Oregon daily emerald., November 17, 1982, Section B, Image 9

Graphic Design by Mark Pynes
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A full cycle in rock 'n' roll:
The Chuck Berry story
The story, like a fine wine, improves with age.
It’s about a young guitar player from St. Louis who
in 1955 went to the South Side of Chicago — the
blues capital of the world.
The guitar player heard Muddy Waters in one
of the dimly lit South Side bars where the giants of
Chicago blues played. Waters, at the height of his
talent (and his troubles), let the guitar player sit in
for a set. After seeing he had the “right stuff,”
Waters recommended that the guitar player go
and see "Leonard ."
Leonard was Leonard Chess His label,
Chess Records, was primarily a blues label with
artists like Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy
Williamson and Waters himself.
Unfortunately, this was still the era of “race
records.” Chess Records was like other small
labels, loaded with talented black artists, but had
only a limited market because no one had yet
made the race breakthrough. Also, radio stations
at the time were closely linked to the major record
labels and they refused to play the "off-brand”
records.
The guitar player came to Chess’ studios, at
2120 South Michigan Avenue, with a tape made
on a borrowed tape recorder. Four songs were on
the tape, including a reworked country tune the
guitar player had given a boogie beat and a slow
blues number named "Wee Wee Hours.”
The guitar player was proudest of "Wee Wee
Hours," but it was the country tune that Chess
liked best. He told the guitar player to give it a
bigger beat.
The guitar player gave it a bigger beat and,
according to the band's piano player, named the
woman in the song from a brand of hair cream.
Her name was Maybellene and in the song
she just couldn't be true. The guitar player was
Chuck Berry, who will be at the Hult Center for two
shows Friday.
Chess took a dub of "Maybellene" to disc
jockey Alan Freed, who was playing rhythm and
blues to a primarily white audience on WINS radio
in New York. Ironically, the dub didn’t have
Berry’s name on either "Maybellene" or the flip
side, "Wee Wee Hours."
When Chess got back to Chicago he found a
dozen telephone notes from Freed saying
"Maybellene” was the biggest record ever.
Sometimes success is a matter of timing,
when the right talent comes along at the right
time. Berry came at a time when most of the music
being played wasn't reaching teenagers. Perry
Como, Eddie Fisher, Teresa Brewer, Patti Page
were singing songs like "Ko-Ko-Mo," "That's
Amore” and "Doggie in the Window."
Continued on Page 8B
From behind the
lines to beyond the
ordinary, Gary Scott \
photographs well.
Page 4B.
What is the
journalism school
doing teaching
funny business?
Find out on
Page 6B.
Plus: New books,
including
Vonnegut’s most
recent. Review on
Page 3B.