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.”