Chuck Berry made final album on his own terms
UNIVERSITY CITY, MO. — Chuck Berry did things his own way, right up to his final album, a 10-song set nearly four decades in the making.
The St. Louis native widely hailed as the father of rock ’n’ roll announced plans for the album “CHUCK” in October on his 90th birthday. The music took on added poignancy when Berry died in March. The album will be released Friday.
It’s a fitting finale from the guitar master who melded blues, R&B and country music into a sound that took over the 1950s, forever changing the cultural landscape. Some of the new songs, like “Wonderful Woman” and “Big Boys,” feature the same driving rhythm of his earliest hits like “Maybellene” and “Roll Over Beethoven.” In fact, one of the new songs, “Lady B. Goode,” offers the perspective of the woman left behind by his legendary “Johnny B. Goode.”
But Berry’s son, Charles Berry Jr., said his father did not set out to make a legacy album.
“I think this was just his next body of work, and it just took a lot longer than the other albums to get released,” Berry Jr., 55, said.
That’s an understatement. Jim Marsala, who played bass guitar in Berry’s band for 41 years, said Berry began working on new material soon after the release of his previous album, “Rock It,” in 1979.
Always marching to his own beat, Berry was in no particular hurry. For 10 years, he recorded songs, or riffs for songs, or whatever came to mind. All of the tracks were destroyed in a 1989 fire at a studio near his home in Wentzville, Missouri, a St. Louis suburb. At that point, “he has nothing,” Berry Jr. said. “So, he builds another studio and goes back to work, re-creating and creating new music.”
In the meantime, Berry continued to perform, including monthly shows for nearly two decades at Blueberry Hill, a venue in another St. Louis suburb, University City, until age 88. Marsala directed the band, Charles Berry Jr. played guitar, and the always unpredictable frontman commanded the stage, taking his bandmates on a nightly trip they could never anticipate.
“CHUCK” was a family affair. Berry Jr. plays guitar, as does his own son, Charles Edward Berry III, who turns 23 this week. Ingrid Berry-Clay, one of Chuck’s three daughters, sings and plays harmonica.
She sings along with her dad on “Darlin’,” a country-tinged ballad that resonates as a final message to his children. “Darlin’, your father’s growing older each year,” Berry sings. “Strands of grey are showing bolder/Come here and lay your head upon my shoulder/My dear, the time is passing fast away.”
Typical of Berry, the lyrics of “CHUCK” are at times poetic, at other times playful. “Big Boys” hearkens to his earlier odes to teenage cravings. “The girls wanna stay and the boys wanna play/So let’s rock ‘n’ roll till the break of day,” he sings.