Chuck Berry: An American Life

RJ Smith OMNIBUS

Deep-dive bio of rock pioneer.

Chuck Berry, RJ Smith tells us at the outset of this richly detailed and informative biography, was seriously into cars. He saw the car as a metaphor for the motion essential to his music. It was the 1950s, and he was going places, crossing established state lines, taking

in the sounds that drifted over the waves of his radio – not just blues and soul but hillbilly boogie, Cuban boleros, Mexican songs, Frankie Lane, Sinatra, Charlie Christian. All of these would be grist to his vehicle, setting rock’n’roll on the road.

Smith shows how, despite Berry’s desire to transcend his blackness, seething prejudice was insurmountable. He was an unpleasant – ultimately deeply unpleasant – man, but Smith shows how his aggressive care with money and his terrible attitude to women were in his own mind a revenge on a racist society. Superhuman in his achievements, not quite human as a man.