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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 2017)
March 22, 2017 Page 5 edition CAREERS special Chuck Berry Dead at 90 Guitar hero originated rock n’ roll (AP) — Chuck Berry, rock ‘n’ roll’s founding guitar hero and storyteller who defined the mu- sic’s joy and rebellion in such classics as “Johnny B. Goode,” ”Sweet Little Sixteen” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” died Saturday at his home west of St. Louis. He was 90. Berry’s core repertoire was some three dozen songs, his influ- ence incalculable, from the Beat- les and the Rolling Stones to vir- tually any group from garage band to arena act that called itself rock “Everything I wrote about wasn’t about me, but about the people listening,” he once said. “Johnny B. Goode,” the tale of a guitar-playing country boy whose mother tells him he’ll be a star, was Berry’s signature song, the archetypal narrative for would-be rockers and among the most ecstatic recordings in the music’s history. When NASA launched the un- manned Voyager I in 1977, an al- bum was stored on the craft that would explain music on Earth to extraterrestrials. The one rock Guitarist, singer and songwriter Chuck Berry performs in Monaco in 2009. song included was “Johnny B. was transmitted. As a teenager, he Goode.” loved to take radios apart and put Charles Edward Anderson Ber- them back together. Using a Nick ry was born in St. Louis on Oct. Manoloff guitar chord book, he 18, 1926. As a child he practiced a learned how to play the hits of the bent-leg stride that enabled him to time. He was fascinated by chord slip under tables, a prelude to the progressions and rhythms, discov- duck walk of his adult years. His ering that many songs borrowed mother, like Johnny B. Goode’s, heavily from the Gershwins’ “I told him he would make it, and Got Rhythm.” make it big. Berry also appeared in a dozen A fan of blues, swing and boo- movies, doing his distinctive bent- gie woogie, Berry studied the very legged “duck-walk” in several mechanics of music and how it teen exploitation flicks of the ’50s. The Law Offices of Patrick John Sweeney, P.C. Patrick John Sweeney Attorney at Law 1549 SE Ladd, Portland, Oregon Portland: Hillsboro: Facsimile: Email: (503) 244-2080 (503) 244-2081 (503) 244-2084 Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com
