Chuck Berry collapses at gig

Subject: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 01:05 PM

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110102/ten-concerns-after-chuck-berry-gig-colla-8a3eada.html

Thats what I call a folksinger!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 02:23 PM

Keith Richards could learn a thing or two from Chuck about survival. I saw Berry in St Louis about 5 years ago with his son on backup guitar and his daughter on backup vocals. Chuck came on with his guitar turned up to 90 decibels playing Hail Hail Rock n Roll. His son moved over to Chuck's amp immediately and dialed it down, like it was something he had to do every time they played. Chuck did a good 45 minute set with most of the hits, and he looked like he was having a ball. The licks are no longer as clean as they were, but hell, they are still Chuck's licks and they changed the way everybody plays rock guitar.
He can't have much more time on Earth, but I love the fact that he still gets up there. Hail rock n roll indeed!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 02:48 PM

One of the most influencial musicians ever

L in C#

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Nick
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 02:51 PM

>>But audience member Steve Handwerker said Berry seemed erratic on stage and then fell forward onto his face while playing at a keyboard.

Depending how wide your forehead is that's usually a ?13b9 chord if I remember depending if you hit the black notes or not

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,Captain farrell
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 03:22 PM

Proud to see him twice the true King of Rock n Roll

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Amergin
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 03:34 PM

I was lucky to see him live once many years ago....he was opening for the Dead.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 04:17 PM

and the fact that My Dingaling remains his biggest-selling hit just goes to show that popularity has nothing to do with artistic integrity.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 04:31 PM

That is so kewl...I didn't know he was still performing! Well, not kewl that he's not well, but that he still gets up there and performs!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 04:35 PM

I can see why it has stayed so popular!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 02 Jan 11 - 04:36 PM

He's a great wordsmith, I can still remember the words of his songs I learnt in 1964. I think the greatest exponent of Chuck Berry songs was Dave Edmunds. Back in 1963-64 the Stones and Downliner Sect were best at the British R & B interpretation of Chuck's songs closely followed perhaps by the Yardbirds.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: josepp
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 12:32 AM

Chuck Berry is all by himself, his own genre. I mean, it wasn't blues really, it wasn't country, it wasn't rockabilly, it wasn't pop, it wasn't jump.

What the hell is it? It's Chuck Berry. No one else sounded like that and anyone since then that does is said to be doing Chuck Berry.

Now when I heard Memphis Minnie do "What's the Matter with the Mill?" I realized it was structured like a Chuck Berry song and so it seems to be a big influence on him. But he certainly took that structure to a new level and no one else can touch it without being accused of doing Chuck Berry.

His music is truly his music. It might be the only true rocknroll because it doesn't fit any other genre.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 02:22 AM

Chuck started off as a guitar player in Johnny Johnson's band in St Louis. Eventually he supplanted Johnny as the prime figure in the group, although Johnny continued to play with Chuck through the period of Chuck's biggest hits. Many would say that Chuck's distinctive approach to guitar was in fact based on Johnny's piano boogie licks, and later, after the two fellout, Johnson filed a suit alleging he was entitled to songwriting royalties. I believe the suit was dismissed because of the amount of time that had passed between the copywriting and the filing of the suit.
At any rate, Chuck reconciled with Johnny through Keith Richard's efforts, and appears in the band in the late 80s movie documenting Chucks 60th birthday concert at the Fox Theater in St Louis.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: alanabit
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 04:56 AM

I have always loved Chuck Berry. "Memphis Tennessee" is my favourite - a moving, tersely told story with an irresistable, loping bass line played by the great Willie Dixon. For me Chuck Berry was all the things most of the other rock and rollers just played at being. He was an original guitarist, an inspired songwriter and a charismatic front man. The resonant simplicity of his songwriting has all the best features of folk music.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: BobKnight
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 05:45 AM

Chuck's style was known here in Britain as Rythm and Blues in the 1960's. Nothing to do with the gutless pap that now goes under that name.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Will Fly
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 05:56 AM

Nothing to do with the gutless pap that now goes under that name.

My sentiments exactly!

For me, CB is one of the great rock'n roll wordsmiths. His lyrics capture exactly the style of the times like no other. I was playing "Nadine" in a pub recently - hadn't sung or played it for over 20 years - and the words came back effortlessly. Not because I have the memory of an elephant, but because the lyrics are beguiling and have wonderful phrases...

"I was campaign-shouting like a southern diplomat"

"She moves around like a wayward summer breeze"

"Moving through the traffic like a mounted cavalier"

Where will you find their like today?

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,Ballisodare memories
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 06:05 AM

I was backstage at Ballisodare Festival, Sligo, in [eek... the years merge .. 1980?] crewing with the late and much lamented "Jonah" Johnny Jones & the lovely Ambrose Donohue from London as MC, when Chuck Berry headlined there. His contract was the talk of the tent. It's a long time ago, and some of the protagonists are still with us to correct any faults in my memory - please do!:
A first class flight from the States to Dublin
A particular model of Mercedes to get him from Dublin to Sligo.
£17,000
and - and I kid you not [this was engraved on my memory forever] exact words..
"A 30 year old blonde of willing disposition".
And the festival signed the contract.
We were awed!
He insisted on driving himself from the airport and in those days, Irish roads were terribe - the potholes would take the sump off your car and destroy your tyres. We were talking to his minder, who wa reduced to a quivering mass of fear by the experience of being drien! He did it in a totally unbelievable time - I forget what it was, but when we mortals took 4 hours, he something ike halved it. It took his minder a good day to recover.
And the rest of it... I'll not forget it, evr...

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: alanabit
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 06:07 AM

He was a great storyteller too. "Johnny B Goode", "Bye Bye Johnny", "C'st La Vie" and "Memphis Tennessee" are all great ballads with a full story packed into few words.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 06:07 AM

my bloody keyboard keeps missing letters!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Mick Tems
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 06:16 AM

Saw him in the Edmonton Regal, headlining an R and B package which included the Moody Blues, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce, Long John Baldry - with the Rolling Stones supporting!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,Ballisodare
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 06:17 AM

He had a caravan backstage [posh!] and had requested a band to back him. They had rounded up a handful of each type of instrumentalist. They were all stood in the corridor tent leading up to the stage - a huge T-shaped marquee with 25,000 fans, mostly balancing on Guinness bottles to stay out of the mud. A handful of bass players, clutching instruments, a handful of drummers etc. They lined the corridor walls.
As he went on, he walked past them and pointed to one from each group ["You... you..."], and they fell in behind him and followed him onstage. No rhearsal - he just expected that anyone who wanted to play with him would know his stuff backwards. It was an amazing gig. The audience went mad. There was a roped-off rectangle right in front of the stage. One of my abiding memories is Paul Brady - who was a legend in his on right then - sitting cross-legged on the grass, right in front of the stage watching the master at work.
And then afterwards, the contract had to be fulfilled.
Ho ho!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: fat B****rd
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 06:25 AM

When I was very young I didn't hear much Chuck Berry music. An older friend recommended that we went to see Dave Berry (The Crying Game) who at that time performed Berry songs of all types -from the fairly obscure Broken Arrow and No Money Down to the usuals - I developed a passion for finding Berry records and accumulated a good collection of 45s and 78s.
I saw him first in 1964 at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester and had hold of his thumb while he played!!
At subsequent shows over the years the obvious 'pick up band' arrangement seemed to be the norm but I was still conscious of the fact that was THE Chuck Berry on the stage.
Stories of his meanness and irascibility have been around for years, but whenever I play Guitar Boogie or Let it Rock or any of the vast number of Berry tracks that I love I forget all about them and just revel in those rhythms and lyrics.
This is starting to read like an OBIT thread, but at 84 Mr. Berry surely deserves a long rest after 60 years playing and performing.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: alanabit
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 09:04 AM

Interesting rider about that thirty year old blond of "willing disposition". I guess that explains the duck walk...

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,jeff
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 11:23 AM

Seems I may have told this story before...can't remember.

Anyway a friend of mine was hired to play in CB's back-up band at Chicagofest in the late 70s. The showtime was very near and no Chuck. The stage manager told the band to start. 10 minutes after the show was supposed to start suddenly there was this big stir at the back of the crowd. People parted like the Red Sea and here comes Chuck w/a guitar case in hand. He hops up on stage, opens his guitar case while the band is playing and asks, "Anybody got a cord?

My friend who's a bass player had one and lent it to Chuck. He(Chuck) starts to play along with them, does a dramatic stop, hollars, "Johnny B. Goode". Kicks off the song and the place goes crazy. What a showman.

Oh yeah, the capper in this whole story is that Chcuk never returned my friend's cord...play forever, Mr. Berry.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 11:35 AM

I saw Chuck Berry around 1964 backed by the Nashville Teens who knew what they were doing. He used a huge Gibson amp which almost drowned out the band. Of course only the vocals were miked in those days!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 11:48 AM

I remember from the live performance documentary, Keith Richards is trying to work out some song details during a practice, and Chuck objects saying "this is my song and I'll play it any way I want." To which Keith responds "but this performance will be on film,and we want people to enjoy it long after we're dead." And Chuck responds "fuck that. You die, I ain't dyin'." To which Keef had no response.
I had a friend in one of Chuck's pickup show bands, and he said they practiced most of Chuck's songs, but without Chuck. Chuck's people also refused to provide a playlist, since Chuck wouldn't stick to one. He said Chuck arrived just as they were set to go on, said "I play 45 minutes," and they went on. He said it was a good performance, and that in between songs and sometimes during them, Chuck checked his wristwatch. He said they were about halfway through Oh Carol when he noticed Chuck wasn't playing. He turned to see Chuck snapping his guitar into the case, leaving the boys to finish the song. The 45 minutes were up.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 06:24 PM

Chuck Berry came to Australia several times...I saw him perform at the Sydney Entertainment Centre . The show included Bo Diddley and what I suspect may have been a pick up band called " The Dirty Sewer Rats" or something like that.

He was brilliant. I was told later that when the band lead guitarist played a lightning fast riff in the lead break and was very pleased with himself, Chuck smiled at one of the other musicians and told the lead bloke to do it all again ! Aaaaagh !

The compleat Poet Laureate of Rock and Roll...we will not see his like again

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Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,Jeanene
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 07:28 PM

I agree about Chuck's indelible influence on American pop and rock music and his prowess as a lyricist.   He also must've found that Fountain Of Youth that Ponce de Leon failed to locate, just to be able to keep performing over all these decades -- without appearing to have aged much more than 20-30 years.   
I hope whatever ailed him in this latest gig was a transient bug.   Leonard Cohen sort of collapsed at a gig not long ago too, but I believe he's OK, and let's hope Chuck B is too.

As for deserving to retire and take it easy, heck, maybe his dream is to be on stage rockin' out when he finally kicks the bucket.   There are worse ways to go.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Lox
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 08:43 PM

.




          One thing worth mentioning about Chuck ...




          ... he can play a guitar just like he's ringin' a bell! ...




          give it to me one more time!





.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 09:45 PM

Man, like what's up??? Did he die???

I mean, everyone sayin' stuff like past tense... "He was", "He did"...

Did he die???

B~

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 10:00 PM

Chuck Berry's Website is http://www.chuckberry.com/
Here's their statement:

Official Statement from Chuck Berry's Agency, CMG Worldwide
01/03/11

Due to exhaustion, Mr. Berry was unable to complete his scheduled performance in Chicago at the Congress Theatre January 1, 2011. However, he is fine and has returned to his home near St. Louis.

That seems to be pretty good news.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,erbert
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 10:31 PM

Rock 'n' Roll will never die...

UK Satelite TV Sky Arts 1 broadcast schedule for "Chuck Berry Plays Avo Sessions" 2007

Jan 11th & 12th 2011

"Aged 81, the rock 'n' roll great, covered by everyone from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones and Elton John,
performs his greatest hits at intimate sessions in Basel, Switzerland.."

http://uk-tv-guide.com/show-times/775914/Chuck+Berry+Plays+Avo+Sessions/Arts/

..me and my best school mate only learnt to play guitar because of the early 70s UK rock 'n' roll revival.
We were 14 year old. He was buying his cheap tacky replica Teddy Boy clothes
mail order from the back pages of the weekly music papers,
I had hair half way down my back and looked more like a cross between Alice Cooper and the New Seekers..

Chuck Berry & Eddie Cochran literally inspired us to be guitar players for life..

Yes of course "my ding a ling" is shit,
but we hope Chuck will still be tormenting us with it live on stage
for at least another Decade..

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,jeff
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 10:49 PM

Lonesome EJ,

The part of your post that mentions the 'no set list', practicing songs w/o Chuck and 'not sticking to one, anyway' was some of what my friend shared as well. One difference was that Chuck played for an hour and a half. 'Course he was in his early 50s at that time. He must've been in a good space that day.

Btw, I was performing at Chicagofest that year as well and was able to weasel my way backstage for the CB show. There were probably 20,000 people as it was one of the main stages. In my career I've opened for and have worked with some very charismatic people. Never saw anyone quite like Chuck Berry. Most be because there ISN'T anyone like Chuck Berry.

Glad he's ok and resting at home.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 11:25 PM

Another couple of Chuck stories from Keith Richards...

When Keith got the tribute concert together, there were several other acts leading up to Chuck as the headliner. Of course, Chuck's amplifier was placed on the stage with the other equipment before the concert had even begun. After the show, Richards' production company received a bill from Chuck for hourly rental on his amplifier while it was on stage.

Richards also says that after hours of rehearsal with Chuck, when they took the stage Chuck would change the key, the tempo, and the entire arrangement of each song during the concert.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,Allen in Oz
Date: 03 Jan 11 - 11:54 PM

Keith Richards also said the Chuck wrote his songs in the Key of " F" because he was classically trained ...but he still loved the old bugger

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Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 12:24 AM

And I think he does love him. He just thinks he's rather a cantankerous tight wad, which I believe is true.
In Keith's autobiography, he says the following regarding the Berry/Johnson musical partnership, giving his own slant on the songwriting credit controversy.
"..we realized that everything Chuck wrote was in E-flat or C-sharp - piano keys! Not guitar keys. That was a dead giveaway. These are not great keys for guitar. Obviously most of these songs started out on piano and Chuck joined in, playing on the barre with his huge hands stretched across the strings. I got the sense that he followed Johnny Johnson's left hand!"

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Genie
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 02:49 AM

E-flat? That's interesting [[ THREAD CREEP ALERT!]]
I've known for a long time that Irving Berlin could play piano in one key and that this prompted him to invent a sort of 'piano capo' -- a pedal that would change keys for him.
I've also read that the one key he could play in was E-flat.

Never quite figured out that E-flat key preference thing, but maybe you just have to be a piano-player to understand that.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,Ronald McCarthy
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 03:11 AM

I remember hearing the Mitchell Trio singing "Memphis" in the late 1960's. They played it in their own way, kinda folkish. It was truly a privelege. I believe they got another Chuck style "rock" single called "Take Me to Tomorrow" in 1967 or so. Rock 'n' roll really has a certain influence on folk music.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: andrew e
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 03:50 PM

Here's a good video.

Chuck and Bruce!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flUMQzBI2KY

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 05:00 PM

Good one, andrew!

Johnnie Johnson, Keith Richards, and the immortal Chuck Berry working up Oh Carol!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,jeff
Date: 04 Jan 11 - 11:44 PM

ditto, andrew! Where was the concert? It looks like Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, but I'm not sure. Chuck was rockin'. Of course he's ALWAYS rockin'!

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 07:17 AM

Here is a video of Chuck and John Denver rolling over Beethoven... It was on July 4th, 1986 at "America's Biggest Birthday Party".

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 08:54 AM

Well, sorry to introduce a sour note but a fair wodge of his songs were banal crap based in nothing but his conceit - like Brown Eyed Handsome Man for example, and other words are of gobsmacking awfulness ("the jokey folks they had a jamboree") and even if he was an (erratic) genius (which I take leave to doubt - perhaps the most influential rock and roll player ever, but that is not the same thing as genius) that's no excuse for being the complete arsehole that this thread reveals.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 10 Jan 11 - 10:49 AM

yes ...but quite good banal crap.

I like him anyway.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,seth in Olympia
Date: 11 Jan 11 - 03:47 AM

I had my class of fifth graders in China all doing a rockin' version of "Nadine" his use of language and rhythm was great for teaching informal English and getting performing phobic Chinese kids to loosen up and let their voices out...I've been lovin his music since the '50's, but when I met him, he fit the image of a 'cantakerous tightwad" Long may he live. He provided the recessional for our wedding, but unfortunately, we couldn't meet his contract demands as stated above for a personal appearance.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: Will Fly
Date: 11 Jan 11 - 04:34 AM

Lots of great artists have been complete arseholes. The question is whether to separate the artist as a person from the art that he/she creates. If we dismissed every artist who turned out to be a shit there might not be many left for us to admire.

What CB did was to capture the zeitgeist of a generation that was just a bit younger than he was, and to express it with words that hit the spot. And of course he wrote some crap, as they all did. (NOT "My Ding-a-ling", by the way - the original was written by New Orleans bandleader Dave Bartholomew in 1952).

Songs like "Memphis Tennessee", "You Never Can Tell", "Nadine", "Schoolday" and "Maybellene" may not have been 'genius' (and what's 'genius'?) - but they sum up the spirit of the times wonderfully well and were very, very influential. An arsehole indeed - but a great one.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: The Sandman
Date: 11 Jan 11 - 06:08 PM

I would describe him as a trooper, performing is clearly very important to him.

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,erbert
Date: 11 Jan 11 - 06:47 PM

..just watched the opening 10 minutes of the concert on SKY Arts
recorded in Basel, Switzerland, when Chuck was only 81..

He was still soldiering on through his trademark motions,
but ever the innovator, singing free-form approximations of the melodies,
and playing his guitar in some kind of experimental atonal avant-garde jazz scale tuning..???

His rhythm was spot on, and the muscle memory of his hands
was placing his fingers in all the right patterns on the fingerboard for each song and solo.
But with a hint of a sly grin on his old face, it was almost as if he was daring his well to do Swiss audience
not to politely applaud every 'wrong' note of his bizarre haphazard guitar performance.. ????

.. and that was when he was only 81..

Subject: RE: Chuck Berry collapses at gig
From: GUEST,seth in Olympia
Date: 12 Jan 11 - 03:05 AM

CB's art and legacy go way beyond whatever warts he may or may not have on his personality-long may he live!