Chuck Berry: Roll Over Beethoven

     Roll over Beethoven and tell Tschaikovsky the news. That, my friends, was Chuck Berry picking up a glove, slapping the music establishment across the face and challenging them to a duel. Except he used a Gibson at twenty duck walk paces. And he won! No longer did music lovers have to settle for Bach or Caruso or Louis Armstrong or megaphone crooners. I don't mean to tear down other legends to build up Chuck Berry, but he was rock 'n' roll personified. His "heart's beatin' rhythm and his soul keeps a-singin' the blues". Elvis' early rockabilly was sensational and he was the first sex symbol of rock. Little Richard was rock's first great showman and inventor of Paul McCartney. I mean them no disrespect, and I'll post about them in the future, but there would have been no Beatles or Stones without Chuck Berry. Alright, there might have been, but they wouldn't have been as good. He created the template that has lasted for sixty years. He established the themes of cars and girls and sex. He was the first guitar hero and riff master. The first song I wanted to learn on guitar was Johnny B. Goode. John Lennon, Keith Richards and Brian Wilson have all acknowledged their debt to Berry. He was literally the most important individual in the history of rock music, yet he is seldom given the credit he deserves.
     I'm as guilty as everyone else. It has taken me 72 posts to finally get around to Chuck Berry. I had to go back and add him to my top 20 guitarists list that I included in my Michael Hedges post because he had slipped my mind. How is that possible? I know I sound like a fanboy, but look at his catalog. Maybellene. Roll Over Beethoven. School Day. Rock And Roll Music. Reelin' And Rockin'. Sweet Little Sixteen. Johnny B. Goode. Carol. Memphis, Tennessee. Little Queenie. No Particular Place To Go. Run Run Rudolph :) He wrote all those songs. They're not old blues songs that he stole from someone else. And they have been covered thousands of times by hundreds of artists.
     I've posted several times about deliberately exposing my kids to The Beatles. In a way, I suppose that has also exposed them to Chuck Berry. I recommend that they listen to my copy of Chuck Berry: The Definitive Collection so they know George Harrison didn't write "Roll Over Beethoven". Peace.