Talk:Chuck Berry/Archive 2

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

"Chuck Berry songs"

I've moved the "Chuck Berry songs" section to the talk page as it's a train wreck. It's wholly unsourced and littered with [citation needed] tags. If you can provide references for some of this information, feel free to re-add the information to the article. Thanks. --MZMcBride (talk) 21:44, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Extended content

{{Cleanup}} {{importance-sect}} {{Original research}} {{BLP unsourced section}} Many of his songs are among the leading rock and roll anthems: "Johnny B. Goode" - the autobiographical saga of a country boy ("colored boy" in the original lyrics) who could "play a guitar just like ringing a bell". It was given the honor of being the only rock and roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record, which are actual gold-plated records attached on the Voyager I & II space probes with the intent to convey greetings, sounds and images from humanity to any extraterrestrial life encountering the spacecraft as they travel beyond our solar system. The song was also featured in the feature film Back to the Future; during the song, "Marvin Berry" calls his cousin "Chuck" and has him listen to Marty singing this song, telling him to listen to this "new sound", while Marty gets carried away with his guitar skills and winds up doing as-yet unheard-of electric guitar riffs that make the entire crowd stop and stare at him. The band The Grateful Dead recorded this song in the 1970s. The punk band NOFX has covered this song a few times live. Judas Priest did so as well in the 80's. (Johnny Winter's version boasts "he could play a guitar like a bat out of Hell".) Chuck Berry wrote a sequel song, "Bye Bye Johnny", in 1960. This song was covered on the 1975 album On the Level by Status Quo and played live by The Rolling Stones in the 1960s. Johnny Hallyday-the French rocker-covered Johnny B. Goode :"Johnny,reviens!" A version often regarded as a definitive cover was performed by Jimi Hendrix at the Berkeley Community Theater on 30 May 1970. This has been released in audio and video formats. "Rock and Roll Music" - recorded by The Beatles on their 1964 albums Beatles for Sale (and Beatles '65 in the U.S.A.) and by the Beach Boys on their 1976 album 15 Big Ones. "Sweet Little Sixteen" - with new lyrics, became a hit for The Beach Boys as "Surfin' USA" "Roll Over Beethoven" - and "tell Tchaikovsky the news" a battle yell for rock and roll. In 1973, new owners of New York City classical music station WNCN announced a change of format to rock and roll by interrupting a performance of the Mozart Requiem with "Roll Over Beethoven". The station's classical audience was so outraged they successfully petitioned the FCC to force a return to the previous format.[1]. The song is referred to in AC/DC's "Let There Be Rock"; the Beatles recorded it on their 1963 album With the Beatles (and the 1964 American album The Beatles' Second Album) with George Harrison singing the lead; Jeff Lynne's Electric Light Orchestra made an 8-minute version of this song for their 1973 album's ELO 2. Both versions failed to correctly read the line "move on up a trifle further" though. The Sonics also covered the song on their album Here Are the Sonics. "School Days" - its chorus, "Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll", was chosen as the title of the documentary concert film organized by Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones as his tribute to Chuck, who appears in the film with many others. It was also recorded by "hard" rock & roll band AC/DC on their second album, T.N.T. (Australia). Also, on an album by Matt Groenings "The Simpsons" called "The Simpsons Sing the Blues", a cover is made of this song as Bart Sing/Rapping. It was also used in the movie, "Rock 'n' Roll High School" while Riff Randall (P.J. Soles) was setting up to be first on line to see The Ramones in concert "Let It Rock" - fantasia of gambling railroad workers that lives up to the title, written under the pseudonym E. Anderson. It is a rare performer who can turn a line like "There's an off-schedule train comin’ two miles out" into a Dionysian cry. It was famously covered by the Rolling Stones during their 1971 UK Tour and by Yardbirds on their Live at Craw Daddy Club album, as well as being a staple of Bob Seger's live show for many years. Motörhead and the Jerry Garcia Band have also performed it. "Around and Around" - describes how "the joint was rockin', goin' 'round and 'round." This song has been recorded by The Rolling Stones on 12 X 5 and Love You Live, David Bowie as "Round and Round", The Animals, The Grateful Dead, The Germs, and Maureen Tucker of The Velvet Underground. "Little Queenie" - covered by many artists, notably the Rolling Stones on their 1969/70 tours and released on the live album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! ;and in 2007 as a duet with Jerry Lee Lewis and Kid Rock on the Lewis DVD Last Man Standing Live. T. Rex borrows the line, "Meanwhile I'm still thinkin", at the conclusion of "Get It On". David Bowie paraphrases the song in his tune The Jean Genie - Go, Go, Go, Little Genie. The British rock supergroup Queen references the song (and themselves) in the song "Now I'm Here" with the line "Go! Go! Go! Little Queenie!" "Carol" - covered by The Rolling Stones on their debut album The Rolling Stones. A live version can be found on Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! His other hits, many of them novelty narratives, include: "Maybellene" - car, girl, rival, jealousy — tune based on the traditional Bluegrass standard "Ida Red". (Berry was familiar with the 1938 recording of "Ida Red" by western swing band Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys.) "Too Much Monkey Business" - teenage attitudes, predecessor to rap, "Same thing every day, gettin' up, goin' to school, no need of me complaining, my objection's overruled". Also inspired the Bob Dylan song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues". Johnny Thunders' "Too Much Junky Business" is a play on the title "Promised Land" - Cross country journey in song, from Norfolk, Virginia, to the Promised Land, California, covered by the Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley and The Band. "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" - adult attitudes, racism, "arrested on charges of unemployment" "Back in the U.S.A." - which inspired The Beatles' "Back in the USSR", covered by the MC5, the Modern Lovers and Linda Ronstadt, which in turn inspired Industrial rock band KMFDM's song "Back in the U.S.S.A." . "No Particular Place To Go" - car, girl, "parking way out on the ko-ko-mo". "Memphis, Tennessee" - unique beat, sweet story with a twist. Lonnie Mack's biggest hit single was an instrumental take-off on this tune that started the blues-rock guitar style in 1963. A few months later, Johnny Rivers recorded his second-biggest hit single with a version that included both Berry's lyrics and some of Mack's improvisations. Faces recorded a version on there album A Nod Is as Good as a Wink... to a Blind Horse. Izzy Stradlin also recorded a version on his album 117°, calling it 'Memphis.' "My Ding-a-Ling" - his only #1, a New Orleans novelty song that he had been singing for years and included on a live recording in Coventry in February, 1972. "Run, Run Rudolph" - his top Christmas song released as a single by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones in 1978. "You Never Can Tell" - song included in the movie Pulp Fiction. Also recorded by Emmylou Harris, John Prine, and Bob Seger on his Greatest Hits album, under the title "C'est la Vie." Among his blues tributes: "Come On" - recorded by the Rolling Stones in 1963 and released as their debut single. "Confessing the Blues" - signature tune of the famed Kansas City, Missouri jazz band of Jay McShann "Worried Life Blues" - originally by Chicago piano man Big Maceo Merriweather "Merry Christmas, Baby" - originally by Charles Brown "The Things That I Used to Do" by Louisiana's Guitar Slim "Wee Wee Hours", his own blues song, B-side to "Maybellene". His songs are collected on albums like: The Great Twenty-Eight is Berry's definitive greatest hits album, but the two-CD Anthology set has better sound and provides a much more complete overview of his musical output.

Chuck Berry template?

Many major artists have collapsible navigation templates at the bottom of their song and album articles. Berry really ought to have one. I'm busy with other things... Is someone else up for the job? — John Cardinal (talk) 13:49, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Update: I made a template "{{Chuck Berry}}" and added studio and live albums to it. I added the template to the studio album articles. I'll do more later, but I don't know much about Berry's career and it would be better if other editors would take over... — John Cardinal (talk) 18:16, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

Improvement

I'm gathering some research and intend to bring this article up to FA status. If anyone would like to collaborate, please let me know and we can work together. Thanks! --Spike Wilbury ♫ talk 21:13, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Links working?

I'm not getting all the links to the correct pages of the Bruce Pegg book, for example footnote nº 37. Can anyone fix it? Rothorpe (talk) 20:36, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

I just checked it, and it was OK for me. SilkTork *^YES! 10:44, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Incorrectly dated picture

The picture with caption "in France in 1957" is actually from 1987, according to the source information, and the picture's appearance confirms this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.83.90.253 (talk) 17:57, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Chuck Berry/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Xtzou (Talk) 20:41, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I am reviewing this article and will be adding comments below.

• The lead is very good and summarized his biography well. Unfortunately the rest of the article seems to be mostly choppy, short paragraphs and really don't elaborate on the lead sufficiently, from my view.
• For a man whose careers had enormous ups and downs (fame, doing prison time, embittered, climbed back etc.), the headings for his career just giving the years is not effective, giving no sense of the flow. The headings are not descriptive and not helpful to the reader.
• Why is Guitar showmanship a subsection of his 'Later career (1980-present), when this is something he started working on as a child?
• The Legacy section seems lame, considering his enormous influence on rock and rock, and popular music in general. It's just a list.
• Is Answers.com http://www.answers.com/topic/chuck-berry a reliable source?

Xtzou (Talk) 20:41, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for doing the review.

• I'll take a look at the paragraphs and see if they can be run together.
• I understand what you are saying about the headings. They are problematic. In some other musician Good Articles on which I have worked, such as George Harrison, Van Morrison and Pink Floyd, I tended to use significant albums, as that was a neutral way of focusing attention on what was happening - but with Chuck Berry, the albums are not significant, so more generic headings would be needed. Calling the 1950s something like Breakthrough doesn't quite cover it, as that period was about his breakthrough, significant success and then imprisonment. Earlier versions of the article did try to cover all that - [2], but, as you see, this wasn't entirely succesful. I think they are something that somebody might wish to address at some point, though, as they stand, the headings are factual, informative, NPOV and comply with Wikipedia:Manual of Style and Wikipedia:Good article criteria, so while they are something to think about they don't actually cause the article to fail GA.
• I think that Guitar showmanship has always been a stand alone section. Somebody may have moved it into a sub-section at some point, but it appears to be back as a stand alone at the moment.
• I have replaced Answers.com with Rolling Stone - well done for spotting that! SilkTork *^YES! 22:10, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

• I've been through and had a little tidy up, chopping out some material, reorganising others, and putting in some extra sources. I think it flows better now. And I've merged the Guitar showmanship section with the legacy section. SilkTork *^YES! 22:55, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

• Reply Not to say this is the way to go, but http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Chuck_Berry is more effective, from my point of view. Xtzou (Talk) 22:58, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with somebody having a go at changing the headings, and the headings in the mirror link are a possibility, though problematic in themselves as to what they are directing the reader to think, and that they don't contain dates. If I remember correctly, these were the headings when I first came upon the article. I think it was the nature of the headings that first made me want to do something about making the article clearer and more neutral. I was bemused by the prominent mention of the prison sentences. I may have gone too far in the way of being neutral - but that is less of a bad thing then erring on the side of directing the reader to a certain viewpoint. I'm dubious of the benefit of having a section heading that makes reference to time in prison as it draws attention to it. I feel we should deal with the prison, but not make it a major issue. And if we highlight one prison sentence - why not highlight the others? Ahhhh! It's a minefield! Anyway, thankfully, it's not a GA issue - it's a regular editing issue - one that you are right to raise, but we don't need to resolve right here and right now. SilkTork *^YES! 23:26, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Reply It's not a question of highlighting one prison sentence. The first one embittered him, as he fell from grace and it took him a long while to climb back. And it was never the same for him after that. Prison sentences later (the four month sentence was in jail (not prison), so is very different from five years in prison) did not have the same impact, as they merely reinforced what he already thought. The first one is characterized as "embittering him" in the sources you present for this article. He stopped interacting with reporters after that and even fans. PBS had a documentary showing how he walked through airport, alone, and refusing to respond to anyone. (Excuse this impressionistic response, but I don't have the time to get all my books out and give references.) Have you read his autobiography? As far as the headings go, I have no problem is dates are used, in conjunction with descriptive phrases a la John Lennon. However, I am a fan of Chuck Berry, and even I don't know what "Maybellene" to "Come On" (1955–62) is supposed to mean, other than I gather "Come on" is a song, but off hand I can't recall what it stands for, or characterizes, in his life. Xtzou (Talk) 14:44, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Comment

• I removed some editorial commentary from the lead that seemingly weighted in on the side that Berry was wrongly convicted because the 14 year old victim was "later arrested for prostitution". Today, a 14 year old girl would never be arrested for prostitution, but rather would be put under the jurisdiction of "Protective Services". So if she was arrested, that in no way justifies an adult's behavior. The conviction may well have been "racially tinged" but not because the 14 year old girl was arrested for prostitution. Xtzou (Talk) 19:59, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
• By the way, the article has been infinitely improved today. Many thanks. Xtzou (Talk) 20:00, 3 June 2010 (UTC)
• There are some problems with the references. There is an external link in the lead, and another one that returns an error. (See references).

• I also like the way the article is developing. I like the Good Article process as it does improve articles.

  I think the mention of Escalanti's arrest for prostitution was to explain how the incident came to the attention of the police. You were right, however, to remove it from the lead, as it is an additional piece of information, rather than something vital. I also suspect it isn't accurate, as the court records indicate something slightly different. I think there has been a misreading of sources at some point.

  There was a second trial because of racial comments in the first trial - the judgment of the first trial was declared void due to prejudical statements by the judge. That needs to be made clearer in the article.

  I like what Rothorpe has done with the section headings. "Come On" is a Chuck Berry song. It was the last song he released before going to prison, and was the first song released by The Rolling Stones who were largely responsible for Berry's popularity in the 60s and his subsequent appreciation by other musicians. It is, as such, an important record in Chuck Berry's history. That information, could, of course, be developed more in the article, and that is something to be considered for the ongoing development of this article.

  I agree that the prison sentences have had an impact on Berry's life and need to be explored in the article. I think that is what editors have been doing, though certainly a little more development is needed in that direction. *:There could well be an argument that his St. Louis upbringing is significant, as that informed both his character, his music style and his lyrics, and a section - perhaps called St Louis upbringing - might well be a posibility for future development of the article as there are a number of sources which do mention it in detail.

  I'll take a look at the references and see what I can do to make some of the above matters clearer.

  Thanks for all that you have done so far. I always appreciate when a reviewer gets involved in editing an article rather than simply saying - "Change spelling of 'colour' to 'color'". SilkTork *^YES! 08:47, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

I can't see the problems with the references. Could you point them out? SilkTork *^YES! 08:51, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

• Reply I no longer see the external link in the lead so I guess it has been fixed. A remaining problem is that one of the links that returned an error are now fixed but it points to essentially a dead link. http://www.rollingstone.com/?redirect=1 goes to Rolling Stone's front page and not to "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" (ref 72). (Refs to Rolling Stone have to be checked, as they have withdrawn access to most of their site.) The other screwed up link referred to the same site, but appears to have been remove completely (it was ref 10, but now the number of refs is reduced by one).

Ref 5 likewise goes to http://www.rollingstone.com/?redirect=1 goes to Rolling Stone's front page and not to "Chuck Berry" Joe Perry. Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939208/5_chuck_berry.

• I have reservations about naming all the sections after songs, as that is meaningful only to someone with an in depth knowledge of Berry already, and not helpful to someone relatively new to him. As I said above, one of the songs in a section heading was not familiar to me by title, and I own every recording he every put out as well as owning much print material about him. Xtzou (Talk) 12:10, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Trial

I've done a little bit of tidying up on the trial, and found a court record which gives the facts - so all the suggestions of racism can be removed and replaced with a definitive statement that the first trial judge was found to be racist. The girl wasn't arrested for prostitution in a hotel in St. Louis, so that has been removed. The Allmusic source turns out to be inaccurate and misleading - the prostitution link comes from the court records which show that she was a prostitute and waitress when Berry found her and transported her over state lines, but it was Escalanti who got in touch with the police in St Louis (presumably because she was mad at Berry). I have found, when working on other music articles, that the Allmusic articles are often loud with praise and drama, but quiet on facts and reliability. SilkTork *^YES! 18:31, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

[F]or a fee—which went up markedly after the freak success of "My Ding-a-Ling", his first certified million-seller, in 1972, and then diminished again—Chuck Berry will hop on a plan with his guitar and go play some rock&roll. He is the symbol of the music—the man invited to to come and steal the show at the 1975 Grammies...

Robert Christagau

Lyrics / Legacy

I think more should be said in the Legacy section about his influence on rock & roll lyrics. His writing about basically white teenager interests, about cars, high school, teenage romance and other teenage concerns etc. heavily influenced subsequent songwriters and redefined R&R lyrics. Xtzou (Talk) 18:59, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

Read his autobiography before you make blanket statements like this. Back in the day, he and his fellow students at all-African-American Sumner High School were just as interested in cars, teenage romance, and dances at the malt shop as any real-life version of Richie Cunningham and friends. Because being a teenager isn't a whites-only thing.Pithecanthropus (talk) 18:33, 1 July 2010 (UTC)

• The article is immensely improved. I think it gives the overall reasons why Chuck Berry is great. I recently saw a comment on a wikipedia page saying that Chuck Berry was a nothing, as rock&roll was defined by musicians in the 70s and 80s. This article gives a sense of why he is still so highly regarded. Xtzou (Talk) 21:25, 4 June 2010 (UTC)

I also feel the legacy section has improved. When attention is focused on an article it generally improves - that is the value of cooperative and collaborative editing. Articles tend to suffer when a single editor becomes too involved in an article and starts to become protective, resenting the attention of others - especially when people point out weaknesses or tag the article for attention. SilkTork *^YES! 19:02, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

Dead links

• [3] - 5 dead links
• ref 7 http://rockhall.com/exhibithighlights/500-songs/
• ref 21 http://www.geocities.com/allaboard70/CB2003.html (is dead but doesn't show up in link checker tool)
• ref 52 http://m.rollingstone.com/music/artist/news/;kw=[artists,5007,16661,16694]
• ref 54 http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/chuckberry/biography
• ref 65 http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/%3bkw=%5B4541,14728,15149%5D
• ref 54 http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/chuckberry/biography

needing disambiguation

• [4]

Xtzou (Talk) 17:46, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing those out. Those are useful tools. I am aware of the toolserver, but don't make enough use of it. SilkTork *^YES! 19:03, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

Good job! Xtzou (Talk) 20:42, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

1. Is it reasonably well written?

   A. Prose quality: Well written

   B. MoS compliance: Complies with required elements of MOS

2. Is it factually accurate and verifiable?

   A. References to sources: Reliable sources

   B. Citation of reliable sources where necessary: Well referenced

   C. No original research:

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. Major aspects: Sets the context

   B. Focused: Remains focused on the topic

4. Is it neutral?

   Fair representation without bias:

5. Is it stable?

   No edit wars, etc:

6. Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?

   A. Images are copyright tagged, and non-free images have fair use rationales:

   B. Images are provided where possible and appropriate, with suitable captions:

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail: Pass!

Congratulations! Xtzou (Talk) 20:42, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

Why did he never go back to studios or wrote a new song?

I was try to find if chuck said why he never went back to studio or wrote a new song, bob dylan re-born also johnny cash, kris kristofferson, etc, would be amaizing if chuck write a lot of new songs and go back to studios —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.208.215.216 (talk) 22:01, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

None of the books I have say anything about why he hasn't returned to the studio, so we could only speculate. --Spike Wilbury (talk) 17:32, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

This article needs protection

Currently it says that Chuck Berry died January 1, 2011 (aged 84). 89.146.129.154 (talk) 02:51, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

I've already reverted his death once tonight... Rothorpe (talk) 02:56, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

You can report it to the BLP noticeboard or request it for protection. Darth Sjones23 (talk - contributions) 03:08, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

Edit request from an IP user, 29 October 2011

Please replace {{Kennedy Center Honorees}} with {{2000 Kennedy Center Honorees}}, which is more specific and not so incredibly large in size. 64.134.125.128 (talk) 17:03, 29 October 2011 (UTC)

Sure, done. Thanks! Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 01:30, 30 October 2011 (UTC)

Videotaping allegiations/trial

Seems there should be an entry for this somewhere. It was a pretty big event when the story broke in the late 80s and it lasted until 1994 as far as I can tell when he settled out of court. Seems like an important event in his personal and public life.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xaYaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0S0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6477%2C21755 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.34.102.40 (talk) 21:36, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Birth date

The article says that Berry was born on October 18, 1926 (and hence is currently 83), sourced by: http://www.history-of-rock.com/berry.htm

I’m not too sure about the reliability of that source and other sources, but I think it’s reasonable to point out that Berry claimed himself that he was 84 in a concert apparently from this year. This might have been an error on his part (more likely when he is a man of such an age range), but as said I think it’s worth pointing out.

Concert: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13ZIHXZYiDo (c. 1:26) TomRed (talk) 23:24, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

See also Talk:Chuck Berry/Archive 1#Alternative Date of Birth. It never got any responses, so better luck here. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 23:48, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

I've noticed in the past that Chuck Berry's birth place seems to be disputed. If you Google Chuck Berry birthplace, you will find a significant number of listings show he was born in San Jose, CA. Thats not to say its proof that he was born there, but it might be worth noting that his birthplace seems to be an ongoing debate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.39.108.115 (talk) 22:39, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

The 1930 census for St. Louis, Missouri, clearly lists the household of Henry and Martha Berry, with four children, the youngest being Charles age 3 (which implies that his fourth birthday occurred after the official census date). He, his siblings and his father were all listed as born in Missouri, his mother in Mississippi. So, no, there's no dispute regarding his birthplace. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Colonel Mayfair (talk • contribs) 06:35, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Album article missing

There are individual articles on each of Chuck Berry's albums, including compilations and rereleases, yet there is no article for Chuck Berry's Golden Hits, his 1967 inaugural album for Mercury records, which consisted of all-new recordings of his Chess songs, plus one brand-new song. While the rest of Berry's Mercury catalog rests in obscurity, Golden Hits continues to be available, so surely it rates an article? 70.72.211.35 (talk) 17:16, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

 Working GoingBatty (talk) 02:09, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

 Added at Chuck Berry's Golden Hits. Please check that the infobox chronology of all his 1967 albums is correct. Thanks! GoingBatty (talk) 02:23, 30 November 2012 (UTC)