Wearing a snazzy psychedelic shirt with huge pointed collar, tremendous ruffles at the cuffs, and the purple bell bottoms of the gods, Chuck Berry rocks it his way, a true American original doing his inimitable and incalculably influential rock n' roll thing in front of an appreciative audience of English teens.
The showmanship, the charisma, the physicality, the style of one of rock's few true first greats is on display for all to enjoy. Long and lean, sporting trademark sideburns, slicked-back hair, and tiny mustache, Berry delivers flawless verbal gymnastics, changing up and somewhat updating his staples, notably "Reelin' and Rockin'".
It's easy to see now that Berry was at the top of his game eighteen years into his career. He does the duck walk, yes, but more impressive than that he does the splits, and hops around, still playing guitar.
Included in his dynamic, fluid performance, Berry plucks terrifically with his guitar up on his shoulder against his neck. With his easygoing energetic style, it's easy to see why Chuck Berry so impressed and influenced the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and countless others.
Incidentally, 1987's concert film/documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n Roll shows some interesting moments between Keith and Chuck rehearsing together for the occasion of Chuck's 60th birthday. Berry had a temper. And Richards has said in multiple interviews that when he couldn't resist picking up and holding his idol's guitar, his idol caught him doing it and punched him in the face.
A checkered past did little for polishing Berry's image, but, that also being the image of rock, not taking a polish arguably enhances the shine. Incredibly, two of his greatest contemporaries, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, still perform, as indeed did Berry himself until his passing just a couple years ago.
It speaks to his talent as an artist that he was able to adapt as well as he did, psychedelia not being part of early rock, and he changes the songs so they don't sound locked into antiquity, but remain malleable and alive.
In terms of his band, Rocking Horse, the members of which remain essentially faceless, the guy in the big hat with the long hair on piano--improbable as it sounds--does seem to rather clearly prove that Johnny Depp time-traveled. Which is bizarre because we didn't know he played piano.
Preceded by Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters recording sessions of their own in London, Chuck Berry's performance captures him at his peak.
Check out Chuck belting "Johnny B. Goode", "Let it Rock", and plenty more for an hour and forty-six minutes of magic freely available on YouTube.
Stewart Kirby's Film Focus
on LaGrandeAlive.TV
Film Focus, the Sentinel of Cinema
Stewart Kirby writes for
THE INDEPENDENT
and
TWO RIVERS TRIBUNE
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