It Has to Start with Chuck Berry

It has to start with Chuck Berry.  There are no two ways about it.  Chuck Berry is the nexus, the convergence of all the music that came before him - blues, R&B, jazz, country, folk and even bluegrass.  He is the epicenter and the inspriation of soooo many musical ideas that followed.

First off, there's the sound.  Granted, there had been melodic guitar lines before in the blues and in country, but the guitar riff was officially born in 1955 when slender fingers danced across the neck of a Gibson ES and pounded out the opening notes of Maybellene.  After that, he turned it into an art form.  It can be easy to forget how different Chuck Berry sounded than anyone else, because so many guitarists sound like Chuck Berry in his aftermath.  He wrote in odd keys.  He took the established blues progression and shifted it slightly, yet definitively.  And his songs still hold up.  I cringe every time I hear Rock around the Clock because it has not stood the test of time well.  I, however, will still get up and dance (or at least boogie in my seat) whenever I hear Roll Over Beethoven. 

And then, there are the lyrics.  The man always has a story to tell, and usually in a very folksy sort of way.  Just listen to the what's going on in the song Memphis, Tennessee.  Tutti Fruitti, it ain't.  There are also usually a whole lot of syllables jammed in to boot.  They always just flow out, but if you stop and count them, there are a LOT of sounds coming at you.  Promised Land is a great example.

And then, there is the showmanship.  Chuck Berry introduced the world to the idea of a "signature move."  His onstage antics drove co-headliner Jerry Lee Lewis to set his piano on fire.  A decade later, they led Jimi Hendrix to set his guitar on fire like a sacrificial lamb and pray to the gods of rock and roll.  To put it briefly, the world has never been the same since Chuck Berry first duck-walked across the stage during a solo, and we're all better off for it.  Of course, that spectacle isn't just limited to the live show.  You can hear it on the record.  There is a genuine swagger in the sound of Nadine.

Chuck Berry is the event horizon for modern popular music.  Chuck Berry is the alma mater.  It has to start with Chuck Berry.