Editorial Content for Chuck Berry: An American Life
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Noted writer RJ Smith (THE ONE: The Life and Music of James Brown) delves deeply into the personal and professional twists and turns of Charles “Chuck” Berry, whose life spanned much of the 20th century and, arguably, provided some of its most memorable musical messages.
Berry was born and raised in a middle-class Black neighborhood of St. Louis, in an atmosphere of quiet pride that included reciting the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and hearing his mother sing hymns. His first musical performance in high school yielded great applause, which stirred him to buy his first guitar. But Berry’s was a crooked trajectory toward the great star he was destined to become. His teen years included crime and punishment, marriage and conventional employment, along with his continued zeal for performing. As Smith puts it, “There was Charles Berry the father and family man, and there was the guy with the electric guitar.”
"Smith’s approach to Berry combines an almost day-by-day account of events infused with a sense of his own writer’s pride and pleasure in having this amazing man as a focus."
There was also the poet within, inspiring his first great hit, “Maybellene,” with many others to follow, all distinctive for their wild yet thought-provoking lyrics and the simple but hard-driving way that he chose to convey them: “Too Much Monkey Business,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Johnny B. Goode” --- all covered by hundreds of other artists. Berry’s songs made people dance, especially his young female fans. And his conflicted inner life would land him in trouble many times as he secretly pursued those fans, while publicly garnering award after award in genres of blues, country and pure rock. In a life that spanned 90 years, Berry somehow managed to find the limelight again and again, moving from singing to songwriting, rewarded with covers by everyone from Elvis to the Beatles.
Smith’s approach to Berry combines an almost day-by-day account of events infused with a sense of his own writer’s pride and pleasure in having this amazing man as a focus. He has an admirable ability to pluck out some of his most compelling words, from the amusing and outrageous to the profound, as when Berry stated, regarding race, “Everything can be beaten, if one is smart and patient, and lucky.”
The man Smith brings to new life is a musical genius whose ambitions could not keep him from stepping out of line when the mood struck him, but whose artistry generally saved the day and, in the end, produced a fortune and an enviable legacy. As Smith so deftly draws it, “In 2022 he seems less like a rocker and more than ever simply a representative American artist.”
Teaser
Best known as the groundbreaking artist behind classics like “Johnny B. Goode,” “Maybellene,” “You Never Can Tell” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” Chuck Berry was a man of wild contradictions, whose motives and motivations were often shrouded in mystery. After all, how did a teenage delinquent come to write so many songs that transformed American culture? And, once he achieved fame and recognition, why did he put his career in danger with a lifetime’s worth of reckless personal behavior? Throughout his life, Berry refused to shed light on either the mastery or the missteps, leaving the complexity that encapsulated his life and underscored his music largely unexplored --- until now.
Promo
Best known as the groundbreaking artist behind classics like “Johnny B. Goode,” “Maybellene,” “You Never Can Tell” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” Chuck Berry was a man of wild contradictions, whose motives and motivations were often shrouded in mystery. After all, how did a teenage delinquent come to write so many songs that transformed American culture? And, once he achieved fame and recognition, why did he put his career in danger with a lifetime’s worth of reckless personal behavior? Throughout his life, Berry refused to shed light on either the mastery or the missteps, leaving the complexity that encapsulated his life and underscored his music largely unexplored --- until now.
About the Book
The definitive biography of Chuck Berry, legendary performer and inventor of rock and roll.
Best known as the groundbreaking artist behind classics like “Johnny B. Goode,” “Maybellene,” “You Never Can Tell” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” Chuck Berry was a man of wild contradictions, whose motives and motivations were often shrouded in mystery. After all, how did a teenage delinquent come to write so many songs that transformed American culture? And, once he achieved fame and recognition, why did he put his career in danger with a lifetime’s worth of reckless personal behavior? Throughout his life, Berry refused to shed light on either the mastery or the missteps, leaving the complexity that encapsulated his life and underscored his music largely unexplored --- until now.
In CHUCK BERRY, biographer RJ Smith crafts a comprehensive portrait of one of the great American entertainers, guitarists and lyricists of the 20th century, bringing Chuck Berry to life in vivid detail. Based on interviews, archival research, legal documents and a deep understanding of Berry’s St. Louis (his birthplace, and the place where he died in March 2017), Smith sheds new light on a man few have ever really understood. By placing his life within the context of the American culture he made and eventually withdrew from, we understand how Berry became such a groundbreaking figure in music, erasing racial boundaries, crafting subtle political commentary and paying a great price for his success. While celebrating his accomplishments, the book also does not shy away from troubling aspects of his public and private life, asking profound questions about how and why we separate the art from the artist.
Berry declined to call himself an artist, shrugging that he was good at what he did. But the man's achievement was the rarest kind, the kind that had social and political resonance, the kind that made America want to get up and dance. At long last, CHUCK BERRY brings the man and the music together.
Audiobook available, read by Phil Morris
