HE STILL WALKS AMONG US.

It probably happens to you every so often. You binge on one favorite artist or another, and try your utmost to put all of the familiarity and your listening experiences behind you and really, really listen to someone you've heard a million times before. You pick it apart and try to figure out what it is that moves you. My binge started a couple weeks ago, and I've walked away from it with a refortified respect for Chuck Berry. Every recording of his I have has been revisited in the fast few weeks, some of it over and over again. His lyrics, his song structures, and his seemingly simple solos, not to mention the piano of his right hand man Johnnie Johnson, all of it. I've come away from it thinking the man is a freak. No one learns this shit, not like this. Gotta be innate. He put words, chords and notes together seamlessly, before there was a template. Dude was the template. Naysayers will point out that most songs are just twelve bar blues progressions, and his songs were formulaic. Okay then, you do it. See how far you get. Hell, hail, hail rock 'n' roll, yeah.

With a pick up band. Sloppy, but dig the solo!

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Chuck Berry - Promised Land mp3 at Archive.org
Chuck Berry - Maybellene mp3 at Rocky 52
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode mp3 at Tune the Proletariat
Chuck Berry - Downbound Train mp3 at Clumsy and Shy
Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven mp3 Thierry's Official Web Site
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode mp3 at Enmadolu (?)
Chuck Berry - Memphis mp3 at Taking Over the Internet
Chuck Berry - Back In the USA mp3 at Riddell Family (?)
Chuck Berry - It's My Own Business mp3 at the Rising Storm
Chuck Berry - Duece mp3 at The Rising Storm
Instrumental mix (Highly recommended) (Hell, all of this is stuff is highly recommended.):
Chuck Berry - A Berry Rainy Day mp3 at Basement Rug 30 minute mix, go there to get the song list.
Visit:
Chuck Berry Official site