History of Rock and Roll on VH1 Classic

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cephus

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CHuck berry:

Kinda looks like an Indian guy, doesn't he?

I have loved Chuck Berry for years. I dig everything about him. I play 3 of his songs almost every gig and I could probably play 8 if someone requested it. I've seen "Hail Hail ROck and Roll" several times. I have a few original 45s that are all scratched because they were mom's and I actually listened to them on my JC Penny stereo like an idiot. THis week, on VH1 classic there is this kick ass series called the history of rock and roll that I DVR'd. I've only gotten through 2 because I keep rewinding and watching little parts of it over and over. THe one specifically about the electric guitar was especially captivating.

They show chuck berry, and he's got this straight flopping duck's ass and the thin mustache, and it dawned on me that he looks alot like the guy who I buy my beer from. Not that it makes any difference.

Jeff Baxter narrates alot of it and they show him looking alot like the guy from mythbusters and sitting with a guitar that looks to me like a lucite early roland guitar synth with a fender strat neck. He only plays it once to demonstrats "rockabilly". Jeff Baxter has been one of my heroes since I read the guitar player magazine interview where he talked about all these cheapo guitars that he played on hit records. Growing up poor, it made me think that there was still a chance I could play out and be a real rock and roller, even though I was playing a $100 saga strat (as long as I took all the guts out and replaced them $35 at a time).

There is also alot of BB King and Clapton. I honestly never connected with either one of those guys. To me they seem kind of sterile and polished. EVH says that clapton was about the only guy who he ever did connect with. It's weird because as player, I think EVH is really good. But I like the ease and roughness about it. It's almost frenetic. Not as loose and unstructured as Hendrix, but not as square and "patient" as BB King and Clapner. I have seen BB king a few times and shook his hand when I was 18. I can't listen to him recorded. It's like you have to be in his presence, like bluesmen in general.

In another of the episodes, Muddy Waters sings "Got my Mojo Working" at what looks to be a "county fair" kind of atmostphere. Aluminum folding chairs and white bleachers and white folk. And he's just singing. The last chorus, he's doing these moves totally invoking doggie style screwing and at the end I swear he grabs his dick like a rapper. Then he bows and shakes the hand of the skinny white Master of Ceromnies (in Wayfarers, oc course). I tried to imagine how that was taken in its time.

I just really wanted to tell you guys about that awesome show.
 
cephus said:
In another of the episodes, Muddy Waters sings "Got my Mojo Working" at what looks to be a "county fair" kind of atmostphere. Aluminum folding chairs and white bleachers and white folk. And he's just singing. The last chorus, he's doing these moves totally invoking doggie style screwing and at the end I swear he grabs his dick like a rapper. Then he bows and shakes the hand of the skinny white Master of Ceromnies (in Wayfarers, oc course). I tried to imagine how that was taken in its time.

I just really wanted to tell you guys about that awesome show.

I HAVE to see that particular scene. :D Muddy Waters, what a man.
 
cephus said:
I can't listen to him [B.B. King] recorded. It's like you have to be in his presence, like bluesmen in general.

cephus, you HAVE heard "Live at the Regal", haven't you? If not, try it out. And I really love his early stuff on Kent and Modern. I have trouble liking what he's recorded since around 1967.

I've seen him live twice, in the early 1970s. Great band, great show. But yeah, by taking steps to expand his audience (and you can't blame him for that), he did lose some of his...blues.

BTW, thanks for your kind words re: my website!

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to cephus again."
 
I thought "the history of rock and roll" was pretty good too. Chuck Berry and Little Richard are the architects of rock and roll IMO and should be given their due. Chuck Berry is the greatest poet rock has ever known.

My only problem with it is that I think they shortchanged Jerry Lee Lewis on his contribution to the genre.
I consider JLL to be the first white rock and roller....because...I consider "whole lotta shakin' goin' on" to be the first true ROCK AND ROLL record. The Elvis Presley stuff like "that's alright mamma" and "blue moon of kentucky" was rockabilly IMO (as was "rock around the clock" by Bill Hailey)

Jerry Lee Lewis was the first white guy to be a long haired, unhinged, dangerous, frenzied, pure rock and roller....and "whole lotta shakin'" was the first record to capture that.
The only reason it wasn't the grestest selling single of that era is because Sunn records couldn't press enough to fill demand and most stores were sold out of it. It was a hit and banded from airplay at the same time...THAT'S rock and roll.
The sex pistels got more coverage than the killer in that series....and they were just regurgitating what he had already done in the late 50's....shock audiences with pure audasity. (but HE was a master of his instrument, voice, and style unlike the pistels)
 
I love the killer, too. I am mired in 50s rock and rollers. I actually would admit that i really don't care for "rock" without the "roll".

Speaking of Elvis, did you notice that on some of the TV appearances of him that you could actually hear his acoustic guitar (actually louder than the band) and that he was doing a pretty good job of holding down the fort? He was beating the shit out of it and I think doing a good job at driving the rhythm.

Jerry Lee Lewis was also really good at the flourish, like a magician. There is an efficient way to perform an action, and then there is a way that you do it with style that gets the same results, but looks much cooler. I really like that about old 50s guys. Seeing that dream theater guy standing like a statue while his fingers efficiently move around the neck kinda bores me.
 
cephus said:
I love the killer, too. I am mired in 50s rock and rollers. I actually would admit that i really don't care for "rock" without the "roll".

Speaking of Elvis, did you notice that on some of the TV appearances of him that you could actually hear his acoustic guitar (actually louder than the band) and that he was doing a pretty good job of holding down the fort? He was beating the shit out of it and I think doing a good job at driving the rhythm.

Jerry Lee Lewis was also really good at the flourish, like a magician. There is an efficient way to perform an action, and then there is a way that you do it with style that gets the same results, but looks much cooler. I really like that about old 50s guys. Seeing that dream theater guy standing like a statue while his fingers efficiently move around the neck kinda bores me.

Jerry Lee's new album "Last Man Standing" is a testiment to his awesome talent, originality, endurance, and rock and roll vision. He rips through Led Zeps "rock and roll" like a 22 year old....with jimmy page on guitar holding on for dear life. It is better than Zeps version....which is really saying something. Him and Ringo Star do the best version of "Sweet little 16" I have ever heard. He does "playing in a traveling band" with John Fogerty at a punk rock tempo....faster than even the Creedence version. He does "Hadical Boogie" with Buddy Guy and he and Buddy burn it slap up....proving once again the JLL is the absolute master of that style of rock.

It is the best new album I have heard in quite some time and Jerry is 72 YEARS OLD!!

unbelievable!

He has been written off and considered "down for the count" so many times throughout the years, only to comeback again and again stronger than before.

EVERYONE who loves the music of rocks founding fathers should get that album ...and see how strong the last man standing still is.

He out rocks every guest star on that record....He didn't need ANY of them IMO.

*message to the ones who put together "the history of rock"...GIVE THE KILLER HIS DUE WHILE HE IS STILL ALIVE!!!!!
(instead of waiting until he dies to kiss up one side of his ass and down the other)
 
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I've been watching this series. pretty good. If anything, it really hits home how totally sterile and lame the music world is right now. Call me cynical, but I don't see any of the 'American Idols' being remembered as trailblazers in 30 years.
 
The thing I liked about the Chuck Berry bit was the band. There he is, doing his thing, and he's being backed up by a bunch of gray-haired white guys (Jazz musicians, to be sure), and you know what? They fucking swing! It sounded great. The 50+ year old piano player (well, he looks that old to me) is shaking his head and rocking right along with Chuck. And this is a TV show taped in the FIFTIES.

Just goes to show, it doesn't matter what you look like, only what you HEAR like.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
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I bough a Chuck CD of Chess remasters a couple of years ago & for the first time actually HEARD the band he used. Johnno Johnson et al REALLY were great. The Chess reissue is brilliant - the song choices - a couple of left fields - are great Havanna Moon etc.
I definitely reappraised the fellow's work - he may be a silly OLD bugger with hidden cameras but wow he could, write, perform & BE Rock n Roll.
 
rayc said:
I bough a Chuck CD of Chess remasters a couple of years ago & for the first time actually HEARD the band he used. Johnno Johnson et al REALLY were great. The Chess reissue is brilliant - the song choices - a couple of left fields - are great Havanna Moon etc.
I definitely reappraised the fellow's work - he may be a silly OLD bugger with hidden cameras but wow he could, write, perform & BE Rock n Roll.

Mr. Berry has never been a great guitar player technically, but he gave a lot of thought to his soloes and many of them were just...brilliant. I remember reading an interview with him circa 1967 in which he was asked how he constructed his soloes, and his answer was "It's all math." My musical world opened up when I got the "Chuck Berry's Golden Decade" double LP as a high-schooler in 1967.

I think of him as a real genius who wrote great songs and consciously strove to mirror pop culture. AND the Chess studio guys he used pre-1964 were simply marvelous.
 
As the line in Bob Seger's 'Rock And Roll Never Forgets' says

"All of Chuck's children are out there, playing his licks..."



I had a friend that I did a Letterman Top 10 list for on his 40th birthday. It was 'the top 10 songs (he) would be playing on his birthday'.

The number one answer was -

It doesn't matter. Whatever he plays will sound like Johnny B. Goode.

:D
 
The Guitar Hero's episode was really interesting. I liked how they went back and really explored the blues and then covered Les Paul creating his guitar.
 
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