mostly david ephgrave

My plans for what I was going to write tonight were scuppered when I caught the breaking news that Chuck Berry died today. The man was a legend - a word that’s often overused but never more justified - and one of the biggest driving forces in rock music, who was still out gigging to the end. His riffs, sound and lyrics were the root of rock & roll, inspiring Buddy, Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones, The Who and pretty much anyone who's picked up an electric guitar. Not only didn’t he almost single-handedly invent the genre he worked in, he was the first to write for it with real wit. He wove intricate stories into his songs like no-one else; least of all anyone writing around the twelve-bar blues. He’d become infamous in recent years for some questionable sexual habits and for regularly touring without a permanent band (he’d often just opt for local musicians without any rehearsal), but before all this, he lay the groundwork for a style of mus...