CHUCK
BERRY
John Lennon said, "If
you ever tried to give Rock 'n' Roll another name, it might be called Chuck
Berry.
Chuck Berry is one of
the all-time great poets, a rock poet you could call him. He was well advanced
of
his time lyric-wise.
We all owe a lot to him, including Dylan. I've loved everything he's done,
ever. He was
in a different class
from the others performers, he was in the tradition of the great blues
artists but he really
wrote his own stuff---I
know Richard did, but Berry really wrote
stuff, just the lyrics were fantastic, even though
we didn't know what he
was saying half the time."
Berry, perhaps more than
any of the other Rock pioneers, would flourish past the Fifties. Although
he had been
the leader of a popular
Blues band in St. Louis for many years, fame arrived when Berry was 29,
older than his contemporaries. Berry's music was a combination of Blues,
Country and Rock. School Days and Rock and Roll
Music were his big titles
in 1957.
Chuck Berry Lyrics
Midi Collection
