Who Is Chuck Berry?

On October 18th, 1926, a person was born who would change the face of the music industry for decades to come. Chuck Berry, born Charles Anderson Edward Berry, was considered to be one of the most popular and influential performers of the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Even more so, he would go on to be known by many as the father of Rock n’ Roll. He had a new distinct sound that people really enjoyed as well as his clever lyrics that made people connect to the songs on a deeper more personable level. Throughout this essay I will show the early stages of his life leading up to his prominent dent in the music world, and the lasting impact he had for decades to come afterwards. Born to Henry and Martha Berry, Chuck was born and raised in a north St.
Louis neighborhood called the Ville- a self contained middle class black community that was a haven for black owned businesses and institutions. His parents were the grandchildren of slaves, and were able to migrate from the South to St.
Louis to look for employment during World War I. His father became a carpenter and a deacon at a Baptist Church while his mother was one of the only black women in her time to earn a college degree. At the time of his birth and most of his time growing up, St. Louis was a very segregated city. So much so that he never met a white person until he turned 3. He said “I thought they were so frightened that their faces were whitened from fear of going near the big fire. Daddy [then] told me they were white people, and their skin was always white that way, day or night.” As he grew up, Chuck picked up on a lot of different hobbies as a child. He liked to do carpentry work with his dad and learned photography from his uncle Harry Davis. Besides those things however, he showed a real affinity and thirst for music, so he began singing in the church choir at age 6. At his high school talent show, he sang Jay McShann’s “Confessin’ the Blues” while being accompanied by his friend on guitar. Even though it was a somewhat controversial song, it was such a huge hit with the student body. Because of the success he encountered with that, he started taking guitar lessons and
studying with local jazz legend Ira Harris.
While he was somewhat of a music prodigy, he also turned into a troublemaker/ bad student. In 1944 when he was 17, Berry and two of his friends dropped out of high school and set off for a road trip to California to pursue their dreams of playing and recording music. However, they had only gotten to Kansas City when they found a gun in a parking lot and decided to rob places nearby. They successfully stole from a bakery, a clothing store, and a barbershop in the area with the gun, then proceeded to steal a car. After this however, they were arrested by highway patrolmen and Berry was sentenced to 10 years in jail for their crimes. Berry served three years in the Intermediate Reformatory for Young Men outside of Jefferson, Missouri before getting out early for good behavior on his 21st birthday. After this stint, he came back to St. Louis to work for his fathers construction business and as a janitor at a local auto plant. Things started to go uphill for Berry, and in 1948 he married Themetta “Toddy” Suggs, and would start his life as a husband and father to his (eventual) four children with Toddy. He also began to play the guitar again in 1951 when his former high school
classmate Tommy Stevens asked him to join his band. They began small, playing in local black nightclubs in St. Louis, but Berry quickly made a name for himself due to his lively showmanship. Near the end of 1952, he met Jonnie Johnson, a local jazz pianist, and accepted an offer to join his band the Sir John’s Trio. After working with them Berry was able to rejuvenate and modernize the band as well as introduce upbeat country numbers into their set lists of mostly jazz and pop music. They began to play their music at the Cosmopolitan, an upscale black nightclub in East St. Louis, which eventually began attracting white patrons after hearing the new sounds produced by Berry. Starting the mid 1950’s, Berry started to take more road trips by himself to Chicago, which was then the Midwest capital of black music in search of a record contract. And early in 1955, he ran into legendary blues musician Muddy Waters, who after some time told Berry to meet with some producers at Chess Records. A few weeks after that, Berry wrote and recorded the song “Maybellene”, which would become the first true Rock n’ Roll song. As this song picked up momentum, he wrote more singles that fit this new Rock n’ Roll genre including “Roll Over, Beethoven”, “Too Much Monkey Business”, and “Brown Eyed Handsome Man”. With this new style he was able to attract white youths without leaving his roots behind allowing black fans to still enjoy his music. He was able to achieve this by mixing blues and R&B that was able to speak to youths of all colors in all areas. In the late 1950’s his songs “Johnny B. Goode”, “Sweet Little Sixteen”, and “Carol” all appeared in the top 10 of the pop charts by achieving equal popularity with youths on both sides of the racial divide. He was quoted as saying “I made records for people who would buy them” and “No color, no ethnic, no political- I don’t want that, never did.”, So he was not necessarily trying to create music for anyone, more-so he was making music to try and make people happy. His career took a hit in 1961 when he was convicted under the Mann Act of illegally transporting a woman across state lines for “immoral purposes.” He spent another 20 months in jail for this crime and when he was released in 1963 he began writing songs and became just as popular as before. His new hits included “Nadine”, “You Can Never Tell”, “Promised Land”, and “Dear Dad.” He released his last album of original songs, Rock It, in 1979, and while he continued to perform until the 1990’s, from that point on he declined in his performances=, apparently giving them out of tune and unrehearsed. Chuck Berry was and still is one of the genres most influential musicians; hence his father of rock n’ roll title. In 1985 he earned the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and in 1986 he became the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s first inductee. He has also influenced a lot of major rock n’ roll artists including The Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles. Later on in 2008 his house in St. Louis was nominated for a listing in the National Register of Historic Places. And at 86, Berry knows that his glory days are behind him stating “give you a song? I can’t do that. My singing days have passed. My voice is gone. My throat is wrong and my lungs are going fast.” However, retirement is not at all in his plans anytime soon. He says “that shall never be, as long as I am able to see a little, hear a little, and do but a little. I’ll want to perform. I think it’s in my own genes.” He goes on to say that he even has more songs that he would want to push out and give to the loyal fans that have been coming to his concerts for years on end. Which just goes to show how committed Berry is to his craft and why he deserves the title of father of rock n’ roll.