It’s impossible to escape Chuck Berry’s influence. His simple but salient guitar riffs are the backbone of rock & roll. From Elvis Presley to The Beatles to Jimi Hendrix and Bob Seger, the style Berry helped define runs through generations of rock music. Before he passed away on this day in 2017, Berry left a mammoth-sized legacy that no one can override or unwrite. Berry is considered the Father of Rock & Roll, and what a progeny he produced. To celebrate this iconic rocker, look back on his life and career below. This is what helped make Berry a rock god.
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Chuck Berry’s Origins
The rocker was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry on October 18, 1926. Hailing from St. Louis, Berry focused on music from childhood, performing for the first time in high school. Despite his early start, life wasn’t all roses for Berry. His honing of his rock skills hit a roadblock when he was arrested for robbery. According to Berry in his autobiography, his car broke down, he flagged a passing car, and stole it at gunpoint with a non-functioning pistol.
Convicted, Berry spent the rest of his childhood at a reformatory. He kept his love of music while there, forming a singing quartet. The group was so popular that he and his fellow vocalists performed outside the reformatory from time to time. Berry closed this chapter of his life on his 21st birthday in 1947.
Freedom didn’t mean an immediate return to music for Berry. In fact, he went through several odd jobs after getting married and starting a family. His resume included factory work, janitorial, and even beautician training.
Music Career
By the 50s, Berry was starting to dip his toe in the local music scene. He looked to T-Bone Walker for blues inspirations and took guitar lessons from Ira Harris. Both of these influences helped shape what would become the Berry sound. His early work saw him play the blues, but he also leaned into country music.
“Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of our country stuff on our predominantly black audience,” Berry once said. “And some of our black audience began whispering, ‘Who is that black hillbilly at the Cosmo?’ After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff and enjoyed dancing to it.”
It was this mix of sounds that made Berry so appealing. He had R&B influences and country sounds. It was unlike anything anyone had ever heard before, and thus earned him early prestige.
“Maybellene” and The Iconic Berry Riff
Berry’s first big hit was a take on a standard, “Ida Red.” He titled his version “Maybellene” and sold over a million copies. This was a turning point not only for Berry, but for music in general. Black music started to filter over into the mainstream, battling the racism of the time.
“Maybellene” presented an interesting dissonance. While this song was reigning supreme on the charts, segregation was still in effect in St. Louis and across much of the country. Black music was seen as viable, but the people who made it were still subject to systemic racism. Berry was a trailblazer for other Black artists, chipping away at ideas that had long been considered the norm.
But Berry wasn’t just a Civil Rights trailblazer; he carved out a path for every rock artist who has even tried their hand at the genre. Later on in the 50s, Berry released a song called “Johnny B. Goode.” This song featured a guitar riff that would later become a basic building block for all of rock music.
Berry earned immense popularity by the late 50s, but ran into another hurdle as he faced a second jail sentence, due to allegations that he had sex with a minor. These allegations resulted in a three-year sentence, which derailed his career momentum.
While behind bars, it was other artists that kept Berry’s name alive, notably British Invasion bands of the 60s. These bands drew on Berry’s influences and later influenced younger musicians. This third generation of rockers, whether knowingly or inadvertently, also picked up a Berry influence. This trend has continued throughout the breadth of rock history.
Chuck Berry’s Influence
Many artists have recognized Berry’s influence over the years. The Beatles were massive Berry fans. As were the Rolling Stones. Berry’s touch was undiluted in the 60s, feeling very present in the music of the day.
“If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry,’” John Lennon once said, with Keith Richards adding, “To me, Chuck Berry always was the epitome of rhythm and blues playing, rock and roll playing. It was beautiful, effortless, and his timing was perfection. He is rhythm supreme. He plays that lovely double-string stuff, which I got down a long time ago, but I’m still getting the hang of.”
This is just one of many comments made by younger artists about Berry, keeping his name alive for generations to come.
(Photo by Terry Fincher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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