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Chuck Berry An American Life Rj Smith by Rj Smith 9780306921636, 0306921634 instant download after payment.
Best known as the groundbreaking artist behind classics like “Johnny B.
Goode,” “Maybellene,” “You Never Can Tell” and “Roll Over Beethoven,”
Chuck Berry was a man of wild contradictions, whose motives and
motivations were often shrouded in mystery. After all, how did a teenage
delinquent come to write so many songs that transformed American
culture? And, once he achieved fame and recognition, why did he put his
career in danger with a lifetime’s worth of reckless personal behavior?
Throughout his life, Berry refused to shed light on either the mastery
or the missteps, leaving the complexity that encapsulated his life and
underscored his music largely unexplored—until now.
In Chuck Berry,
biographer RJ Smith crafts a comprehensive portrait of one of the great
American entertainers, guitarists, and lyricists of the 20th century,
bringing Chuck Berry to life in vivid detail. Based on interviews,
archival research, legal documents, and a deep understanding of Berry’s
St. Louis (his birthplace, and the place where he died in March 2017),
Smith sheds new light on a man few have ever really understood. By
placing his life within the context of the American culture he made and
eventually withdrew from, we understand how Berry became such a
groundbreaking figure in music, erasing racial boundaries, crafting
subtle political commentary, and paying a great price for his success.
While celebrating his accomplishments, the book also does not shy away
from troubling aspects of his public and private life, asking profound
questions about how and why we separate the art from the artist.
Berry declined to call himself an artist, shrugging that he was good at
what he did. But the man's achievement was the rarest kind, the kind
that had social and political resonance, the kind that made America want
to get up and dance. At long last, Chuck Berry brings the man and…
