Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

81 today...where would we be without Chuck Berry!

Cool! Saw him on January 17th in Moscow, and he rocked!
Happy birthday, Chuck!

Happy Birthday Chuck!

81 today...where would we be without Chuck Berry!

Probably playing Barry Manilow and such.

Happy Birthday and God Bless Chuck! Thanks for the riffs!

I always felt Chuck Berry wrote the alphabet on how to play guitar, then guys like Page, Hendrix et al expanded it into an encyclopedia.

Keith Richard is one of his greatest devotees. Of all the modern guitarists he absorbed more of Berry than anyone, he also was behind the the movie and great band of his 60th birthday, Hail Hail Rock n Roll, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. If not it's a great DVD, especially the new version with all the outtakes of the band rehearsing, stories etc. I'm amazed he's still playing.

Yep..Chuck rules! From what I understand, the filming of Hail Hail Rock & Roll was rough on Keith as Chuck who as mentioned is a huge influence on Keith was somewhat less then cordial to him during the filming...

kenposurf wrote:Yep..Chuck rules! From what I understand, the filming of Hail Hail Rock & Roll was rough on Keith as Chuck who as mentioned is a huge influence on Keith was somewhat less then cordial to him during the filming...

lol - I remember that. He felt Keith just couldn't get it right...

kenposurf wrote:Yep..Chuck rules! From what I understand, the filming of Hail Hail Rock & Roll was rough on Keith as Chuck who as mentioned is a huge influence on Keith was somewhat less then cordial to him during the filming...

He was unbelievable on the whole crew. You should get the new DVD, every morning for example they were supposed to meet at a certain place and then go film. They would wait for Chuck for 2-3 hours and then get a phone call and he would demand cash, something like 10,000.00 in a paper bag or he wouldn't show up. He did this consistently, all sorts of things like that, he is something. The jams on the DVD are great though, there are a lot of funny stories on that DVD also. Steve Jordon tells a lot of funny stories, what a drummer he is. He explains the difference between rock n roll, he is the only drummer I have ever seen who plays Chuck's half swing, half rock beat correctly. I have never gotten a drummer to be able to do that although some understand it. Everyone plays it like Ringo did, complete rock.

Spot on re: the drumming Bob...not to take anything away from chuck but the drumming and even more so the keys of Johnny Johnson added so much to his early sound...

Oh yeah, his original recording rhythm section for most of his early songs were Fred Below on drums and Willy Dixon on bass. The rhythm section were the same guys who played on 90% of the great blues records back then from Chess. Johnny Johnson was an integral part of his sound, those old records wouldn't be the same without those guys. Johnny was unbelievable in the jams on the new DVD.
Steve Jordon got that original feel down to a T. There is a very funny story about his meeting Chuck for the first time on the new DVD.