Yeah, saw it just now .. rip.

Rock n roll just died a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXDtdV3_hEs

And:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdnFsSiUFjk

thanks for all the music

Sad news, although at 90 years of age, it was only a matter of time, I suppose.

His contribution to rock n roll is incalculable. No Chuck = No Stones and No Beatles.

You cant even begin to imagine what rock 'n' roll would sound like had he never existed.

RIP Chuck.

I met Chuck Berry in January 1980 at Heat, a long since-defunct club in a warehouse on the lower west side of Manhattan, near the Hudson River docks.  The streets outside were all of cobblestone and had ancient trolley tracks inlaid, the lines filled with white ice.  Chuck had just gotten out of prison for tax evasion and was barnstorming the US to raise some cash.

Chuck's sets were advertised for 10:00 PM and midnight.  The opening act was Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls with his new band, who weren't very interesting.  That was over at 10:30, and Chuck didn't come on until after 1:00 AM.  I had been there since around eight o'clock, and didn't want to give up my spot at the edge of the stage to go urinate, though by the time Chuck's first set ended, I needed to badly.

So I'm in the men's room alone and had just finished up, when behind me I hear a door creak like in a haunted house.  I turn around and Chuck walks in through a private door that I hadn't noticed.  It's wild that he didn't have a toilet in his dressing room, but that was warehouse space nightlife, and there may not have been a dressing room, even.

He was dressed all in red, suit and shirt.  There was nothing for us to do but eyeball each other.

I could have cried. 

"Chuck!" I blurted, "Thank you!  We all owe you so much!  Everybody in rock 'n' roll does!"  I swear, I stopped just short of saying, All white people do!

"Far out!" Chuck said, happily.  He made like to slap my hand, and I duly accepted his five. 

"Be cool," Chuck concluded.  I've always wished I had taken his advice.

I stayed for the second show and fought my way to another spot at the front, farther away from Chuck than I had been for the first show.  A few songs in, Chuck saw me down there and bopped his way over.  I no longer remember what song it was, but he leaned over close to me and played the solo right into my face.  His hair (I had been surprised to see) was frizzed out and grey, not dyed and slicked, and blue and purple stage lights gleamed off the tips.  He dropped sweat all over me.  I was the literary type: Jesus Christ, I thought, This is like being fucked by Frederick Douglass! 

When Chuck finished the song, he handed me the pick.  I was surprised to see it was a heavy-gauge, opaque grey model, quite ordinary.  Maybe I expected it to light up, or something.  I still have it, tucked inside David Johansen's harmonica case, along with Bo Diddley's broken bottom E-string, which was handed to me from a different stage years later.  (I got to talk to Bo that night, too.  I'm like that.)

By the time Chuck finished his second set, which had started about 3:30 AM, there were no cabs to be had.  I walked back across the frozen west side and made it to my NYU dorm room at about a quarter to six.  That was the start of my second semester.

I thought I was tired then, but I'm really tired now. 

Jesus Christ, we are fucked by Father Time.  Rest in peace, Chuck.  That was 37 years ago.

I was a kid who listened to the Beatles and Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. Those artists lead me to the true King of Rock and Roll, Mr. Chuck Berry.

All of the greatest riffs come from Chuck. At any time of day, put a Chuck record on, and the party has started. If you are behind the wheel, you drive faster. If you are on the dance floor, your moves become better! That locomotive quality to his playing is purely genius. The man was an epic performer, singer, songwriter and guitarist.

I was very much looking forward to any press he was going to grant during the build up to his new record, due sometime this year.

My Sunday will be spent listening to his great music, the music that really did change the entire world.

stonedinaustralia wrote on Mar 18^th, 2017 at 8:47pm:


hail hail!

Gazza wrote on Mar 18^th, 2017 at 7:14pm:



__________________________________


It is a sad day indeed. I mean .. like you .. I knew these things (and this) was gonna be sooner or later but still .. it is actualluy 'sad' to me .. sad in a real way .. unlike the passing of other celebs I never knew personally.


Chuck.. you are.. and always will be .. the man -

Sad news...does anyone know if he finished the album he was rumored to be working on the last few months?

mojoman wrote on Mar 18^th, 2017 at 10:05pm:

Awesome story!  RIP Chuck

lotsajizz wrote on Mar 19^th, 2017 at 6:26am:


I'm pretty sure he did. It was announced on his 90th birthday that it was going to be out in 2017 which suggested to me that it was already completed.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/oct/18/chuck-berry-new-album-first-in-38-...

Chuck must surely have been the only artist of the rock n roll era to have reached 90, no?

© Ahmet Ertegun, Chuck Berry and Keith Richards at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards 1986

R.I.P. I saw Chuck twice, in '69 at Toronto Rock & Roll Revival & '72 at Massey Hall, a band I was in used to cover J.B. Goode & Roll Over Beethoven, anybody who played in a Band had a go at one of his songs, a true pioneer.

Steel Wheels wrote on Mar 20^th, 2017 at 12:42pm:

I was cruising the open roads with the windows down and Chuck cranked today.

Gazza wrote on Mar 20^th, 2017 at 5:05pm:


Well John Mayall and our very own Bill Wyman is already 80+

Found a Best of Chuck Berry CD in a thrift shop today, will give it a listen. 

Also picked up Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, Simon & Garfunkel Concert in Central Park and Bo Diddley's Bo knows Bo.

I met him on his birthday in the mid 70ies. Can't remember the exact year.
All of a sudden he stood beside me and my back then girlfriend watching the support act from the back of the packed hall.
We wished him a "Happy Birthday" and he turned over to us with a smile.
Guess he recognized me for not more than half a second then he went over
to my really good looking girlfriend (a bushy bushy blonde hairdo she got).
He mumbled some words to her then he gave me, with a big grin, a clap on my shoulder, called me a lucky guy  and left to go on stage. On this day he let everybody who wanted enter the stage to sing and dance
or do whatever. It was one of his really good concerts. Well, this was my moment with Chuck.

RIP Chuck and thanks for the music.
Guess I didn't play any other intro more often on my guitars than the one of Johnny B Goode.

Gazza wrote on Mar 20^th, 2017 at 5:05pm:


BB King also made it to 89 or 90.

LOL Bitch, yoy even replied in that thread, check it out here

http://rocksoff.org/cgi-bin/messageboard/YaBB.pl?num=1431674141/all

This is rock... thanks Chuck

Here's the new track:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7735629/chuck-berry-final-album-chuck

Steel Wheels wrote on Mar 22^nd, 2017 at 5:52am:


Thanks for the link...very Johnny Be Goode sounding

How great Chuck would have sounded singing Big Boys.  I don't know why a new-material record didn't follow the Hail, Hail Rock 'n' Roll movie.  Some biographer needs to explain that one.

http://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/03/25/Fire-guts-Chuck-Berrys-recording-studio/5...

Whatever happened to Berry Park ?

Edith Grove wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2017 at 9:05am:


I'm pretty sure Berry Park is where he's been living.

I never liked that "tombstone" outside Berry Park.  Luckily, it took him 50-odd years to claim it.  It's like a cenotaph for his recording career, however.

The Wick wrote on Mar 24^th, 2017 at 1:10pm:


Agree...except add Johnny Johnson who was the "inspiration" to many of the great Berry tunes.

Well, as you know there are a lot of pictures of Chuck Berry with members of the Stones, some of them posted in this thread in excellent definition and big size however instead of changing the header on a daily basis with pictures of Chick and members of the Stones I decided to use this one for the whole week; the reason, see Paul. Leonard and Keith they all are in awe listening to Chuck showing admiration and respect, how cool!


In memory of Chuck Berry
The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC - With Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen and Keith Richards
Near the day of the tribute to Hubert Sumlin (howlin' for Hubert)... The Apollo Theatre, NYC - February 24, 2012 © Matthew J. Lee/Globe staff

sweetcharmedlife wrote on Mar 26^th, 2017 at 11:42am:


excellent

does anyone know where i can buy a hail hail R&R dvd.. without having to sell my house first?

You're out of luck unless you want to pay a huge sum for one especially in the time following his passing. It's been out of print for years.

Steel Wheels wrote on Apr 10^th, 2017 at 9:19am:

Perhaps they wanted to keep things more focused on Chuck Berry as opposed to all the cameras being on them, but they sure don't show up to too many of these things. It would have been nice if at least one of them showed up.

Steel Wheels wrote on Apr 14^th, 2017 at 7:43pm:

And another new track is in that link...what a slow slinky Chuck groove.

I feel like this is the end of an era. Chuck was an original, and an Icon and I feel the loss of his life sadly.

This was a Movie I won tickets to, I was so stoked when I Won!I was the __caller! It was a great evening at the Naro!
Those were the days! 2 tickets to the show and a poster! Still have somewhere! I took my now wife girlfriend who at the time had now idea who Chuck was! She could not believe his/the songs he did/wrote! And not to mention the stars that were stars because of Chuck Berry! Once again thank you Keith for the movie and being smart enough then to do it before it was too late! Without Chuck Rock N Roll did not existed sorry Jerry Lee, Richard, Fats, Elvis, Buddy, and Bill! YOU guys of course helped but Chuck wrote and played everything! My Favorite go to song Johnny B. Goode! and of the words and the stories he told!
SCHOOL DAYS HAIL HAIL ROCK AND ROLL!

gimmekeef wrote on Mar 7^th, 2018 at 9:26am: