Chuck Berry : The Autobiography

by Berry, Chuck

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Description

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Simon & Schuster Trade Paperbacks. G+. 1988. Soft Cover. 0671671596 .

Book summary

Chuck Berry, the man who arguably invented rock & roll guitar playing, spills the beans on subjects as varied as racism, getting propositioned by Little Richard, and his varied romantic entanglements in this idiosyncratic and entertainingly anecdotal autobiography. Frank recollections of his youthful imprisonment for robbery, and reminiscences of his time spent in the racist confines of an Algoa, Missouri jail, form some of the book's most compelling episodes. There are hit records and numerous affairs, racism is encountered at every turn, and, later, there's more jail time; but, despite numerous, often self-inflicted reversals in fortune, Berry is eventually able to fashion a comfortable life for himself as a well-respected member of the rock aristocracy. He writes in an agreeably eccentric prose style, which gets positively libidinous on the subject of his frequent romantic dalliances, and which, like his lyrics, can produce some memorably loopy phrases ("...the casual squirming and leg-ly laughter lured my lascivious lacking to longing lust..."). Usefully, he also finds time to recall the origins of many of his greatest hits. CHUCK BERRY is a candidly written glimpse into the lurid life of one of the prime movers of rock & roll.