If you are reading this and are interested in the book we are dealing with today, you should not be oblivious to the eternal and absurd discussion about who invented rock and roll. Hard to know. Because it is no longer that we are talking about the dilemma between Elvis and the gentleman in question, but that more deeply there is also a “battle” between Chuck Berry and Little Richard, or between Sam Phillips and Alan Freed Does it matter? Not much at this point. In the end it doesn’t matter who was first and it is more important to focus on his contribution. To this end, this book, proclaimed as the definitive biography of Berry – and it may well be true, for one occasion – shows the essentiality of the character. He does it without shying away from certain aspects. You know, Chuck is a guy who doesn’t like him right away. Shy. Curmudgeon. Moody. With too much inclination towards young girls. Voyeur. He has almost everything, although like so many others in this art. Therefore it is necessary, once again, to separate his work from his character. And as a rock and roll musician, few, if not anyone, can withstand a couple of rounds.
The book written by RJ Smith It neither pretends nor manages to be original. A biography written in chronological order analyzing what was happening and moving forward. He didn’t need any more effort either. In the end, what it tells is so interesting and it does so with such clarity that it is not necessary to complicate your life. Furthermore, something that many of these types of biographies fail to do, it is not obsessed with taking us through release by release or song by song, but instead tries to give us a more global vision even of the context that surrounded the birth of a star like Berry. Imagine a black guy who is not willing to marry anyone, metaphorically, rocking and rolling through the American South in the 1950s and 1960s. Adventures aplenty. And that, together with the essential nature of his music, creates the necessary volume. Furthermore, it avoids hagiography. We are not here just to praise. If you have to crack, you crack. And although turbulent topics such as Berry’s appreciation for teenage girls are approached with extreme care, one enters, and it is already a lot. One, two, Three, four… and five hundred and twelve pages.