-- John Lennon
They called Elvis Presley the king, but for my money, Chuck Berry was the real king of rock and roll.
When you heard the opening lick of one of his songs, you knew it was a Chuck Berry number. His style -- musical, vocal, lyrical -- was truly original. He, more than anyone else, invented what we now call rock and roll. And no song is more deserving of being called the anthem of rock and roll than "Johnny B Goode." When NASA sent Voyager into deep space in 1977, they included recordings designed to give other civilizations a taste of humanity. "Johnny B Goode" was the rock song they included.
The Beatles were part of the soundtrack of my youth, and their early repertoire included a lot of covers. Their versions of "Roll Over Beethoven" and "Rock and Roll Music" stand out as recordings I loved. But then, when I heard the originals -- Pow! It was like going from a flourescent-lit room into the sunlight.
Chuck Klosterman, writing for the New York Times, considered rock's place in history. Klosterman's article began:
Classifying anyone as the “most successful” at anything tends to reflect more on the source than the subject. So keep that in mind when I make the following statement: John Philip Sousa is the most successful American musician of all time.
He then went on to explain that Sousa's music encapsulated an entire musical idiom. Following that up, he said that, if anyone can be said to fill that same space in rock and roll, it's Chuck Berry.
They're doing the duckwalk in heaven tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment