Chuck Berry advised the old music world to make way for rock ‘n’ roll in his 1956 song, “Roll Over Beethoven.”
Now Beethoven is rolling back.
The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra will team with more than a dozen rockers for an orchestral celebration of Berry’s songs on Friday and Saturday. The event is part of a series of Berry-focused happenings organized by the musical pioneer’s family in advance of the 100th anniversary of his birth in March.
Featured performers at Powell Hall will include Brian “Howlin’” Hurd of Daddy Long Legs, Patton Magee of the Nude Party, Maggie Rose, Lawrence Rothman and members of the Berry family. Conductor Anthony Parnther, who also led the SLSO’s collaboration with John Legend at the Muny last year, will be at the podium.
St. Louis Public Radio’s Jeremy D. Goodwin spoke with three of the performing rockers about the influence Berry had on their music.
James Walbourne, who has been lead guitarist with the Pretenders since 2008; Howlin’ Hurd, whose band is infused with the energy of early rock ‘n’ roll; and Jahi Eskridge of Fat Pocket, one of Berry’s grandchildren, each found his own way to the music of the Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Jeremy D. Goodwin: James, as someone growing up in the U.K., how did you become aware of Chuck Berry?
James Walbourne: My dad would play rock ‘n’ roll around the house, and I became obsessed with it. I first saw [Berry] when I was like 7 years old, at Hammersmith Odeon in London. That really made a huge impact on me. Seeing one of those architects of rock ‘n’ roll when you're when you're that young, live and in the flesh, you can’t beat that. It completely sort of defines how you grow up musically, and definitely the musical choices I made.
Goodwin: Growing up in England in the 1980s, was Chuck Berry’s a name that was around? Were people thinking about him and talking about him?
Walbourne: All that old rock ‘n’ roll stuff in England was hugely popular up until — well, it still is. But in the early ‘80s you still had the old Teddy Boys around. It was always steeped in rock ‘n’ roll.
For us in England, American rock ‘n’ roll was obviously influential from the Beatles onwards. It influenced everything. People who grew up in it weren’t that old.
Goodwin: You’ve also recorded with Jerry Lee Lewis. People like him and Chuck Berry, what do they have to do with what you do as a professional musician today?
Walbourne: It means everything. I grew up on all that, and I think it’s my responsibility to carry that torch, if you will.
Goodwin: Brian, how did Chuck get on your radar?
Brian Hurd: Chuck Berry is the first person that I ever recognized as a local musician.
To me, when I was a young boy growing up in St Louis, I thought that rock stars came from England, you know, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. When I found out that Chuck Berry was from St Louis, that blew my mind. And I wanted to know everything that I could know about him.
Goodwin: How old were you?
Hurd: Probably under 10 years old.
Goodwin: Where in your music would you cite a Berry influence?
Hurd: Through the lyrical content. Chuck Berry is the rock ‘n’ roll poet. From my early days of attempting to write songs, he was the guy to look to. He just painted a picture. I don’t think I could ever reach the greatness that he put from pen to paper, but I definitely tried.
Goodwin: That’s interesting. I think that’s an underrated part of his legacy. He scoped out the question of just what rock ‘n’ roll is interested in, at least for its first couple decades. What are we going to sing about? Who is this music for? He had a new answer for that: teenagers.
Hurd: That’s right. He captured the American spirit in 2½ minutes. That’s not easy to do.
Goodwin: Jahi, tell me about how Chuck Berry is relevant to you as a musician.
Jahi Eskridge: It’s almost easier to ask: How isn’t he? Because I can't really name anybody after him, especially from the American music pantheon, that wouldn't be influenced by his music or the developments with music he made. He kind of made a benchmark to where American music was never going to be the same after that.
It definitely exists in everything I've heard since then, and I don't think it's always even a conscious effort. It’s just part of the zeitgeist now. That toothpaste is out of the tube.
Goodwin: When you’re playing Chuck’s music with some of your family members as the group What the Chuck!, what has that been like for you?
Eskridge: It's been pretty fun. It's challenging, though, trying to be as dynamic or as cool as him, which I think is kind of impossible. I just try to do a good job and represent the material well and keep some integrity about it. But it’s awesome being able to play music with my family.
Goodwin: What does it mean to see the city embrace him in this way? Is there anything significant to the idea that, hey, now even the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is going to be playing Chuck Berry songs?
Eskridge: Of course. I just wonder if my grandpa had any idea that it would have such an impact on the world when he was just starting off. Especially being a Black man, and all the things he had to do just to be recognized as somebody that deserved respect, that deserved to be paid, that deserved to be played. And then being one of the most influential people in modern music.
So to see that it is moving into the future even when he’s gone, I think he would be pleased with that. And that brings me pleasure, too.
