National Post (National Edition)
FIVE THINGS ABOUT AN ICON
1 HE STUDIED HAIRDRESSING
Chuck Berry, known for his perfectly pomaded hair, once studied hairdressing. After a three-year stint in reform school for his part in a bungled robbery, Berry worked for his father and on an auto assembly line while also pursuing his interest in coiffures. His musical talents eventually led him to a different career path.
2 HE WALKED LIKE A DUCK
Berry once told The Washington Post that he initiated his rubber-legged “duck walk” at the Brooklyn Paramount theatre in 1956, based on a pose he sometimes struck as a child. “I had nothing else to do during the instrumental part of the song,” he said. “I did it, and here comes the applause. Well, I knew to coin anything that was that entertaining, so I kept it up.”
3 HE WAS JAILED TWICE
In addition to reform school, Berry was jailed twice. In 1959, he was arrested on a federal charge of taking a 14-year-old girl across state lines for immoral purposes. He claimed he didn’t know the girl’s age. He was convicted but granted an appeal on the basis of racist remarks made by the judge. A second trial also ended in a conviction. He eventually served 18 months of a three-year sentence. In 1979, he served four months for tax evasion.
4 JOHNNY B. GOODE WAS BLACK
Perhaps the most famous of all of Berry’s songs is Johnny B. Goode. “The gateway from freedom, I was told, was somewhere near New Orleans where most Africans were sorted through and sold” into slavery, Berry wrote in his self-titled 1987 memoir. “I’d been told my grandfather lived ‘back up in the woods among the evergreens’ in a log cabin. I revived the era with a story about a ‘coloured boy named Johnny B. Goode.’ ” However, “I thought it would seem biased to my white fans to say ‘coloured boy’ so I changed it to ‘country boy.’ ”
5 HIS MUSIC WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD
A recording of Johnny B. Goode was included on a disc launched into space on the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1977.