldn’t get in trouble.

One of the weirder classist manifestations was when I tried to get opera tickets for myself and my husband, and the man selling them detected a northern accent, so he began interviewing me, and ultimately said we would not be able to purchase tickets because my husband was military but not an officer. I said he was an Ivy League graduate but had been drafted—but nope!

[firebrand]

Oh right. The colleges here were very Victorian too. We could only have men in our rooms on Sunday with the door open. That’s kind of a funny rule when you think about it. It doesn’t say anything about what could go on with the door open.

Skirts required in the dining room (i.e., no slacks or shorts).

There was a bar nearby that was a great place to meet IBM guys (no men’s colleges nearby), but then they made a rule that we couldn’t go there.

[wardaddy]

Lordy

[wardaddy]

I lived in Manhattan eight years.....my paramour for half that was a Barnard professor

I understand fully northern hypocrisy over race

A gift we southerners have enjoyed since the founding

I’ve found northerners find in the south usually that which their own prejudice predicts

What we call a narrative in today speak..