Product Description
17 of his greatest hits including: Back in the USA Johnny B. Goode Little Queenie Mabellene Roll Over Beethoven Sweet Little Rock & Roller and more.
Customer Reviews:
Learning rock guitar? This is the place to start........2007-08-23
I've played guitar for 20 years and I still come back to Chuck Berry's work to tune up my skills and learn new approaches to the instrument. As a 16 yr. old I always dismissed this work as simplistic but as an adult I can see how innovative and driving it can be. The tab used in this edition is a little out of date for anyone who's used to modern guitar magazines or folios. Once you've learned those quirks you'll find the transcriptions are very accurate.
Very Goode.......2006-04-20
I've been playing guitar for about 3 months now, and this is by far the easiest tab book I have. I would highly recommend this book for beginners. Don't get me wrong, it's tough but much easier than starting out trying to learn Zeppelin or similar bands. Without Chuck Berry, there would be no rock & roll.
berry goode!.......2006-03-26
Highly recommended if you are interested in how Chuck played it. Also,Mr. Sokolow's books and videos are always accurate and very insightful .
People are reviewing the WRONG book here ..........2005-12-04
Hey guys, this particular book IS A GUITAR TABLATURE BOOK - it's not an AUTOBIOGRAPHY!
Now, Chuck may have written an autobiography - I don't know - but THIS BOOK IS NOT IT.
This book contains guitar tablature that was transcribed from Chuck's greatest tunes by FRED SOKOLOW (not Chuck Berry). FRED SOKOLOW gets the kudo's here. People are confused about this book.
Fred did a stellar job of transcribing these tunes - an absolutely stellar job. If you want to know how to play Chuck's tunes authentically - this is the book to buy. Go ahead and MEMORIZE every lick, every guitar player should know Chuck's licks from memory and be able to play them just like he did (when desired).
Buy this book!
we're going to do some Chuck Berry songs.......2005-09-08
In his brilliant introduction, Bruce Springsteen describes the day he played in Chuck Berry's backing band. "We were all really nervous. There wasn't supposed to be an extra guitar player, so I came up to him and I said, 'Gee, is it okay if I play?' and he said 'Yea, yea, you can play.' And I said, 'Well Chuck . . . ' and he said, 'What?' And I said, 'What songs are we going to do?' And he said, 'Well, we're going to do some Chuck Berry songs.' That's all he said."
Unlike just about every other celebrity autobiography, Chuck Berry wrote this book himself - and it is the better for it. He wrote it and his beloved wife Toddy and his secretary Fran read the proofs. No ghost writer penned this one under the strap line 'as told to . . .' No 'creative editor' rearranged the words to fit a house style. Charles Edward Anderson Berry wrote this book and he did so with the same zest, humour, poetry and soul he put into his songs. I read all 360 pages in one sitting and it was so good, I have begun reading it all over again.
Berry grew up in an all-black neighbourhood and never saw a white man until the neighbour's shed burnt down and white firemen came to out the blaze. "Not knowing them to be Caucasian, I thought they were so frightened that their faces were whitened from fear of going near the big fire."
Music was baptist hymns with his mother Martha Banks Berry at the family piano. Piano lessons and Beethoven gave way to the guitar and 'Roll Over Beethoven.'
Fifty years ago, Charles Berry gave Leonard Chess a demo tape of a song he had recorded at home called Ida May. He had the idea that if he took a blues tune and put a speeded up 'hill-billy' (as C&W was then known) beat behind it, it would gain a wider appeal. He had been playing to mixed audiences (i.e. black and white) and had noticed that some songs would get the one or the other crowd onto the dance floor, but speed up a blues tune to a country beat and they both hit the floor.
"Free, black, twenty-one, single and unbelievably horny." is how Chuck Berry describes himself after three years jail for armed robbery. He does not gloss over the mistakes or try to be something he was not. It is written in the old-fashioned style of an educated black man from the South. He speaks of "the nobility of the moment" on one page and "I was sho nuff a family man" on the next, as he moves effortlessly from being a Southern Gentleman one minute to a 'Yassir Boss!' negro the next, giving us a sly wink and poking fun at our attitudes to both.
Ida May was changed to Maybellene and on May 21st 1955, rock-and-roll was born. "It was just my attempt to sing country and Western, which I have always liked!" Mr. B (as Fran and his other employees called him) makes no claim to any special place in history.
But he does quietly and skillfully put other claimants in their place: "In 1943 Big Joe Turner was appearing one night at the Rum Boogie nightclub in Chicago on 55th and South Parkway (now Dr. Martin L King Drive). I climbed up to a window of the club where I saw and heard him sing 'Rock Around the Clock,' a tune Bill Haley copied ten years later."
In that one statement, he alludes to the common practise of white song smiths 'lifting' black tunes and becoming wealthy in the process.
One is given a clear idea of what it was like to be black back then and today. The book begins with the birth of Cellie Wolfolk to Mistress Wolfolk, owner of the Wolfolk Plantation in Kentucky. But Cellie's father was one of the house servants
and little Cellie was "a fair-skinned negro" and therefore was born into slavery. Cellie was Chuck Berry's great-grandmother.
Throughout the 360 pages there is always that underlying theme. Whereas other nations may be defined by class or religion, Americans and the people of the southern states in particular are defined by the colour of their skin. As a Scotsman, I have always been baffled by this obsession and Mr. Berry goes a long way to explain it. Just one hundred years earlier, his great-grandmother was somebody's property.
Is the book self-indulgent? Yes (it is an autobiography after all!) Did he have affairs? Yes. Does he try to hide it? No, he even goes so far as to devote a couple of chapters to the more interesting girls he has known. My wife assures me that Chuck Berry is one of the most interesting and good looking men she has ever seen,so I suppose it was inevitable. I've been in the music business for some forty years and I have done the same, it's just that nobody wants to read about it! But then I didn't create rock-and-roll, I am just one of the thousands that were swept up to become part of this giant industry that began over fifty years ago.
For one blinding moment, one brown eyed handsome man picked up the ultimate phallic symbol and thanks to an invention by Leo Fender, woke up the World. Those tunes were covered and copied by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and every other rock band that ever followed them. When I was a kid at college, we played Chuck Berry tunes. We copied the open riffs to 'Johnny B Good,' 'Carol,' 'Queenie' and all the other songs note by
note and beat by beat. It's how we learnt to play rock-and-roll.
Now, thanks to that industry, I own a recording studio in Scotland and we get to record music by people from all over the World. And if I am honest, the songs may have other titles and other words, but all these years we have been doing Chuck Berry songs.
Customer Reviews:
Let The Better Nature Win.......2006-03-07
Fabulous book. Inspiring look at how not to mess around with Mother Nature. Nature is not the enemy we have been led to believe! I love this book, and it was one of the first to make an indelible impression about changing one's philosophy of how to possibly go about organic farming (I was an organic farmer later on). Poses searching questions (and one man's answers) that every gardener and farmer should look for the answers to, regarding how much we need to interfere with natural processes to produce food. Also a thoughtful look at balancing nutritional needs with what is seasonally available. Vital reading for anyone interested in permaculture, sustainable agriculture, or just a soul-lifting antidote to modern, corporate food production.
wonderful.......2003-12-25
I read this book years ago when it was first published and it has been a magor influence on me and my gardens for all these years. I've followed Fukoka's ideas as much as closely I can living in a city and have had wonderful results. He is right, let nature do the work. My garden is the most beautiful in the neighborhood, and without any pesticides, fertilizers, tilling, or backstrain. Buy this book, Gaia's Garden, and Forest Gardening. They all follow the naturalistic, symbiotic, permaculture mode that mother nature has been evolving for a billion years - just plug into the natural order and start growing!
It's the way all right.......2002-12-23
Ladies and Gentlemen, please get on board, the Fukuoka earth ship is departing for Earth. All I can say is to get involved with the growing community of Fukuoka farmers around the world. Please come and visit us at fukuokafarmingol.net if you have any inclination towards ecological farming and leaving behind the fear of growing your own food because you are afraid the results will not be what you want or because you are afraid to damage the soil. Masanobu points the way to farming without destruction.
The kind of book all should be exposed to..........2002-02-09
Though I had heard a little bit about Fukuoka and his practice, I was not prepared in the least for the way that this book would touch me. It was like a ray of light piercing through the murky cloudiness that was my mind; all the more remarkable because I stumbled on it by chance at the public library while glancing through the gardening books. He does an excellent job of demonstrating how much extra work we have all created for ourselves, how our scientific solutions all require further solutions, and that it is an endless cycle as long as we are straying from nature and its example. This book managed to eloquently lay out a great many ideas that had been lying dormant in my head: the overemphasis on specialization vs. generalism in our society, the break between modern urbanized lives and natural agrarian lives, the definition of 'enough' and how desire leads us ever farther away from that baseline. Fukuoka discusses all these topics and more--and in a style that is far more effective than anything I can write to explain it. It is philosophy, agricultural method, and cultural criticism wrapped up into an effective unity. A shame that it appears to be out of print right now.
If you're even thinking about getting this book...Do It!.......2001-11-09
I bought and read this book years ago, and it was a light in the darkness even then. I can't even begin to tell the readers how deep an effect it had. It drove home the point so poignantly that we can't separate all the aspects of ourselves. From the universe within to the universe without, we are all entwined in the dance of life. One can't move a little without affecting the other. I loaned this book out time and again, and everyone was deeply affected, one so much so that I never got my book back. It's not that big a book, but it is, still, a book that is as influential as any I have ever read. It is as much about our relationship to our planet as it is about farming. Read it.
Book Description
Brown Eyed Handsome Man: The Life and Hard Times of Chuck Berry draws on dozens of interviews done by the author himself and voluminous public records to paint a complete picture of this complicated figure. This biography uncovers the real Berry and provides us with a stirring, unvarnished portrait of both the man and the artist.
Berry has long been one of pop music's most enigmatic personalities. Growing up in a middle-class, black neighborhood in St. Louis, his first major hit song, "Maybellene," was an adaptation of a white country song, wedded to a black-influenced beat. Thereafter came a string of brilliant songs celebrating teenage life in the '50s, including "School Day," "Johnny B. Goode," and "Sweet Little Sixteen." Berry's career rise was meteoric; but his fall came equally quickly, when his relations with an underage girl led to his conviction. It was not his first (nor his last) run in with the law. He scored his biggest hit in the early '70s with the comical (and some would saydecidedly lightweight) song "My Ding-a-Ling." The following decades brought hundreds of nights of tours, with little attention from the recording industry.
Bruce Pegg offers the definitive, though not always pretty, portrait of one of the greatest stars of rock and roll, a story that will appeal to all fans of American popular music.
Customer Reviews:
Hail, Hail, Chuck Berry!.......2004-09-14
I've been reading this book for the last few months (it's been my reading material on the train on the weekends hehe) and it's been an enertaining read of the life and hard times of Chuck Berry.
Previous to reading this book, I had only heard Chuck Berry's music and loved it, but did not know much about the man himself.
Bruce Pegg has done a good job of detailing Chuck's life, from the early days in The Ville, his begginings in music, Racism in the USA in the 50's, Chuck's relationship with Chess Records, concerts, all his court appearances (the Mann Act Trial, the Southern Aire Restuarant Video Tape Scandal (which I first heard about on E! News!) plus much more.
There are some great photos in the book which i'm not sure have been seen before.
Pegg also has also rounded up all the important people in Chuck's life and they all give interesting comments.
I haven't read Chuck Berry's offical Autobiography, but upon reading this, i'm sure this gives a much better view into his life.
Can't put this book down!.......2004-02-26
As a long time fan of Chuck Berry, I have tried to read everything I could find about him, from enclyclopedia's to Rolling Stone Magazine. Over the past 20 years, I have tried to piece together the various differing messages about him, from musical genius to "difficult to work with" entertainer. This book puts it all together in an extremely well written and well documented manner. Pegg ties together all of the pieces with a lot of information and insight otherwise unknown, with interviews of principle persons in Chuck's musical and professional life. He is obviously a fan of Chuck's, but the book is very honest with the facts and never sensational.
If you are a fan of Chuck Berry, please do yourself a favor and get this book. You will not be able to stop reading it! I think it also would be helpful for anyone interested in the social/historical milieu of this time period in relationship to black entertainers in general as well.
Chuck Berry Demystified.......2003-03-06
Great Book. Very informative. A thorough body of research was completed in order to have this book published. I thought I knew all about Chuck Berry until I read this book. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Chuck's. The book is balanced and pulls no punches. No wonder the biography is unauthorized. It contains information that is both provoctive and endearing.
Book Description
It’s no exaggeration to say that, with songs like Rock 'n’ Roll Music, Roll Over Beethoven, and Johnny B. Goode, Chuck Berry invented rock 'n’ roll. However, his career has been overshadowed, and often stalled, by tax evasion, liaisons with an underage prostitute, and jail sentences. Now, John Collis interviews those who have worked with Berry and uncovers the truth about his life back in St. Louis. The result is a clear-eyed portrait of a musical genius who, even in his seventies, is still up on stage singing Sweet Little Sixteen.
Customer Reviews:
life of chuck.......2003-07-15
chuck writes well here in this book that goes till the late 80's. he may need tow riter another that takes him further on down the road. the photos are week in the book and could have been edited a bit better but overall this is a pleasant read.
Customer Reviews:
A disappointment..........2002-05-21
I am a huge Chuck Berry fan, but I would have to say that I was very disappointed with this book. As such a brilliant lyricist and poet, I thought for sure that this book would be one of the best autobiographies I would ever read.
About halfway through the book Chuck explains why his ballads aren't as good as his rockers. He said it was because he is unable to place himself in a song, and that he is unable to convey his own emotions in song. That to me sums up this book. (His best songs, he states, are stories of other people.)
As I was reading, it sounded like Chuck just went through is accounting receipts because all he does is talk about the things he bought, and when he bought them, and how much money he made at each show, which are things that accounting records could show. Who would remember the price of their sixth Cadillac?
There are the expected sexual deviations, but even then I felt like I was only getting part of the story. I expected to hear about his songwriting and his early seminal Chess years. Instead I got a braggart going on and on about his wealth and conquests, and how much smarter he is than everyone around him.
I got this book used and at a cheap price. I recommend you do the same.
SOME KIND OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY INDEED.......2001-12-17
You will either come out of this book saying that man is a sex maniac,or you will say to yourself at least he is honest.Whatever option you may choose,the facts remain the same,CHUCK BERRY more than anybody else is the one who helped shaped rock music the way we came to understand it.After all,what is rock but sex put to music.You may beleive that my definition is simplistic,but if you think about it,it is not far from the truth.Still parts of this book(and i do not consider myself a puritan)shocked me,and i am sure some of you will feel the same.Do we really need to know about his sexual prowess that unfortunately proves that the man has an ego bigger than CASANOVA?I still like CHUCK BERRY's music a lot,but CHUCK BERRY the man is a big disapointment.He at least recognizes that MUDDY WATERS is responsible for his recording career at CHESS records ,and that LOUIS JOURDAN was his favorite singer.To resume,i must say that if you choose not to read this book,i won't blame you.There are better autobiographies on the market. (...)
Hail ! Hail ! Rock and Roll........1998-02-06
This book is a fascinating autobiography from Chuck Berry (founder of Rock & Roll). This account covers everything from his invention of the "Duck Walk" to his inspiration for "Johny Be Good". He is not only a wild man on stage but off the stage as well. This book gives the reader a first hand look into his life before and during his famous career. This witty account is interesting and enjoyable for large fans (like myself) or even people who have never heard of him. He could play a guitar just like ringing a bell.........
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for the beginning urban gardener........2007-06-06
This book is short, but it packs quite a punch. It contains many photos which are useful in diagnosing diseases, etc. This is a great starting point for the beginning urban gardener (like me) who is attempting to make the most of limited space. The authors keep keep things short, sweet, and to the point. If you're wondering what sorts of containers to use, how deep you should plant various seeds, what varieties thrive best in containers, etc., this is a great place to start. At the very least, it's a nice reference book to have on hand for for the urban gardener.
Marvelous volume and full of good information........2007-03-08
I am a Gardening Idiot. I like growing things, but I have no idea why some of my plants thrive and some of them drop dead. I decided it would be easier to isolate some of the variables (I play a scientician during the work week) if I grew more things in containers, particularly since I am now getting into more exotic fruits and berries that actually cost real money. The trouble, of course, is that there is a bewildering array of containers and conditions for people like me to choose from.
This book was recommended by someone on the Internet as a great source of information on soil, placement, containers, and cultivars (varieties of a given plant -- don't laugh, I didn't know what it meant) that are best suited for container gardens. For example -- dwarf fig trees are fiction. You can, however, restrain a fig tree's growth. You just don't feed and water it as much, and you put it in a big pot. (Eventually I suspect that you will have to either kill it or move it outside, but I'm not there yet)
My biggest relief is that the book showed me how to meet the somewhat stringent preferences of the Mara des Bois strawberries that I'm growing this season. I didn't realize that strawberry planters are shaped the way they are so that the plants can share the soil (which you feed from the top with organic matter, i.e. compost). The net benefit (which I assume people have known for decades) is that you can manage the soil for a dozen or so plants at once, since their roots are close together and the pH/moisture is pretty much the same for all of them. There are more complicated ways to achieve this (eg. the Earthbox design), but they don't seem to work any better for what I am doing. So the book saved me some needless spend, too.
I paid $3 for this book. If I got as much value out of every $3 I spent, I would be an incredibly happy guy. Even after perusing all the books at the local library (and the Los Angeles Public Library is *immense*), I still think this book delivered for me. I would have paid 5 times as much if I'd seen it in a bookstore, and I would not have regretted it for a second.
Great information and extremely clear guidance for a very reasonable price.
Think farming on a smaller scale..........2002-10-19
Want to grow fruit trees but don't think you have the space? Like to try new vegetable varieties but never remember where you planted them? Kids want to start a garden of their own but you don't want to give up the space? Movable Harvests has your answers to all these dilemmas. There are tips on creating the perfect potting mix and picking the right container as well as basic crop growing instructions. Pest control is addressed on a by-vegetable basis and is split between cultural and chemical controls. Movable Harvests has good ideas for all sorts of crops from fruits and berries to salad greens and root vegetables. You can grow ANYTHING in a container. A final, although short, chapter provides instructions on indoor farming including how to grow your own dwarf banana tree.
Wonderful starting book!.......2001-03-07
I have found this book a wonderful starting point for vegetable gardening in containers. It has chapters on proper containers, soil mixes, all natural ways to deal with pests, fertilizing options, and many helpful suggestions, even has a section for growing indoors. I originally checked it out at the library, and have found it so helpful that I am ordering my own copy!
Finally a book about growing fruits/vegetables in containers.......1998-02-07
This is the only book I have found that covers growing vegetables in containers. It is a good start. It provides just enough information about the all important-soil recipes, companion plants, container sizes & types, watering, pests, fertilizers and suitable crops. It's not a big book, which is why I can't give it my highest rating. I am still looking for something more in depth and with more personal experiences, ergo the reason for my web site LinLu's Container Gardening -
Average customer rating:
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Chuck Berry: Rock 'N' Roll Music (Rock and Roll Reference Series)
Howard De Witt
Manufacturer: Pierian Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Instruments & Performers
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Rock
| Musical Genres
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0876501714 |
Product Description
A year-by-year look at rock from 1955 to 1980.
Product Description
Legendary guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, Hubert Sumlin, T-Bone Walker, Johnnie Winter, Albert King, Freddie King, and Chuck Berry are known to all blues fans for their remarkable soloing abilities.
But the complete blues guitarist must do more than shine in the solo spotlight. And that is why every great soloist is also a great fill-in player.
Tasteful fill-in licks support and inspire the singer while adding fire and drive to the performance. For example, Blind Lemon Jeffersons string-snapping fill-ins provided the perfect complement for his rough-hewn blues songs. Both Louis Armstrong and Lester Young seemed to talk to the singer with their finely-crafted, jazzy fill-ins. And Henry Sunflower Vestines stinging, buzzsaw fill-ins never failed to drive his Canned Heat bandmates into a psychedelic frenzy.
This book is accompanied by a user-friendly split-track CD allows you to sit in with a professional blues band while you learn to play blues fills behind a great singer, Charles Adkins. The Heat-Seeking Missile Blues Band is heard on the left channel; the fill-in licks are isolated on the right channel.
This is not just another book of abstract how do I use these licks in real life? licks, but a collection of solid musical ideas that can be applied to thousands of real songs. Another fine contribution from Red Dog Music Books, designed for the early intermediate-to intermediate guitarist. Some of the licks are accessible to highly motivated near-beginners, and the book is an excellent resource for teachers.
Product Description
A turnaround lick is one that is played in the last two bars of of chord progression; for example measures 11-12 in a twelve-bar blues. The 101 authentic blues turnarounds in this book are in the Chicago, or urban, blues style popularized by Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, and carried on by Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan; the licks can be applied to thousands of real songs. Each lick is written in notation and tablature, and recorded on the companion CD. The material is suitable for an ambitious beginner, intermediate player, blues band guitarist, or pro reference. It is an indispensible book filled with useful information. The book is supplemented with lessons/discussions on the following: Typical blues progression; Turnaround licks and progressions (defined); Typical blues turnaround chord progressions; The 12/8 blues shuffle; Creative projects for the music student; Additional blues progressions. Best of all, this innovative Red Dog Music book from veteran author Larry McCabe costs less than one private music lesson!
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