Was Chuck Berry the strangest man in the history of rock?

Of all the figures who built rock and roll back in the 1950s, Chuck Berry was arguably the most influential and certainly the strangest. In a new biography, which could never have been written when he was alive, R.J. Smith tells a story which is still hard to believe. His conversation with David Hepworth includes:* how the nerd Charles Berry discovered the key to impressing women* How a reckless streak a mile wide saw him put away as a teenager* How a comic turn developed into the greatest act in rock and roll* How he never listened to what his daddy told him about white women* How his record company’s landlord ended up co-writing “Maybelline”* His Mann Act conviction and imprisonment* His rebirth in Britain with the help of the Beatles and Stones* Why he needed a copy of the FT every day* Why he never said thank-you* The part played in his life by Lanchester Poly* His last and most tawdry court case* What was going on in his head all that timeChuck Berry: An American Life by R.J. Smith is out now.https://amzn.to/3IE7K7qSubscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon and receive every future Word Podcast ad-free and before the rest of the world!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience. Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.