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Fender Dual Showman Ex Chuck Berry
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Chuck Berry
(1926 - 2017)
Main guitar: Gibson ES-355
Compulsory listening: Johnny B. Goode
“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'.” said John Lennon to make it clear how influential the genius musician from St Louis, Missouri was. Elvis won the jackpot with his charisma and velvety voice, but Chuck wrote most of the rock classics that gave us some of the greatest guitar moments in history. His electric, aggressive, fast and bluesy style was the Holy Bible to people like Keith Richards, Angus Young and Bob Dylan.
Berry himself got a lot of his inspiration from piano player Johnnie Johnson with whom he played a lot, and he added a strong sense of showmanship to Johnson’s licks. With his duck walk, acrobatic splits and sheer animal magnetism, seeing Berry play is a visual and musical treat. As soon as 1953, he understood the potential of mixing up black music (the blues) and white music (country). He developed his style around this hybrid form, starting with his first single in 1955, Maybellene. That song was adapted from the country classic Ira Red, and he released it with Chess, the famous label that pioneered Chicago Blues.
Chuck then had a string of hits, writing classics that entered the rock canon: “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Too Much Monkey Business”, “Rock And Roll Music”, “Sweet Little Sixteen”, “Carol” and of course the classic amongst classics: “Johnny B. Goode” and its historic intro. But the genius guitarist had questionable morals and was sentenced to a year and a half in jail for having relations with a minor that worked in his club.
When he was released in 1963, Berry started to reap the benefits from his huge influence on bands from the new generation. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys covered many of his songs, and Berry himself kept on recording great ones. But step by step the well dried up and his last big single, the only number one in his career, was not much more than a salacious joke recorded live, “My Ding-A-Ling”. After that, Chuck stopped writing songs and concentrated on live performances, relentlessly touring the world and playing his hits of the fifties and sixties.
Eventually, his posthumous album - Chuck - was released in 2017. After a 38-year creative desert, this album is a nice testament to the monument that Berry was.
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