But if no one else mentions it, I gotta say: Berry's piano player Johnnie Johnson wrote all those classic riffs.
I'm just finally cracking Father of Rock & Roll, which has the details... While I'm at it, I heartily recommend Backbeat: Earl Palmer's Story, by Tony Scherman--kickass New Orleans rocknroll bio told entirely by the father of the backbeat into a tape recorder...
― Pete Scholtes, Tuesday, 29 October 2002 19:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
Chuck was too smart for his own good, methinks. Pull out an album or two and the deftness of his lyrics and the offhanded charm of his singing is still going to surprise you. I think his being taken up by the Brits was definitely a good thing, but his swift canonization has done his legacy a disservice. It closed off many opportunities for artistic growth (see James's story about the aging teddies clamoring for "Johnny B. Goode) and has reduced his achievement to "major influence on [x]" as two or three of his hits are recycled endlessly on dreaded "oldies" radio. (Actually not anymore I don't think; oldies radio here in Chicago has pretty much cut the 1950s out of their programming.)
― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 24 February 2003 08:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 24 February 2003 14:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 02:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 02:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 02:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 03:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Justin Farrar (Justin Farrar), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 04:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― $corpium ($corpium), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 08:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 08:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― thesplooge (thesplooge), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 10:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 11:57 (nineteen years ago) link
I am not really sure about the Johnnie Johnson thing--that JJ wrote a lot of those songs. Need to read more about it.
Lots of "minor" Berry is great, too. "Rockin' at the Philharmonic" is a really good instrumental. I like the weird stuff on his earlier LPs, too, like "Berry Pickin'" and "Drifting Heart." And the insane "13 Question Method." "Deep Feeling" is very good too.
I enjoy him lots more than I do Bob Dylan, too. "Talkin' About You" is one song that never fails to amaze me. Chuck Berry is rock and roll, period, far more than Elvis or anyone else. And it's NOT rockabilly...
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 5 May 2004 17:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 24 July 2005 00:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Sunday, 24 July 2005 00:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 24 July 2005 00:50 (eighteen years ago) link
http://www.hip-oselect.com/scr.public.product.asp?product_id=B7A49F2E-8468-4D4A-89E2-68E8BBC66368
: - O
― Stormy Davis, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 08:07 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah this looks good! about time this stuff was upgraded -- that 3 cd chess set came out like in 1988. wish it was a tad bit cheaper, but what the hey ...
― tylerw, Tuesday, 19 February 2008 16:40 (sixteen years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Berry
we should celebrate this King of Rock & Roll while he's still alive + still playing!
― the pinefox, Saturday, 27 June 2009 11:44 (fourteen years ago) link
He's 82!
― the pinefox, Saturday, 27 June 2009 11:50 (fourteen years ago) link
totally love the great 28 compilation, but have no idea why 'you never can tell' wasn't featured. still it's all a pretty joyous ride.
― Charlie Howard, Tuesday, 8 September 2009 16:47 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm kind of hooked on Tulane these days. It feels like a movie. Such a great story with so much going on - it kind of reminds me of the that amazing sequence in Goodfellas leading up to the bust.
― Brio, Tuesday, 8 September 2009 18:47 (fourteen years ago) link
holy shit dudes i found this one in a garbage can and am flooredhttp://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s1452681.jpgfirst i was put off by it cuz its a compilation then i listened to it and was like damnthen i considered the album cover and was like fukin a man a young girl in nothing but a leather jacketman that is rock n roll dude
― mysticalsitarsnsnakesflyingaroundonArjuna'scartbuiltofshardsofacid (jdchurchill), Thursday, 29 July 2010 18:10 (thirteen years ago) link
I think my impressions of Chuck Berry have always been so clouded that I never sat down and just listened to Johnny B. Goode, like really LISTENED TO IT man. Such great guitar work. I get it now.
― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Sunday, 24 March 2013 20:04 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, very influential iirc.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 24 March 2013 20:09 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah I guess I had always thought of it as "yeah that guy invented rock and roll" like as in "steve jobs invented the personal computer -- that's awesome but it doesn't mean I actually want to use an original apple computer"
― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Sunday, 24 March 2013 20:17 (eleven years ago) link
Short uptempo guitar-based songs were the worst thing to ever happen to music
― Basil Ironweed (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 21:15 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i had big breakthroughs on berry and buddy holly last year
not that i didn't like them, i just never really sat down and listened to them before, just knew em from oldies etc
― ums (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 21:52 (eleven years ago) link
you should get on Little Richard next
― four Marxes plus four Obamas plus four Bin Ladens (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 21:54 (eleven years ago) link
My Epiphany About Chuck Berry
― i've a cozy little flat in what is known as old man hat (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 21:55 (eleven years ago) link
kind of wish chuck had a whole album that was like this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7XWfNVTEQ8mesmerizing
― tylerw, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 21:58 (eleven years ago) link
JOHHNY B. POLLED: chuck berry's great twenty-eight
^^^ best chuck thread IMO
― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 22:46 (eleven years ago) link
Me too! I picked up "Chuck Rocks" and "The Definitive Buddy Holly" and, while I expected to like them, I was really surprised at how much I totally loved it all. Not played out at all.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 28 March 2013 01:20 (eleven years ago) link
Perhaps it is time for Whiney to shine a fresh light on these forgotten acts lest they be forgotten by the new generation.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:39 (eleven years ago) link
this is the dumbest post to ever happen to ILX
― Heyman (crüt), Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:53 (eleven years ago) link
little richard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3ELjAfhs2M
― christmas candy bar (al leong), Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:57 (eleven years ago) link
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 March 2013 21:59 (eleven years ago) link
I think he might have been kidding, but it is impossible to tell. Like Andy Kaufman reading The Great Gatsby or something.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 March 2013 22:01 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i never got his deal, he was funny sometimes, i think he was mostly gone by time i started posting a lot. he's like this weird ghost in the machine now.
― ums (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 29 March 2013 00:09 (eleven years ago) link
doc casino otm, that is one of my all-time fav ilm threads. ppl don't talk about chuck enough these days. (little richard too, for that matter.)
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 29 March 2013 00:15 (eleven years ago) link
has anyone else read his book? i read it as a teen but remember almost nothing about it.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 29 March 2013 00:21 (eleven years ago) link
BIg upping the Great Twenty-Eight Poll thirded.
― Johnny Too Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 29 March 2013 01:13 (eleven years ago) link
Don't bother me, leave me alone--celebrating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCT-xMbxb8w
― clemenza, Friday, 18 October 2013 12:44 (ten years ago) link
But when the sun went down, the rapid tempo of the music fell
― timellison, Friday, 15 November 2013 00:59 (ten years ago) link
Playing guitar like a-ringing a bellAnd looking like he should
― Pazz & Jop 1280 (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 15 November 2013 01:18 (ten years ago) link
A few Chuck Berry threads, so this might have been posted elsewhere.
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/chuck_zps50a3e4e8.jpg
― clemenza, Monday, 26 May 2014 19:30 (nine years ago) link
I could start a ceremonial "Chuck Berry is still alive" thread, but then again the last one ended (ended?) badly...
― Mark G, Monday, 26 May 2014 19:36 (nine years ago) link
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/rftmusic/2014/06/chuck_berry_reviews_classic_punk_records_in_unearthed_jet_lag_zine_from_1980.php
The Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen":What's this guy so angry about anyway? Guitar work and progression is like mine. Good backbeat. Can't understand most of the vocals. If you're going to be mad at least let the people know what you're mad about.The Clash's "Complete Control":Sounds like the first one. The rhythm and chording work well together. Did this guy have a sore throat when he sang the vocals?The Ramones' "Sheena is a Punk Rocker":A good little jump number. These guys remind me of myself when I first started, I only knew three chords too.The Romantics' "What I Like About You":Finally something you can dance to. Sounds a lot like the sixties with some of my riffs thrown in for good measure. You say this is new? I've heard this stuff plenty of times. I can't understand the big fuss.Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer":A funky little number, that's for sure. I like the bass a lot. Good mixture and a real good flow. The singer sounds like he has a bad case of stage fright.Wire's "I Am the Fly" and Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures:So this is the so-called new stuff. It's nothing I ain't heard before. It sounds like an old blues jam that BB and Muddy would carry on backstage at the old amphitheatre in Chicago. The instruments may be different but the experiment's the same.
The Clash's "Complete Control":Sounds like the first one. The rhythm and chording work well together. Did this guy have a sore throat when he sang the vocals?
The Ramones' "Sheena is a Punk Rocker":A good little jump number. These guys remind me of myself when I first started, I only knew three chords too.
The Romantics' "What I Like About You":Finally something you can dance to. Sounds a lot like the sixties with some of my riffs thrown in for good measure. You say this is new? I've heard this stuff plenty of times. I can't understand the big fuss.
Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer":A funky little number, that's for sure. I like the bass a lot. Good mixture and a real good flow. The singer sounds like he has a bad case of stage fright.
Wire's "I Am the Fly" and Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures:So this is the so-called new stuff. It's nothing I ain't heard before. It sounds like an old blues jam that BB and Muddy would carry on backstage at the old amphitheatre in Chicago. The instruments may be different but the experiment's the same.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Friday, 20 June 2014 20:58 (nine years ago) link
The idea of BB and Muddy jamming on "I Am The Fly" is killing me right now.
― wild-eyed, high-volume bursts of pious indignation (Dan Peterson), Friday, 20 June 2014 21:26 (nine years ago) link
ST. LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 18, 2016 -- Chuck Berry, the artist who codified the sound, rhythm and language of rock and roll, celebrated his 90th birthday today with the surprise announcement that he will release a new album - titled simply 'CHUCK' - in 2017 on Dualtone Records (an Entertainment One Company). Comprised primarily of new, original songs written, recorded and produced by the founding rock and roll legend, 'CHUCK' is Berry's first new album in thirty-eight years. It was recorded in various studios around St. Louis and features Berry's longtime hometown backing group - including his children Charles Berry Jr. (guitar) and Ingrid Berry (harmonica), plus Jimmy Marsala (Berry's bassist of forty years), Robert Lohr (piano), and Keith Robinson (drums) - which has supported him for over two decades on over two hundred residency shows at the famed Blueberry Hill club. More details about 'CHUCK' and other Berry-related events will be revealed in the coming weeks."This record is dedicated to my beloved Toddy," said Berry, referring to his wife of 68 years, Themetta Berry. "My darlin' I'm growing old! I've worked on this record for a long time. Now I can hang up my shoes!""What an honor to be part of this new music," says Charles Berry Jr. "The St. Louis band, or as dad called us 'The Blueberry Hill Band,' fell right into the groove and followed his lead. These songs cover the spectrum from hard driving rockers to soulful thought provoking time capsules of a life's work."Dualtone president Paul Roper adds: "It is a great honor to be a part of this record and the broader legacy of Chuck Berry. This body of work stands with the best of his career and will further cement Chuck as one of the greatest icons of rock and roll."
"This record is dedicated to my beloved Toddy," said Berry, referring to his wife of 68 years, Themetta Berry. "My darlin' I'm growing old! I've worked on this record for a long time. Now I can hang up my shoes!"
"What an honor to be part of this new music," says Charles Berry Jr. "The St. Louis band, or as dad called us 'The Blueberry Hill Band,' fell right into the groove and followed his lead. These songs cover the spectrum from hard driving rockers to soulful thought provoking time capsules of a life's work."
Dualtone president Paul Roper adds: "It is a great honor to be a part of this record and the broader legacy of Chuck Berry. This body of work stands with the best of his career and will further cement Chuck as one of the greatest icons of rock and roll."
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 18 October 2016 13:53 (seven years ago) link
I've been listening to Andrew Hickey's 500 songs podcast, starting from the beginning, and last week I got to the episode on Maybellene, and I feel very dumb that I am only now realizing what an amazing lyricist Chuck Berry was and what an extraordinary evolutionary leap happened in rock music when he arrived on the scene.
So I listened to the Great Twenty-Eight a bunch of times, and was kicking myself for not having known about it before. Like, I vaguely knew that he was influential, and I knew Nadine because Springsteen told me about it on his radio show, and I knew a few of the big hits, but listening to these amazing lyrics and realizing how much Dylan and the Beatles and the Stones and Springsteen were mining them for phrases the way novelists mine Shakespeare and the King James Bible for titles, I realized how much I had completely taken Chuck Berry for granted. So I was telling my dad this - like, one part holy shit this dude's lyrics, one part WHY DID YOU NOT TELL ME ABOUT THIS EARLIER - and he said the Chuck Berry song he's always loved was "Promised Land."
So I listened to "Promised Land" and it's so freaking beautiful the last line makes me tear up without fail, and everything about it is just so astonishing. The three or more layers of storytelling happening simultaneously, so that it's at once a road trip song and a story of individual struggle and triumph and the story of the collective fight for desegregation, and you can hear it as taking place over the course of a few days or as a journey that spans years. The sense of motion, propulsion, so that even when he's stalled out in Alabama it still feels like - idk, like a secular version of the Lord being with him, this unshakeable sense that he's the right person at the right time and the universe wants him to get where he's going. The warmth and sense of community - like, how did someone as cold and out for himself as Chuck Berry manage to write a song so brimming over with human connection, so that the poor boy's triumph is explicitly a product of people helping him, caring for him, and the journey isn't complete until he can call home to Norfolk and tell them he's made it? And then all of these startling little word choices that give the song its momentum - "straddled that Greyhound and rode him into Raleigh" "smoking into New Orleans" and of course that invocation to the plane at the end - not just "Swing low, chariot, come down easy, taxi to the terminal zone," though that's amazing in itself, but the way he keeps talking to the plane: "Cut your engines and cool your wings," so that as I listen I'm hit by this rush of affection not just for the narrator and all the people who got him there but even for the plane itself.
Anyway, Chuck Berry is Classic all the way and I may be late to the party but at least I got here.
― Lily Dale, Thursday, 28 December 2023 01:32 (three months ago) link
The next line always makes me think of thishttps://makeagif.com/i/TftMzO
― BrianB, Thursday, 28 December 2023 02:00 (three months ago) link
https://makeagif.com/i/TftMzO
― BrianB, Thursday, 28 December 2023 02:01 (three months ago) link
It took me forever to hear the original version of "Promised Land" but I had loved Elvis's version for years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGULJTnV6QI
and it's kinda fascinating how different they are. Elvis omits some lines that make the song's hidden meaning clearer, but I don't get the feeling there's any sinister intent behind that — he just wants to turn it into a celebratory rock 'n' roll party.
Anyway, Chuck Berry was fucking incredible. Not only a brilliant lyricist like you said — like, every one of his big hits has a line in it that'll go off in your brain like sparklers (my favorites are "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and "Thirty Days"), and the music has so much bite.
I reviewed The Great Twenty-Eight at the beginning of the year:
This is it, the Big Bang. Chuck Berry’s music was part jump blues, part R&B, part country and a tiny bit of jazz; you can hear the influence of Nat “King” Cole, Muddy Waters, Louis Jordan and T-Bone Walker, but it was his urbane-hillbilly personality and his wily lyrical brilliance that changed the world. “Too Much Monkey Business,” “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man,” “Maybellene,” “Thirty Days,” and “You Can’t Catch Me,” among others, were witty broadsides from a keen observer of American life, and when he began to aim explicitly at the teenage market with “School Day,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Johnny B. Goode,” and more, he created a global audience that was conscious of itself, which is how gods are made. What’s astonishing, nearly 70 years later, is how much bite this music has. Backed by pianist Johnnie Johnson, bassist Willie Dixon, and various drummers, Berry’s bluesy guitar leads slash at the listener like a switchblade. (Berry-indebted punk rock guitarists like Billy Zoom and Steve Jones actually sound cleaner than the man himself.) This is immortal music; it’ll leave you giddy and gaping at its power the first time you hear it, and the thousandth.
― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Thursday, 28 December 2023 02:28 (three months ago) link
^A+
― The Glittering Worldbuilders (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 December 2023 03:30 (three months ago) link
This Poison Ivy quote is really fascinating:
The Cramps guitar sound came naturally. “I had one thing as a kind of criteria,” she says. “We loved Chuck Berry, but we had a rule that we wouldn’t do Chuck Berry licks. All rock ’n’ roll from the '60s, going into the '70s, was based on Chuck Berry, at the exclusion of any other influence. So even though we loved Chuck, we decided to do all we could to not have that influence. There was too much, y’know?”Even the Sex Pistols had Chuck Berry licks. “Yeah. And it’s astounding; you never would hear Link Wray influences or Duane Eddy. We couldn’t figure it out because it was pure rock ’n’ roll. It’s as monumental as Chuck Berry, and for it to be ignored seemed strange. So to this day, it’s a rule: we will not throw in a Chuck Berry riff.”
Even the Sex Pistols had Chuck Berry licks. “Yeah. And it’s astounding; you never would hear Link Wray influences or Duane Eddy. We couldn’t figure it out because it was pure rock ’n’ roll. It’s as monumental as Chuck Berry, and for it to be ignored seemed strange. So to this day, it’s a rule: we will not throw in a Chuck Berry riff.”
(from https://www.guitarworld.com/features/poison-ivy-the-cramps)
― bendy, Thursday, 28 December 2023 16:52 (three months ago) link
the way he purposely mispronounces a la carte "workin' on a t-bond steak alla cart-y flyin' over to the Golden State" is pure genuis
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 28 December 2023 17:35 (three months ago) link
The verb "working" is perfect too, you can almost picture him with plastic utensils hacking a tough airline steak on his tray.
― BrianB, Thursday, 28 December 2023 17:43 (three months ago) link
totally, also he's conscious of exactly how many syllables he needs to make the syncopation of the line work perfectly
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 28 December 2023 17:56 (three months ago) link
Indeed
― The Glittering Worldbuilders (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 December 2023 18:33 (three months ago) link
excellent revive!
― not the one who's tryin' to dub your anime (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 28 December 2023 18:55 (three months ago) link
Y’all should have been there when I did “Run Rudolph Run” at karaoke last week.
― The Glittering Worldbuilders (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 December 2023 19:07 (three months ago) link
lily I love that song & your post
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 28 December 2023 19:22 (three months ago) link
Seconded.
― The Glittering Worldbuilders (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 December 2023 19:42 (three months ago) link
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, December 28, 2023 12:35 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― BrianB, Thursday, December 28, 2023 12:43 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, December 28, 2023 12:56 PM
Wait -- which version of "Promised Land"?
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 28 December 2023 19:50 (three months ago) link
had never looked into the "bypassed Rock Hill" line!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Nine
― budo jeru, Thursday, 28 December 2023 20:49 (three months ago) link
i agree that LD's post is great and that "Promised Land" is a towering masterpiece
― budo jeru, Thursday, 28 December 2023 20:50 (three months ago) link
just thinking about it gives me chills!
― budo jeru, Thursday, 28 December 2023 20:52 (three months ago) link
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, December 28, 2023 11:56 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
his almost clipped delivery and the efficiency with which he gets out most of lyrics make it all the more rewarding when he lingers on "swing low chariot, come down eeeeee-asy"; one of many small details that really make the song
― budo jeru, Thursday, 28 December 2023 21:02 (three months ago) link
Elijah Wald with help from New York Rocker’s Andy Schwartz re Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land” and lyrical references to the civil rights Freedom Riders. As an aside ,Wald’s playing of song in his video there is too folky
https://www.elijahwald.com/songblog/promised-land/?fbclid=IwAR3kqa1tOdHzex-5FqpvtB9OM7ZJdvEKf0I37GA39mrvzyDpRQvuUqM8Xew_aem_AcqFkEBw7IEBpxkyPKgWQwhEwCrZ1BfFV6zIzmlZWyqKz300hnHydDMyRCfzgWaJwXg
― curmudgeon, Monday, 19 February 2024 05:53 (one month ago) link
damn. the video he posted of himself performing "promised land" is kind of brutal and has sort of altered how i see him fundamentally
― budo jeru, Monday, 19 February 2024 18:20 (one month ago) link
Can you elaborate on that?
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 05:21 (one month ago) link
i just mean that it's terrible and makes me wonder why he'd post something like that. what the fuck is this shit
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 06:13 (one month ago) link
it's an older guy who enjoys a song playing it to boost engagement, and having a good time playing it. one can see how a person would get really aggro and weird about that, and how it would "alter how [they] see him fundamentally," I mean that's just really rational and sensible
― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 12:52 (one month ago) link
You'll never earn yr top Grateful Dead fan badge if you keep on objecting to shitty Chuck Berry covers.
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 14:02 (one month ago) link
hi can we all just please calm down and have a rational and sensible discussion about chuck berry? thanks
― budo jeru, Tuesday, 20 February 2024 16:24 (one month ago) link
lol, Ward
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 16:41 (one month ago) link
Also, “they’ll hear it the way Elijah Ward played it!”
(xp) Elijah or Fowler? Or both?
― The British Boy of Film Classification (Tom D.), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 16:42 (one month ago) link
Heh, meant Fowler but realized the problem after posting
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 16:43 (one month ago) link
I feel like I am an outlier, but I have never totally bought or wanted to dig into EW’s übercontrarian shtick which from where I sit looks like endless iterations of “actually, Robert Johnson wasn’t a blues singer at all, and if he was, he was terrible, he was really just a creation of John Hammond’s febrile mind” or “actually Beatlemania wasn’t really a thing” shockas.
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 16:57 (one month ago) link
And then this Maxwell’s Demon of authenticity games goes and does a super-corny oldbro Chuck Berry cover without any Peter Stampfel Wollheim weirdness to skew it and add interest.
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 20 February 2024 16:58 (one month ago) link
lol. that's interesting. he has always seemed okay to me, even astute, but on reflection i think that might just come down to the recommendations of others i esteem who have read and enjoyed EW, because i've never read one of his books.
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 04:06 (one month ago) link
but have read little things here and there, like the blog post linked about "promised land." which i think is great. the video's another story.
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 21 February 2024 04:09 (one month ago) link