Chuck Berry RIP

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Jimbo
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby Jimbo » 19 Mar 2017, 12:19

I am reminded of the last line from the scariest movie I saw as a kid, The First Man In to Space. After a killing spree to satisfy its need for human blood the monster/former astronaut is finally captured and strapped into the gas chamber. As the gas swirls the monster looks up with it's one grizzly eye and sees his old best friend in the viewing window. With its last bit of humanity the monster growls, "Goodbye, Chuck."

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Neige
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby Neige » 19 Mar 2017, 14:11

RIP Chuck, genuine genius but...

Obviously a very unpleasant fella - sleazy, lecherous and mean.

I have to thank Bryan BroLou for digging up Tom Hibbert's legendary piece Who The Hell does Chuck Berry think he is?
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby sloopjohnc » 19 Mar 2017, 14:20

Dayodead wrote:Fats Domino wins the dead pool !


And Little Richard and Don Everly.
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby joels344 » 19 Mar 2017, 14:48

RIP to a true musical legend.
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Dayodead
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby Dayodead » 19 Mar 2017, 15:11

Tactful Cactus wrote:
Dayodead wrote:Fats Domino wins the dead pool !


The fifties delegation are in pretty good stead despite Chucks death. Jerry Lee, Fats, Little Richard, Cliff all still going...although someone should probably check on them


Hell, I thought JLL and Little Richard kicked the bucket already ! ..(I know Richard was pretty ill not too long ago...) The game continues ! :D

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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby pcqgod » 19 Mar 2017, 19:40

Ugh, every time I come back from a fun trip or vacation, it seems...

I'd been listening to a lot of Chuck this past year or so, especially the first four albums. They're a mixture of his familiar hits, interspersed with some novelty numbers and some actually very excellent instrumentals that demonstrated his artistry with the guitar better than any of his other work. I had to wonder if the kids buying the lp's in the 50's and 60's thought "what a guitar wizard" or just felt the instrumentals filler. I certainly gained more respect for him as an artist by listening to these albums, particularly in listening to the care and thought he put into his arrangements. I was thinking of starting a thread devoted solely to his guitar fills but never got around to it.
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby Tactful Cactus » 19 Mar 2017, 23:49

pcqgod wrote:I was thinking of starting a thread devoted solely to his guitar fills but never got around to it.


Do it, I'd like to hear more on this

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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby take5_d_shorterer » 20 Mar 2017, 01:32

K wrote:...I believe he was pretty innovative on the guitar as well, bending strings in pairs and playing piano chords on it too.


Chuck Berry was innovative and imitative as the same time in his guitar work. The blend is what makes him special. It's not hard to be totally innovative or imitative. It's hard to do this simultaneously.

Many people have pointed out the imitative part so I'll just give a simple example.



In this sense, "all" he was doing was transcribing riffs by Pete Johnson to guitar, and yet, I can't think of another musician who thought to do this.

Martin Aigner had something to say about this in a seemingly unrelated book.

The essence of mathematics is proving theorems --- and so, that is what mathematicians do: they prove theorems. But to tell the truth, what they really want to prove, once in their lifetime, is a Lemma, like the one by Fatou in analysis, the Lemma of Gauss in number theory, or the Burnside-Frobenius Lemma in combinatorics.

Now what makes a mathematical statement a true Lemma? First, it should be applicable to a wide variety of instances, even seemingly unrelated problems. Second, the statement should, once you have seen it, be completely obvious. The reaction of the reader might well be one of faint envy: "Why haven't I noticed this before?...''


--Martin Aigner and Gunter Ziegler, Proofs from THE BOOK, Chapter 25

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Charlie O.
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby Charlie O. » 30 Mar 2017, 23:09

From Greil Marcus' latest "Real Life Rock Top 10" column:

Greil Marcus wrote:10. Chuck Berry, “The Things I Used to Do” (YouTube) It was 1965. He was two years out of federal prison, where he’d been sent in 1962 for a racially-targeted Mann Act conviction, now appearing in a Belgian television studio surrounded by a large circle of young teenagers, the girls in dresses, the boys in coats and ties, who look as if they’ve been dragged there on a field trip. There’s a pick-up band of local musicians: a white-haired pianist, a goateed bass fiddle player, a drummer, and a rhythm guitarist, all of whom seem nervous and full of pride over the chance to play with this man. The pianist hits the first of a series of trilling high notes he will follow throughout the performance and Chuck Berry, lithe, taking small, cat-like movements, impossibly handsome, with a large, loose pompadour, bends slightly into a crouch for Guitar Slim’s already classic 1953 tragic New Orleans blues.

He tracked the song, looking not at the bored students, not exactly at the moving camera in the center of the circle, but to the woman in the song, who he knows is “out with your other man.” “I used to search all night for you, baby/But my search/Would always end in vain”: he looks her straight in the eye, not with anger, scorn, or pain, but with something just short of a wink, saying that he knows she knows he’s done the same.

Not the curl of a note or a word is rushed. A flurry in the rhythm rises up and disappears. Guitar Slim had a harsh, angular tone on his guitar, creating a sense of drama he couldn’t quite sustain. With a quieter, more specific feeling in every musical or verbal phrase, Berry seemed to slow the song down from the inside. He let the listener all the way into the song, and then, when it ended, left the musicians, the woman in the song, you watching now, days after his death, maybe even himself, wanting more.




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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby fange » 31 Mar 2017, 01:04

A master of the art, at work.

The glances at the camera, working for the crowd, the guitar work, the singing - he had it all.
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Charlie O.
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby Charlie O. » 31 Mar 2017, 01:10

I have to say, too, that - on this evidence, at least - that's probably the best, most intuitive and responsive pick-up band I've ever heard him with. They make Keith's Hail! Hail! Rock n Roll band sound like bored session hacks. I think I'll watch the rest of the show later tonight.
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby fange » 31 Mar 2017, 04:06

Charlie O. wrote:I have to say, too, that - on this evidence, at least - that's probably the best, most intuitive and responsive pick-up band I've ever heard him with. They make Keith's Hail! Hail! Rock n Roll band sound like bored session hacks. I think I'll watch the rest of the show later tonight.


They really seemed to nail it, didn't they.
It was '65 though, so even in Belgium the explosion in popularity of jazz and R&B in the previous years would've meant that there were a fair few young guys with the skills needed to do the job.
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fange
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Re: Chuck Berry RIP

Postby fange » 31 Mar 2017, 04:13

I know you've probably heard it 500 times, but do it again. Listen to the way he sings. Listen to the phrasing, the words, everything.

Jonny Spencer wrote:
fange wrote:I've got my quad pants on and i'm ready for some Cock.


By CHRIST you're a man after my own sideways sausage, Ange!


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