Chuck Berry...dead

[Kristy]

Chuck Berry was known to be a violent man with an ill temper. He detested authority which was cool but he was such a dick about it. So he revved up standard 12-bar blues riffs and sung songs about stalking and raping teenage girls. Yeah, some pioneer he was.

[Kristy]

And I BET that fucker voted for Trump.

[Kristy]

AND! God damn it...

Johnnie Clyde Johnson was more Chuck Berry than Chuck Berry.


This whole thread goes to show how suburban slave FORD really is.

Here is the "legacy" Chuck Berry left

[Jérôme Frenchise]

https://vimeo.com/18623223

[twonabomber]

Chuck Berry pissing and farting on hookers. NSFW

http://efukt.com/21881_Chuck_Berry_Farting_On_Hookers.html

"I can't kiss you, your face smells like piss!"

[Jérôme Frenchise]

Chuck Berry pissing and farting on hookers. NSFW

http://efukt.com/21881_Chuck_Berry_Farting_On_Hookers.html

"I can't kiss you, your face smells like piss!"

You can hear the hooker think: "What a dick!"

Buck Cherry pissing off Keef the Riff: https://vimeo.com/18623223

[Terry]

I usually hate you when you make posts like this, but here you have a point. He was a great and innovative musician, and a fucking creeper-weirdo at the same time...

Yeah, but then again that also summarizes so many other rock icons:

Elvis Presley
Jimmy Page
Jerry Lee Lewis
Michael Jackson

...and those are just for openers.

I mean, so what if Chuck liked to beat and rape women after surreptitiously watching them pee; nobody's perfect

I actually thought Berry had died years ago, too. Alas, now he is in that Great Ladies Room In The Sky, looking under the stalls as we speak...

[twonabomber]

Buck Cherry pissing off Keef the Riff: https://vimeo.com/18623223

I remember Richards saying that during the filming of the concert, Berry kept turning up his amp and throwing the mix off. They had to run another amp down in the sub sub basement and mic that one.

I mean, so what if Chuck liked to beat and rape women after surreptitiously watching them pee; nobody's perfect

Everyone's got a kink.

[FORD]

[FORD]

[vandeleur]

I remember Richards saying that during the filming of the concert, Berry kept turning up his amp and throwing the mix off. They had to run another amp down in the sub sub basement and mic that one.



Everyone's got a kink.

Doesn't he threaten Richards ???? I may have been squiffy when I watched it

[Terry]

I do recall during the Hail Hail Rock and Roll movie that Richards and Berry had a bit of tension during rehearsals for the song Carol: as demonstrated in the thread clip, Berry was showing Richards how [Richards] was getting the phrasing of the intro bend wrong.

There was a scene in the movie from the actual concert where Berry was trying to change the key of one of the songs they rehearsed (I can't remember which at the moment), and go to a different key mid-song, while the concert was going on. So Berry starts playing his guitar in (if I remember correctly) a key one whole step (or maybe it was a half step) above the key the rest of the band has rehearsed it in and were (logically) then performing it live in. Berry wanders over to Richards onstage while playing in a different key and makes a body motion to indicate he wanted Richards to follow suit in terms of changing the key. Richards kept playing in the key the band had rehearsed it in and shook his head "no".

Part of what caused Richards to organize that Berry concert in the first place (outside of The Stones being unable to mount a tour after Dirty Work was completed and basically not speaking to each other) was that Richards idolized Berry's music. Richards made lengthy comments in interviews after the movie came out - and also some in the movie itself - about how as a live performer by the time the mid 1980s rolled around Berry had taken this really peculiar approach to his live performances for 2 decades. Basically, Berry would instruct the promoter of wherever he was performing to provide Berry with a band to back him up (!)...I mean, Berry would literally turn up at a gig, jump onstage and play with a different group of musicians at every gig without even having as much as a single rehearsal with any of them. Berry just took it for granted these different bands he played with each night would KNOW the material. I think in the Hail Hail movie (I haven't seen it in ages) Bruce Springsteen talks about being in one of those many one-nighter Chuck Berry backup bands in the early 1970s before Springsteen got famous, and what a singularly bizarre experience it was.

As one could imagine with such a touring arrangement, a lot of those performances probably sounded like what they were: Chuck Berry playing behind shitty backup bands that were under rehearsed. Part of Richards getting involved, picking the musicians for the Hail Hail band (including Berry's old piano player Johnnie Jonhson) and making sure the filmed concert was amply rehearsed in advance was to ensure the performance was listenable and not a bunch of no-name jerkoffs who didn't know the material as well as they should backing up Berry at some forgettable gig held at a County Fair. So when Berry tried to change keys mid-song (probably the remnants of Berry's touring days with pick-up bands, where he would do things like that just to fuck with the musicians backing him onstage - as if they probably weren't struggling enough already!) during the filming of Hail Hail, Richards shut that nonsense down in a hurry, with his side to side head shake basically telling Berry "if you wanna revert to your old 'I don't give a fuck about what I'm doing onstage' routine, have at it - the rest of us are staying in the key we rehearsed it in, so YOU will look like the fuckup here, not us."

I think Richards said in a couple of interviews after the movie came out that he was thinking of pulling a knife out on Berry at one point during the rehearsals, because Berry was being difficult. However, by the time the late 1980s rolled around, Richards would often adopt his 'Keith Richards Rock and Roll Outlaw Tough Guy' persona in ways that weren't nearly as convincing as they were ten years earlier, when he actually WAS one...so I wouldn't be surprised if Richards was bullshitting about the Berry/Richards confrontation or indulging in a bit of hyperbole. I mean, doubtless Richards has lived a rough rock and roll life and done it largely on his terms, but potentially he is just as full of shit as anybody, you know?

[twonabomber]

Doesn't he threaten Richards ???? I may have been squiffy when I watched it

I think so. They might threaten each other in it!

I have the special edition but I don't remember if Taylor Hackford touched on that in the extra footage.

[twonabomber]

Part of what caused Richards to organize that Berry concert in the first place (outside of The Stones being unable to mount a tour after Dirty Work was completed and basically not speaking to each other) was that Richards idolized Berry's music. Richards made lengthy comments in interviews after the movie came out - and also some in the movie itself - about how as a live performer by the time the mid 1980s rolled around Berry had taken this really peculiar approach to his live performances for 2 decades. Basically, Berry would instruct the promoter of wherever he was performing to provide Berry with a band to back him up (!)...I mean, Berry would literally turn up at a gig, jump onstage and play with a different group of musicians at every gig without even having as much as a single rehearsal with any of them. Berry just took it for granted these different bands he played with each night would KNOW the material. I think in the Hail Hail movie (I haven't seen it in ages) Bruce Springsteen talks about being in one of those many one-nighter Chuck Berry backup bands in the early 1970s before Springsteen got famous, and what a singularly bizarre experience it was.

Yup.

Berry shows up at the airport with his guitar. Promoter has a rental car waiting, Berry drives it to the venue. Berry insists on being paid cash upon arrival. Backing band is ready. Berry finishes the show and drives back to the airport.

Johnnie Johnson was driving a bus or something before the movie.

[Terry]

Yup.

Berry shows up at the airport with his guitar. Promoter has a rental car waiting, Berry drives it to the venue. Berry insists on being paid cash upon arrival. Backing band is ready. Berry finishes the show and drives back to the airport.

Johnnie Johnson was driving a bus or something before the movie.

And Richards said he thought a lot of that touring strategy had to due with Berry being a loner and not wanting to get ripped off. Berry, once he began touring with those one-nighter pickup bands/cash up front conditions, would not take the stage unless he had been paid in cash upon arrival. I think I also had read where Berry would put the cash in his guitar case and the guitar case itself would be onstage within Berry's sight at all times while he was performing. Like, Berry wasn't taking ANY chances with his money, because Berry had been ripped off a few times in the 50s and early 60s and wasn't trusting ANYONE by the time 1965 rolled around.