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  1. The true poet of rock ‘n’roll who put more into his songs than many a Hollywood director has put into film. No one else has encapsulated life as a teenager in the way he did. RIP, you old bugger.

  3. Its nice to see that Johnny B Goode and Roll Over Beethoven are trending on Twitter tonight. No mention of THAT song

    I love the Hail Hail Rock n Roll film and the deluxe DVD with extra footage including with Fats Domino and Little Richard meetup is history making stuff

  5. saw him at the Free trade Hall Manchester in 1975..place was jam packed with Teddy Boys who were none too impressed when Chuck unplugged and bid goodnight after 45 minutes!!!!!

  7. I posted on the AW on the occasion of Chuck’s 90th birthday to point our that he was one of the great lyricists. It takes great skill to make every syllable of an apparently simple lyric contribute to the song’s rhythm like this:

    I left my home in Norfolk Virginia,
    California on my mind.
    Straddled that Greyhound, rode him past Raleigh,
    On across Caroline.

    …

    Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia,
    Tidewater four ten O nine
    Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin’
    And the poor boy’s on the line.

  8. One of the great originals, in not one but many ways. He invented a guitar style which is plundered daily by millions (guity m’lud). He showed the work ethic needed to succeed – lying around at home is bad business, and he understood decades before many that it is a business. No one ripped off Chuck once he got his act together. He also understood you need a thing – the duck walk, again, is as Instant Chuck as the Johnny B Goode intro. And as Gatz says, he wrote the best poetic lyrics of is generation, bar none. In many ways he was a dodgy geezer – bores will claim he nicked everything off Johnny Johnson, he was a crook, pervert, rip off artist etc. But he wrote and played better rock n roll than anyone in his prime, including the King. And he wrote great songs. “You never can tell” has only two chords but you’d never know. It has a fantastic melody and half the lyrics are in French. This is the one song I played with the band on my wedding day…

    Good rocking tonight in the hot place.

  9. One of my favourites, and Twang has explained why better than I will. But I’ve a feeling that without him loads of stuff I hold dear to my heart would not have come to pass. History would quite literally have sounded differently.

  11. Saw him on a package tour in a large arena ca 2002 with Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. His reputation was to give half arsed performances with a barely rehearsed pick up band, but actually he was outstanding. He was 76 then but easily outshone the other two.

  12. Chuck Berry. My first ever gig. 1982(ish). In of all places, Irvine Magnum.
    Me 17 with a hall full of Teds (where did they come from?).
    An hour with a pick up band and then off on the dot.
    He doesn’t seem to have been the loveliest of men, but what a legacy he leaves behind. Every two bit guitar player on the planet owes a debt to Chuck.
    Sad to hear of his passing here as both of the opening posts reporting his death sounded so glib and cheap.

  13. A bona fide genius.
    Flawed as a person beyond doubt, but what a sound, what lyrics!
    I was taken to see him at The Albert Hall in ’76 ( still in his snazzy shirt era & my 2nd ever gig) & he was terrific.
    Like many others I had his ‘Motorvatin” complilation & later the ‘ Golden Decade’ double – they were old then but still 10 times more fresh & sexy than virtually anything in the charts.
    He is hugely underrated as a lyricist – I honestly think for sheer enjoyment he’s only pipped by Cole Porter. Hopefully the appreciation will grow in time –
    If in doubt, check out ‘Brown Eyed Handsome Man’ or his ‘ civil rights song’ ‘Promised Land’
    ‘ We had motor trouble that turned into a struggle
    Half way across Alabam
    And that hound broke down and left us all stranded
    In downtown Birmingham’

    Tell me anybody else who could encapsulate the struggle of Rosa Parks, MLK et al in
    2 couplets – as I said, genius.
    RIP you dreadful, magnificent old sod.

  15. Not too much to add to the comments above, but he was a genius. Would have probably been a footnote without the early 60s groups picking up on his songs – I heard about him through the Beatles and the Stones, and even Dave Berry had a hit with Memphis Tennessee, and then he had a second wind with hit No Particular Place To Go etc. Should be some good stuff on the TV coming up!

      • It’s not simply just a case of ‘artist vs person’ though, is it? Who apart from committed shock-junkies is making a case for Charles Manson along those lines? And could you listen to the Lostprophets and easily divorce artist from person? I’d suggest not.

        Isn’t it more to do with questioning whether their bad deeds outweigh the joy they’ve brought mankind? And with Berry the answer is no, they don’t.

      • I think there is a tendency to excuse certain acts, which is understandable.

        Breaching the Mann Act I thought we felt was kinda above and beyond. Unless you’re Chuck Berry in which case ….ssshhhhh. Not going to mention that.

        • Fawlty Towers wasn’t it?

          “It’s alright, it’s alright, I mentioned Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco in the turgid 1970s…..but I think I got away with it.”

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