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...

When I saw this on my Twitter feed, I misread ‘overnight’ as ‘overweight’. Bizarrely, both options are appropriate: the former in reference to his pre-army days and the latter to the end of his career. There’s a sense of full circle to my mistake. It’s nearly palindromic…don’t you think?     (I’m channelling Alanis Morrisette because I’m down with the kids. Of 1996.)   The shock of the King’s downfall hasn’t softened, though he died thirty-seven years ago. It happened so fast. With so much pressure aimed on one person it was unavoidable. George Harrison used to say the fact there were four Beatles kept them sane. If one got too big for their boots, the others could keep him in check. Elvis didn’t have this luxury. He was the only man at the centre of the hurricane. That’s a metaphor, by the way. This isn't the only time my eyes have misled me. I misread the title of this book when I first saw it. I was very disappointed.

Watching last night’s episode of Eggheads reminded me that often the only prerequisite to being an Elvis impersonator is looking nothing like Elvis. It was an unlikely source for such a prompt. I never expected a game show that revolves around a stark, unforgivingly competitive format to raise this point. It usually only leaves me pondering whether Barry is a latter-day Ronnie Barker character or Chris is Danny Baker’s dad. While I was surprised that Eggheads brought up the thorny faux-Presley issue, I was pleased that they did it so succinctly. It only took one shot of that four-man line-up to remind me of everything Elvis wasn’t . The guy second from right looks more like Shakin’ Stevens. The one in the middle appears to be doing a poo. If there’s a subject I'm entitled to an opinion on, it’s this. I’ve spent a large percentage of my life on stage with fake Elvii. Playing him is a thankless task. He’s such an iconic one-of-a-kind it’s almost impossible to ...