Berry’s family was well-established and respected in their St. Louis community, but he was a bit of a bad kid. He even served a brief prison stretch. It would not be his last. However, when he got out, he found success as an R&B guitarist. His style was so distinctive, Chess Records signed him up—thus was rock & roll born.
The Chuck Berry instalment of In Their Own Words is just an hour, but it hits most of the important career milestones. That notably includes crediting boogie-woogie-blues pianist Johnnie Johnson for discovering and developing Berry’s sound as the guitarist in his combo. Sadly (but not surprisingly), most of Berry’s contemporaries are no longer available to participate, but Marshall Chess discusses Berry relationship with the Chess Brothers (his father Leonard and uncle Phil).
For star-power, we hear from Keith Richards, who was the musical director for the Chuck Berry tribute doc Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, as well as his all-star bandmates, Robert Cray and Steve Jordan (who played with Sonny Rollins and the original Letterman show band). The director, Taylor Hackford also discusses the making of the film, which was a bit chaotic, thanks to Berry’s strong personality (to put it diplomatically).
Everyone should know Chuck Berry was the founding father of rock & roll, but watching something like this episode of In Their Own Words really puts it in perspective. It is pretty straightforward, but it gets the job done. Frankly, when you hear hit after hit like “Maybellene,” “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” and “Johnny B. Goode,” it is hard to miss the point. He was more of a king than Elvis and he did it his way more than Sinatra ever did. That comes through nicely in the episode of In Their Own Words, airing Tuesday (7/27) on PBS.
