Chuck Berry
Chuck .. Berry Is On Top!

THE ALIENS ARE BACK! (but isn't Friday the galactic rest day?)

Tok, tok, tok... As I enter the house, I hear a noise coming from the bathroom. Here we go again, a week later the two little space monsters, beyond the window, are banging their big heads against the glass. One of them has a golden disc under its tiny armpit.

Only after opening the door do I realized why I didn't find them sprawled on the sofa like last time: too wasted! They reek of alcohol and are singing "Johnny B. Goode," waving in front of my nose what I recognize as the Voyager Golden Record, the phonograph record included in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. Geez... but among all the noble and popular music selected to represent the diverse forms of life and culture of Earth in deep space (Bach, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mozart, Senegalese percussion, Pygmy women's initiation song, Navajo night chant...) they chose Chuck Berry! Could it be my fault?

Empathetically, I find myself laughing with the drunks (when they open their mouths, I can smell the vapors and I think it’s definitely wine) and pulling out "Chuck... Berry Is On Top", disappointed not to be able to share the experience with my friends Debasiarani this time, certain of already finding thousands of reviews of the work. But, surprise! Great surprise! No trace of the work and just a bit more of the great Chuck: only three reviews and mainly collections.

But how, the first album to go beyond a million copies sold! The one with not only the track on the Golden Record but also "Roll Over Beethoven," "Maybellene," "Carol," "Little Queenie"... Well, I know already, I will have to hear that I am the banal reviewer who brings up "the usual names from the rock handbook" (quote @Rocky Marciano). But, after all, as another rocker who used to get straight to the point sang (Lou Reed: "If there are more than three chords, it's jazz") I'm just your average guy... average in everything I do! Okay, okay, I'll get to it, but not now. Right now, the two aliens and I are busy dancing and wrapping up the party with a bottle of Haitian Rum.

Once the booze wears off, vague memories: I remember dancing with Leather Tuscadero and Slice Cunningham. I remember the aliens, this time, saying goodbye with a mandi-mandi that unequivocally clarifies where they stopped before visiting me again. Little else. I just hope they put the Voyager Golden Record back in place.

I should, now, keep the promise, but what can I reiterate about the work that hasn't already been said and written in 64 years? A simple "grab it" should suffice, not only if you're a Rock & Roll enthusiast; the work and the artist are too important not to have at least this from "u zu Chuck" in your house. I call him that because in every photo I see the look of the fifty-year-olds when I was a kid: sideburns, flashy shirts and jackets preferably in paisley patterns, rust-colored pants and pointed boots but never black or dark brown: strictly light brown or, better yet, white.

Probably more responsible is the musical legacy, though equally explosive! Johnny (as he was known in the field) the helmsman of rhythm and blues towards what was not yet rock'n'roll, idol of John Lennon and Keith Richards, the duck-walk man, the one who made the electric guitar the absolute protagonist when Jimi Hendrix was just a kid. All thanks to the fact that he hadn't suffered enough to be a bluesman. When Muddy Waters introduced him to Leonard Chess, Chess wasn't particularly impressed by the recordings Chuck had brought with him. What caught his attention was only a reworking of a country & western classic "Ida Red." That's how "Maybellene" was born: the first real Rock & Roll song.

The milestone of popular music was included for the first time in "Chuck... Berry Is On Top," although, when his third album was published (1959), it had been three years since the single's release. As was customary at the time, the album is a collection of various previously released A and B sides, with the sole exception of "Blues for Hawaiians," truly forgettable rather than memorable, along with "Anthony Boy," "Jo Jo Gunne," and "Hey Pedro." The remaining 8 tracks are from the Greatest Hits and went down in history also for the countless covers, for me, never matching the originals. At least until today; may the heavens grant me an explosive cover by a Japanese metal band that succeeds where The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Animals, ... have failed.

Among all, my favorite remains "Little Queenie," first heard in the beautiful 1970 Stones live album (Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! - The Rolling Stones In Concert). One of the most complex pieces from a compositional point of view, going from a sung blues verse to a spoken bridge section before exploding into the rock'n'roll chorus. The almost desperate guitar breaks at the end of the song are the seal on the masterpiece. And then the lyrics, with Chuck describing, moment by moment, all the steps to invite a girl to dance (and not only...) "meanwhile... I was thinking... she's in the right mood... no need to spoil it...."

If Elvis left the sexy icon to rock, Berry was the model for a new musical genre and not just for the brilliant mix of R&B and Country, but also for songwriting. John Lennon said of him: "he sang smart songs in the '50s when others were limited to stuff like Oh baby how I love you."

Serving, in fact, as a compilation of the greatest hits, "Chuck... Berry Is On Top!" quickly became one of the best-selling albums by our Johnny, but its success marked the final act of the golden era. In December 1959, Berry was arrested for reasons perfectly consistent with the rocker image he would help shape. This was followed by two years of trials, retrials, and appeals, prison...

Even though Berry returned to recording and touring, his career never again reached the peaks of the wonderful line-up of songs of "Chuck Berry Is On Top." More than 60 years later, the album is among the best LPs of roccherolle.

A

• Almost Grown
• Carol
• Maybellene
• Sweet Little Rock & Roller
• Anthony Boy
• Johnny B. Goode

B

• Little Queenie
• Jo Jo Gunne
• Roll Over Beethoven
• Around and Around
• Hey Pedro
• Blues for Hawaiians

Chuck Berry – vocals, guitars

Johnnie Johnson, Lafayette Leake – piano

Willie Dixon – double bass

George Smith – bass

Fred Below, Ebbie Hardy, Jaspar Thomas – drums

Jerome Green – maracas

The Moonglows – backing vocals

Bob Bushnell – bass on "Around and Around"