All Hail Chuck
Published February 23, 2003
....Other greats to work for the label include Bo Diddley, The Moonglows, The Flamingos, Buddy Guy, Elmore James, Little Milton, Etta James, Billy Stewart, Fontella Bass and Chuck Berry. Waters, Wolf, Diddley, Berry, Dixon, James and Leonard Chess himself are inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
As brilliant and lasting as the Chess blues work is, their work with Berry will stand the longest. Berry met his idol Muddy Waters on a road trip to Chicago from St. Louis, accepting Waters' advice to seek out Leonard Chess, whom Waters called the best in the business.
Leonard has dismissed his acumen regarding Berry as riding a trend. But the master tapes show Leonard making decisions about takes and contributing ideas throughout. And when "Maybellene" began to look like a hit, Leonard took the record directly to Alan Freed in New York to push Berry with all the clout Chess could muster.
Whether Leonard recognized Berry for the most important single figure in rock 'n' roll history is debatable, but he knew greatness when he heard it and was willing to back his judgments with money and muscle.
Berry is the greatest lyricist in rock, capturing the teenage experience with empathy and humor. He also was the architect of the riffing guitar sound at the base of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and every other guitar-based rock band on earth. "Johnny B. Goode," "Sweet Little Sixteen," "Rock And Roll Music," "Memphis" and "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" are but a few of the greats in the remarkable Berry canon.
....On Oct.16, 1969, Leonard Chess died of a heart attack at age 52, probably felled by his own type A personality. Earlier that year, he and Phil had sold the
company to GRT for a reported $11 million. In 1975, GRT closed down the logo,
selling it to All Platinum Records. Phil remains active at ARC, the Chess publishing company. The Chess catalogue is now being aggressively reissued on CD by MCA, giving another generation access to this timeless music.
The first profile in Weintraub's series was on Bo Diddley.
- All Hail Chuck
- Published: February 23, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Classic Rock and Oldies, Music: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
- Eric Olsen's BC Writer page
- Eric Olsen's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
The Chuck Berry article is so great. He is really an musican and still playing at Blueberry Hill in St. Louis. He also tour in Europe every summer. I really want to check the new 4-DVD Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll release. Action hot rock!
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I read the Bo Diddley profile last week and thought it was sloppy and superficial. What got me was the reference to Bo Diddley's well known Fender Stratocaster (shurley shome mishtake). The liner notes to the Chess Box set were more informative.
I passed on the Chuck Berry article, but I have read his autobiography. An interesting book, because if you didn't know anything about Chuck Berry, you wouldn't be aware he was a musician.