MUSIC: Guitarist and singer has composed dozens of songs of the 50s, 60s and 70s, including “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “School Days” and “My Ding a Ling” …
His work has influenced generations of musicians. The guitarist and American singer Chuck Berry, one of the founding fathers of rock and roll , died Saturday at the age of 90 years. Charles Edward Anderson Berry Sr., his real name, was found lifeless by rescuers and was pronounced dead at 1:26 p.m. local, said on its Facebook account police the St. Charles County (Missouri).
Called “greatest poet of rock” by John Lennon, Chuck Berry leaves a huge work of Maybellene to Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny B. Goode . He was “the greatest rockers, guitarist and lyricist of the greatest rock and roll pure that ever lived,” wrote on Twitter Bruce Springsteen, who had a close relationship with Chuck Berry. Many musicians like Mick Jagger, Ringo Starr and Lenny Kravitz have also honored him.
Chuck Berry was rock’s greatest practitioner, guitarist, and the greatest pure rock ‘n’ roll writer who ever lived.
— Bruce Springsteen (@springsteen) March 18, 2017
His lyrics shone above others & threw a strange light on the American dream. Chuck you were amazing&your music is engraved inside us forever
— Mick Jagger (@MickJagger) March 18, 2017
Hail Hail Chuck Berry!!! None of us would have been here without you. Rock on brother! https://t.co/tOMuQzUgPX
— Lenny Kravitz (@LennyKravitz) March 18, 2017
R I P. And peace and love Chuck Berry Mr. rock ‘n’ roll music ?✌️????☮ pic.twitter.com/hS2S2lUORf
— #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) March 18, 2017
One who has made dozens of songs of the 50s, 60s and 70s, including Sweet Little Sixteen , School Days and My Ding Ling, was taken or adapted by many interpreters of the Beatles to the Rolling Stones through Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen.
Nicknamed “Crazy Legs” – for his footwork unrivaled – Chuck Berry, the first black rock star, belonging to a generation marked by racial segregation, however, have always kept a form of resentment against white artists who achieved success by taking his music.
The hero of a white youth fascinated by rock
Born October 18, 1926 in St. Louis (Missouri). He teaches jazz guitar as a child, while accumulating small jobs and flirting with delinquency. Become hairdresser, married and a father, he supplements his income by playing the guitar at clubs when he was noticed by bluesman Muddy Waters.
In 1955, he recorded his first song, Maybellene , which became a phenomenal tube and mark it for the beginning of a decade of success. Chuck Berry then records Thirty Days , No money down and Roll Over Beethoven (1956), before moving tubes: School Days and Rock and Roll Music in 1957, Sweet Little Sixteen , Carol and Johnny B. Goode in 1958, Little Queenie , Memphis Tennessee and Back in the USA in 1959.
In the late 50s, his success is enormous, his songs are everywhere and it comes with simple and universal themes extolling the concerns of adolescents – partying, flirting, cars, school – to become the hero one white youth fascinated by the rock.
He had recorded a new album
His career was then hampered by a conviction in 1961 and two years in prison for a sex scandal. On leaving, he through a difficult period, while its standards begin to be taken by European groups like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.
Chuck Berry renewed success in the early 70s, with My Ding A Ling (1972), which places the top of the charts. It then multiplies the tours, very expensive minting his appearances.
Defraying occasionally again by its chronic conflict with the law, the singer then removed gradually, however, continuing to give concerts, increasingly spaced.
The day of his 90th birthday he surprised everyone by announcing the release of a new album , her first in nearly 40 years. Simply titled Chuck , the album was recorded in studios near St. Louis and had to come out in the course of this year.
