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Chuck Berry: An American Life by [RJ Smith]

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R. J. Smith

Chuck Berry: An American Life Kindle Edition

by RJ Smith (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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The definitive biography of Chuck Berry, legendary performer and inventor of rock and roll

Best known as the groundbreaking artist behind classics like “Johnny B. Goode,” “Maybellene,” “You Never Can Tell” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” Chuck Berry was a man of wild contradictions, whose motives and motivations were often shrouded in mystery. After all, how did a teenage delinquent come to write so many songs that transformed American culture? And, once he achieved fame and recognition, why did he put his career in danger with a lifetime’s worth of reckless personal behavior? Throughout his life, Berry refused to shed light on either the mastery or the missteps, leaving the complexity that encapsulated his life and underscored his music largely unexplored—until now.

In Chuck Berry, biographer RJ Smith crafts a comprehensive portrait of one of the great American entertainers, guitarists, and lyricists of the 20th century, bringing Chuck Berry to life in vivid detail. Based on interviews, archival research, legal documents, and a deep understanding of Berry’s St. Louis (his birthplace, and the place where he died in March 2017), Smith sheds new light on a man few have ever really understood. By placing his life within the context of the American culture he made and eventually withdrew from, we understand how Berry became such a groundbreaking figure in music, erasing racial boundaries, crafting subtle political commentary, and paying a great price for his success. While celebrating his accomplishments, the book also does not shy away from troubling aspects of his public and private life, asking profound questions about how and why we separate the art from the artist.

Berry declined to call himself an artist, shrugging that he was good at what he did. But the man's achievement was the rarest kind, the kind that had social and political resonance, the kind that made America want to get up and dance. At long last, Chuck Berry brings the man and the music together.

Print length

569 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Hachette Books
Publication date

November 8, 2022
File size

33827 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

RJ Smith has been a senior editor at Los Angeles Magazine, a contributor to Details, a columnist for The Village Voice, a staff writer for Spin, and has written for GQ, New York Times Magazine, Elle, and Men's Vogue. His book The One: The Life and Music of James Brown was among the New York Times' "100 Notable Books of 2012." Smith lives in Cincinnati. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Review

“RJ Smith’s powerful and passionate portrait of Chuck Berry reveals the troubled man behind the iconic swagger and blazing guitar. To know Chuck Berry is to know racial conflicts in America. Smith makes sure you know both.”―Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, NBA Legend & New York Times bestselling author

“RJ Smith’s Chuck Berry is a brilliant deep dive into the life of the true King of Rock & Roll. The irascible Berry shaved with a blow torch and played guitar like a possessed wizard from the Great American Highway. In unexpected ways Berry was a civil rights revolutionary with songs as his artillery. Smith’s fresh anecdotes, musicologist erudition, and page-turning prose is awesome. This is a must-read!”―Douglas Brinkley, author of Silent Spring Revolution

“Chuck Berry was one of the first people I knew that was true to life. Just like this book showing the truth to his life. I knew him from the 1950s onward and I can honestly say that RJ truly captured the essence of Chuck Berry as I knew him. You couldn’t have a better book on the life and career of my ol’ friend.”―Bobby Rush, GRAMMY Award Winning blues artist, Blues Hall of Famer, and author of I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya

“Chuck Berry is both a national monument and something of an enigma. RJ Smith convincingly connects those two points in his scrupulous account, which is impressively detailed but never dull, and rich in the textures of time, place, personality, and sound. You'll want to read every word.”―Lucy Sante, author of Low Life, The Other Paris, and Maybe the People Would Be the Times

“A hungry ear drives Smith's wondrous, brilliant book. Not only does he capture the excitement of Berry's music, he hears the awe of those in its thrall, from his rock & roll heirs to rivals, fans, and mystified bystanders throughout the twentieth century. Smith writes history as though it's a series of tall tales--how else to conjure Berry's brilliance as well as complexities, the unheralded highs and lows, the myth and the man, the man and the strange nation that produced him.”―Hua Hsu, staff writer at the New Yorker and author of Stay True

“Chuck Berry is a necessary book that expands and beautifully complicates our understanding of Berry as a human and as an artist.”―Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic

“No one writes about popular music and its icons quite like RJ Smith: his ability to see inside the psyche of the most enigmatic figures, to reveal the soft tissue connecting them to cultural context, to deconstruct how a song actually works, all with prose that borders on poetry. Chuck Berry is a masterwork.”―Dan Charnas, author of Dilla Time and The Big Payback

"Smith’s book is both a corrective and complement to Berry’s 1987 autobiography...The best life of Berry in several years."

―Kikrus --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09V115VKP
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hachette Books (November 8, 2022)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 8, 2022
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 33827 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 569 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #75,507 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1 in Soul Music
- #20 in Rock Music (Kindle Store)
- #32 in Black & African American Biographies & Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
81 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

81 global ratings

5 star		68%
4 star		21%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
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Top reviews from the United States

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Pkras

Complex Father of Rock n Roll

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

Great bio about Chuck Berry, one of the most complex beings in American culture. I often think about Steven Van Zandt's comment that he would never want to end up like Chuck Berry, whose music he loved, but in person, proved to be a mean spirited, money grubbing hack. In RJ Smith's take, he was all that. But the way to look at him was as a supreme individualist, rule breaker and artist. In this book, Smith displays a firm grasp on Berry's artistry, while also showing his human side. He was a fan of musicians ranging from Muddy Waters to the Everly Brothers to Nat King Cole. He was a good chess player, lover and handy man. He was also capable of kindnesses and even friendship to fans and fellow musicians, such as Bo Diddley and Carl Perkins. The thing about Berry, however, was that he always had to have things HIS way -- defying the law, the racist mores of the land, the IRS, the record industry, concert promoters and, in a terrible, serial fashion, sexual civility. In doing so, he repeatedly stepped on his own toes, and then some, while sadly rejecting the idolatry of his fans. Smith delves deep into Berry's life in St. Louis and looks at how the racial divide , his imprisonment, and paranoia, helped mold Berry's hopes, dreams and reality.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Judith Tucker

Interesting

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 5, 2023

Verified Purchase

I gave this book to my husband for Christmas. He found the book interesting, but not the best writing style.

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Colman deKay

Troubled, fascinating guy

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 30, 2022

Verified Purchase

This seems to be an honest, comprehensive bio of a complicated genius. Let’s see how history remembers him.

One person found this helpful

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Will K. Twork

Educational, eye opening, and excellent!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 30, 2022

Verified Purchase

What a life Charles Berry led. He truly is the King of Rock and Roll. His lifestyle was as crazy as the songs he wrote. And that's putting it lightly! Great read, and it was truly a page turner. Ask my wife. I spent more time reading the book than I did with family over the Christmas holidays. Hail, hail, Rock and Roll.

4 people found this helpful

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thehimiler

Good Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 13, 2022

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Chuck Berry was an American treasure and the architect of rock & roll. This book is much more detailed than his autobiography. Good read.

2 people found this helpful

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Coyote Calhoun

Lights Out!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 14, 2023

Verified Purchase

Definitely a page turner. Excellent read👍

One person found this helpful

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Mark Lieberman

I enjoyed reading about his musical influences and his hit songs.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 28, 2023

I will admit and tell you that it took me a few times to get into this book as I couldn’t get past the first few chapters. But I finally decided to skim through them really quick and start from where his parents met.

I enjoyed reading about his life, his musical influences, what his hit songs were about and how they came to be, and about his behavior as a husband, father, and musician.

As a road musician during segregation, he embraced it as his music was for everybody. He did, though, have an eye for the ladies and sometimes that got him into trouble.

I learned about what he did in more detail on how he was imprisoned. I also had no clue about his sexual prowess with females and some of the stuff he did with and too them.

On a side note, I saw Chuck Berry perform along with Mary Wilson from The Supremes at a July 4th concert. From what I can remember as it was a long time ago, he was just as awesome as he was when he first started performing.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Sharon E.

Chuck Berry: An American Life is a gem

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 1, 2023

Chuck Berry: An American Life is a masterpiece. the history of Rock n Roll begins with Chuck Berry. He's the big bang of music that dominated the charts through the 20th century. Smith is a great storyteller. He unearthed documents and interviews that previous Chuck bios didn't have. Elvis P had a huge cultural impact, but no one had a bigger musical impact than Berry. If you're interested in rock music, and/or a story of a self made icon, this book is for you.

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Top reviews from other countries

Holy Harold

Asks more questions than it answers.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 29, 2022

Verified Purchase

I've not read any other Chuck Berry bios, so I can't say whether RJSmith's book is any better or worse on the detail of Berry's life - there are certainly a lot of footnote references to the other books available so this may be a compendium of the best sources.

On the other hand, I (in Scotland) wasn't aware of St Louis's place in US Black history - at least not so much as now. On this. RJSmith is strong and informative..

Where he's weak is on pedantic analysis (and overdone praise) of throwaway lyrics as opposed to broad generalisations about what made Chuck the pervert tick. Why would a talented, goodlooking guy from an aspirational Black family go off the rails like he did? We'll never know from this book.

2 people found this helpful

LEONARD MAKIN

Anticipated more from a new biography

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 20, 2022

Verified Purchase

Anticipated a lot more from this new biography. It repeats what we already knew from an earlier biography (Bruce Pegg's The Life & Hard Times of Chuck Berry)
At times, the author, strives for a Kerouacian Beat prose . . . you have to read a sentence a few times to understand its meaning.
There isn't any study of a Chuck Berry lyric, connecting the poetic influence derived from Paul Laurence Dunbar. Nor does it place Chuck Berry in the context of American culture.
Offers nothing new.

2 people found this helpful

Jannie van Eijk

Sinterklaas gift

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

A gift for my brother in law. Looks good and it was what I expected to receive.

Guy who cooks

Chuck Berry is an amazing guy and musician

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 11, 2022

Verified Purchase

Excellent account of Chuck Berry’s life and how rock n-roll helped end segregation

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