Rock Turtleneck wishes a Happy Birhtday to Chuck Berry, who turns a whopping 85 today.
The idea of an 85 year-old rock star is a little disconcerting, sort of like a 30 year-old paperboy or a 12 year-old bride.
But he is one of the two or three key creators of the greatest music genre known to mankind. Chuck wasn’t all that young when he got started — he didn't his first hit "Maybelline" till he was around 30. If Elvis was still alive (he is, by the way), he would be a relatively young 76 right now.
Let’s celebrate the great man with a clip RT has been wanting to showcase for a long time. It's from the must-see 1988 documentary Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll, Keith Richards' musical love letter to his idol. After Keith admits it's because of Chuck that he plays guitar, we cut to a clip of them having a row over the intro to "Carole." Chuck is a mean sonofabitch, but then again, so is Keith. And when the two go at loggerheads, my advice is to get out of the way.
Chuck is a legendary miser. Rather than pay the road expenses for a proper band, and plays with a pick up band of local musicians wherever he goes. He drives himself and inisists on being paid in cash before every show. And he's still doing it at 85.
Keith made Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll because he knew Chuck deserved better, and wanted to give him the experience of playing live with top-shelf musicians, including the great drummer Steve Jordan (who would join Keith in the X-Pensive Winos), Chuck's original pianist Johnnie Johnson, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray and Keith himself, who plays some mean guitar throughout. We are all the better for it.
HB and TCB from the RT, Chuck.
Get some essential Chuck Berry on iTunes here
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