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Monday 20 March 2017

‘Johnny B. Goode’ has gone

 

Chuck

Over the weekend, Chuck Berry died. He was ninety.

More than anyone, Chuck Berry invented rock and roll. Without him … well, who knows. The musicians who followed knew his contribution, and were generally happy to take instruction. Even Keith Richards:

 

He understood the debt others owed him. [Read Chuck Berry’s Reviews of The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, and More.]

Astronomer Carl Sagan once sent Chuck Berry a letter:

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A related story going round NASA has it that the one message ever received from interplanetary space was a our-word message reading thus:

send more Chuck Berry

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1 comment:

  1. Unknown20 Mar 2017, 15:21:00

    Looking at that letter: Is this the first case of interstellar music piracy? By my reading there was no prior consent nor royalties paid for the music. It was merely copied and sent.

    ReplyDelete

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