Chuck Berry - by Rj Smith (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The definitive biography of Chuck Berry, legendary performer and inventor of rock and roll and author of classics like "Johnny B. Goode," "Maybellene," "You Never Can Tell," and "Roll Over Beethoven." Chuck Berry long ago earned a reputation as a person who gave nothing away. Best known as the groundbreaking innovator of rock and roll and the artist behind classics ranging from "Johnny B. Goode" and "Maybellene" to "You Never Can Tell" and "Roll Over Beethoven," he could be a difficult man to be around off-stage, and was extremely closed off in interviews. There was the work, and then there was the man, who was not easily given to describing the work-and definitely not interested in talking about himself. Though the major events of his life are known and have been described in the hundreds of tributes that marked his passing, the secretive complexity that encapsulated his life and underscored his music has never been fully explored-until now. In Chuck Berry, biographer RJ Smith crafts a comprehensive portrait of one of the great American artists, entertainers, guitarists, and lyricists of the 20th century, bringing Chuck Berry to life in vivid detail. Based on interviews, archival research, legal document analysis, and a deep understanding of Berry's St. Louis (the place where he was born, the place he never left, and the place he died in March 2017), Smith sheds new light on a man that few people have ever really understood. By studying his life, especially within the context of the American culture he made and eventually sought to withdraw from, we better understand how he became such a groundbreaking figure in music, erasing racial boundaries 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, and asks profound questions about how and why we separate the art from the artist. Should we? Berry always said that what he did was make money. He often declined to describe himself as an artist only admitting he was good at what he did to get reporters off his back. But the man's artistry 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 the music together"--

Book Synopsis

The definitive biography of Chuck Berry, legendary performer and inventor of rock and roll

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 the music together.

Review Quotes

**Shortlisted for the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award (2023)**

**Rolling Stone, "Best Music Books of 2022"**

**Fresh Air's rock critic Ken Tucker, "Best Music Book of the Year" (2022)"**

**Amazon, "Best Books of the Month" in Biography/Memoir (November 2022)**

**St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "10 of the year's top books about St. Louis or by local authors"**

"Smith has done a great service to the history of rock and roll by penning the most comprehensive and unflinching biography of its most celebrated founder."--The Aquarian

"Here are both the feathers and talons of Berry. The inside of things and the outside....Smith somehow manages to negotiate these oily, turbid waters with amazing grace, surefootedness, and acuity. He is not forgiving of Berry's crimes, but neither is he a self-righteous prig or martinet. Over the course of his excellent book, it becomes clear that Berry is an ideal case study for a moment relentlessly preoccupied with the chasm between the artist and the art."--Harper's

"[A] probing biography."--Vintage Guitar

"RJ Smith brings Berry to vivid life, doubly impressive given his subject's legendary caginess. He lays the terrain so adroitly -- from Berry's St. Louis youth to his multiple imprisonments -- that when tiny bombs go off, he doesn't have to explain that they're bombs; they resonate. Smith is also first-rate on the electric guitar's galvanic effect on music and the culture at large."--Rolling Stone

"Smith's book is rich, enticing, its endless details never weighing down the story he has found: that Chuck Berry spent his whole life refighting and rewriting the Civil War."--Greil Marcus' Letter in the Ether

"The best music book of the year is RJ Smith's spellbinding biography of Chuck Berry."--Ken Tucker, rock critic, Fresh Air

"[An] unsparing but revelatory account of an American original... as smart and punchy as a mono Berry 45." --Wall Street Journal

"Phil Morris's energetic narration sounds right for the music legend's relentless ambition and unhinged appetites." --Audiofile

"Definitive, highly readable, and unusually revealing, this biography gives us the remarkable Chuck Berry in full."--New York Journal of Books

"So much the best [biography of Chuck Berry]... a rich book, full of tales and details and contradictions."--And It Don't Stop

"Chuck Berry gives readers background on those songs and his music, of course. But where it really succeeds is plumbing the psychological depths and driving forces of its subject in a deeper and richer way than ever before... Chuck Berry's music will likely never pass away. And with Chuck Berry: An American Life, there's finally a multi-faceted biography for an even more faceted man."
--Houston Press

"Smith's book is both a corrective and complement to Berry's 1987 autobiography...The best life of Berry in several years."

--Kirkus

"[A] big new biography."
--CBS Sunday Morning

"Few rock biographies rise to the level of their subject. In CHUCK BERRY, author RJ Smith offers a detailed study of the rock 'n' roll pioneer; portraying a shrewd, implacable trickster who wrote an ingenious catalog. At crucial points, Smith's lively critical voice and passionate detail enliven Berry's songs, which have inimitable stature."
--CREEM

"Just a lot of fun....Rollicking, befitting its subject."
--Los Angeles Times

"To some degree, all rock bios are about sex, drugs and rock-and-roll, yet the biggest takeaway from Chuck Berry has to do with a fourth element: sheer force of personality... Berry liked to compose with other musicians, throwing words and riffs out and moving slowly till a critical mass that had been long in making seemed to arrive out of nowhere. RJ Smith writes in much the same manner, taking a song like 'Nadine' from a sketchy beginning to its masterful completion."
--Washington Post

"This account may become the standard biography that may appeal to general readers. Smith lauds Berry's accomplishments in music but also characterizes him as a lonely, self-destructive, moody, and aggressively sexual man."--Library Journal

"[A] rollicking bio ripe with the thrill of mythology."--Chicago Tribune

"Chuck Berry is a necessary book that expands and beautifully complicates our understanding of Berry as a human and as an artist."--Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic

"A hungry ear drives Smith's wondrous, brilliant book. Not only does he capture the excitement of Berry's music, he hears the awe of those in its thrall, from his rock & roll heirs to rivals, fans, and mystified bystanders throughout the twentieth century. Smith writes history as though it's a series of tall tales--how else to conjure Berry's brilliance as well as complexities, the unheralded highs and lows, the myth and the man, the man and the strange nation that produced him."--Hua Hsu, staff writer at the New Yorker and author of Stay True

"Chuck Berry is both a national monument and something of an enigma. RJ Smith convincingly connects those two points in his scrupulous account, which is impressively detailed but never dull, and rich in the textures of time, place, personality, and sound. You'll want to read every word."--Lucy Sante, author of Low Life, The Other Paris, and Maybe the People Would Be the Times

"Chuck Berry was one of the first people I knew that was true to life. Just like this book showing the truth to his life. I knew him from the 1950s onward and I can honestly say that RJ truly captured the essence of Chuck Berry as I knew him. You couldn't have a better book on the life and career of my ol' friend."--Bobby Rush, GRAMMY Award Winning blues artist, Blues Hall of Famer, and author of I Ain't Studdin' Ya

"No one writes about popular music and its icons quite like RJ Smith: his ability to see inside the psyche of the most enigmatic figures, to reveal the soft tissue connecting them to cultural context, to deconstruct how a song actually works, all with prose that borders on poetry. Chuck Berry is a masterwork."--Dan Charnas, author of Dilla Time and The Big Payback

"RJ Smith's Chuck Berry is a brilliant deep dive into the life of the true King of Rock & Roll. The irascible Berry shaved with a blow torch and played guitar like a possessed wizard from the Great American Highway. In unexpected ways Berry was a civil rights revolutionary with songs as his artillery. Smith's fresh anecdotes, musicologist erudition, and page-turning prose is awesome. This is a must-read!"--Douglas Brinkley, author of Silent Spring Revolution

"RJ Smith's powerful and passionate portrait of Chuck Berry reveals the troubled man behind the iconic swagger and blazing guitar. To know Chuck Berry is to know racial conflicts in America. Smith makes sure you know both."--Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, NBA Legend & New York Times bestselling author

About the Author

RJ Smith has been a senior editor at Los Angeles Magazine, a contributor to Details, a columnist for The Village Voice, a staff writer for Spin, and has written for GQ, New York Times Magazine, Elle, and Men's Vogue. His book The One: The Life and Music of James Brown was among the New York Times' "100 Notable Books of 2012." Smith lives in Cincinnati.