Chuck Berry 1959 American Bandstand

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

I had never seen this classic Chuck Berry theatrical
performance of "Back in the USA" until yesterday.

All his perfected stage moves are there, including the duck walk.
Bandstand was all lip-synchronization, so Chuck got to do a
few more things, without concern for playing all the guitar riffs, ha ha !

I must mention, Chuck always wore threads that were the most.
And I miss Beechnut Gum !

Mr. Berry was a Rock and Roll icon, who I got to see in concert
back when he came through with Mr. Bo Diddley on a
Rock N Roll Revival tour in the 70's.

I met Mr. Berry behind the stage, and told him he was
my guitar playing idol.
He kind of rolled his eyes, but I got his autograph anyway !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23y2Cz40zs4

[TC Chris]

The mark of a true professional is being able to perform at high levels in challenging circumstances. Here he is performing in front of an audience of white children who probably had trouble clapping ON the beat, much less OFF it, and he still looks like he's having the time of his life. Yay, Chuck! I shook his hand once. It was after an off-campus college dance--in those days, the campus was dry. And I still thought getting drunk was fun. By the end of the concert/dance I had enjoyed lots of fun. A friend from St. Louis and I were stumbling back to our cars (in those days, driving while drunk seemed reasonable). We encountered Chuck Berry, all alone, walking back to his car, guitar case in hand. We greeted him and he was friendly. My buddy started naming St. Louis bars and Chuck started naming them back. After a few exchanges Chuck looked at me and said "He's naming all my [black] bars and I'm naming all his {white]." We shook hands. What I remember is that he had HUGE hands. His just enveloped mine.

Chuck Berry is another one of those sui generis artists. He was really gifted at writing meaningful lyrics within the confines of a 3-minute pop song. My favorite is "Promised Land," or maybe it's "Maybellene.' Each one is a tiny gem.

There's an impressive documentary about him: Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll. Find it/watch it. Very impressive.

Chris Campbell