Brown Eyed Handsome Man: The Life and Hard Times of Chuck Berry

ISBN-13: 9780415937481 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 320 str.

Bruce Pegg

Opis

Brown Eyed Handsome Man: The Life and Hard Times of Chuck Berry draws on dozens of interviews done by the author himself and voluminous public records to paint a complete picture of this complicated figure. Berry's own autobiography published in 1986 covers up as much as it reveals; and Berry himself has rarely been forthcoming in either documentary or print interviews. This biography uncovers the real Berry and provides us with a stirring, unvarnished portrait of both the man and the artist. Berry has long been one of pop music's most enigmatic personalities. Growing up in a middle-class, black neighborhood in St. Louis, his first major hit song, Maybellene, was an adaptation of a white country song, wedded to a black-influenced beat. Thereafter came a string of brilliant songs celebrating teenage life in the 1950s, including School Day, Johnny B. Goode, and Sweet Little Sixteen.

Recenzje

"Pegg's scholarship is tidy, his writing is clear and straightforward." -- The Los Angeles Times

Spis treści

Acknowledgements, Prologue: Grand Avenue, 1. The Ville, 2. De Sun Do Move, 3. Maybellene, 4. Breaking White, 5. Deliver Me from the Days of Old, 6. Windermere Place, 7. Club Bandstand, 8. The Mask, 9. St. Louis Blues, 10. Never Saw a Man So Changed, 11. Mercury Falling, 12. Back Home, 13. The Whole World Knows the Music, Nobody Knows the Man, 14. Wentzville and St. Charles, 15. Johnson vs Berry, Epilogue: Blueberry Hill, Discography, Notes, Works Cited, Index

O autorze

Bruce Pegg teaches in the writing program at Syracuse University. He has received numerous grants to research the life of Chuck Berry, and has spent several extended periods in St. Louis conducting interviews and doing archival research. He lives in Canastota, NY.