By Hollie Gibbs
I can already hear Lemmy’s whiskey-soaked vocals growling under David Johansen’s lipstick-smeared screams as they pay homage to the master himself. The rockabilly lineage from Ronnie Hawkins to JD McPherson (with Rosie Flores between) is enough for its own show, but they’ll be background players that night. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime mash-up of so much of what’s right about music, and it’s taking place in our backyard.
The Rock Hall (along with Case’s College of Arts and Sciences) is honoring Chuck Berry at its 17th American Music Masters series with events running Mon 10/22 – Sat 10/27. The program spotlights rock’s founders while following their influence to more current artists. I can debate the logic in waiting until the 17th annual event to honor Berry, the father of rock-n-roll, but it’s difficult to make sound arguments against Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters (who Berry himself admired), Les Paul and many of the other former honorees.
I used to argue with people who called Elvis the King of Rock-n-Roll. Nobody copies Elvis’s licks. Hell, Elvis didn’t even have licks; he didn’t write any of his own songs. It was Berry who played piano and horn chords on a guitar in a 12-bar blues progression off of the backbeat with country runs and changed the world forever. So sure, Elvis can be rock’s king. Kings don’t create their countries; most rulers are out of touch with their people. They certainly don’t duck-walk among them. Rock-n-roll is unabashed freedom that bucks authority — monarchs included.
His lyrics dripping with metaphorical sex and rebellion, Chuck Berry is rock-n-roll personified — from his deceptively simplistic sounding riffs to his charismatic stage presence. Rock-n-roll was born from rhythm and blues with elements of jazz, country and gospel thrown in for good measure, and Berry playing it through a distorted guitar made it just gritty and raunchy enough to live up to the sexual euphemism it was named for.
And just as Berry is the creative bones beneath rock-n-roll’s image, so too does the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have a soul that breathes separate from the business.
Although the induction process is run by a few industry suits to make money and further their own agendas, the Rock Hall is so much more than an institution of inductees — from the aforementioned American Music Masters Series and the free Summer in the City concerts to the Hall of Fame Series that brings inductees to various local venues and all of the educational programs and community festivals between. Hell, the new Library and Archives is a service to future generations in and of itself.
So, yes, the likes of Eddie Trunk are 100% correct in saying that the board of elites have disrespected countless bands with their gratuitous selection process, but to be honest, most of us cannot even remember who has or hasn’t been inducted. Kiss may not have been inducted, but fans can visit the Rock Hall to see Gene Simmons’s demon boots on display. Lady Gaga isn’t even eligible yet, but her meat dress was hanging in the hall.
I don’t remember Otis Redding’s induction, but I’ll never forget the poignancy of reading his name scrawled across the shredded and twisted fuselage of the plane that hurled him to his death. I’m not sure what year they inducted the Clash, but in October 2006, I sat in the Rock Hall’s Foster Theater as they passed around a microphone so we could personally ask Mick Jones questions before meeting him. And the Sat 10/27 Chuck Berry tribute concert promises to be yet another unforgettable experience courtesy of our hall.
This year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will offer fans the opportunity to cast votes for the 2013 nominees (who include the controversially neglected Deep Purple, Rush, and Heart). The top five artists selected will count as one “fan ballot” against their committee’s 500 ballots (in a thinly veiled attempt to placate angry fans by allowing them to spit into a large pond). But I don’t care who gets in. Rock-n-roll isn’t about lists. The concerts, instruments, clothing, hand-written lyrics, interviews and film footage tell stories no list ever will.
Before it was built, the hometown of Sun Studios was considered for the Rock Hall’s location, as were the homes of Motown, King Records, and big business itself — NYC. However, it was the home of the first rock-n-roll concert that got it. And that’s who we still are today. Let the executives worry about engraving their names on plaques, and let the fans have the concerts, exhibits, and more tangible spoils of the hall. Even the induction ceremony has only been open to the public in Cleveland, because here we care about the music — not the business. And the city has the Rock Hall to thank again for one hell of a concert coming up at the end of this month!
A week full of interviews, panels, films, programs, lectures, and concerts culminates in the American Music Masters Chuck Berry tribute concert Sat 10/27, at 7:30 p.m. at the State Theater. Chuck Berry, Joe Bonamassa, Rick Derringer, Rosie Flores, John Fullbright, David Johansen, Ronnie Hawkins, JD McPherson, Lemmy Kilmister, Merle Haggard, Ernie Isley, Darryl DMC McDaniels, Chuck Prophet, Vernon Reid, Duke Robillard, Ray Sharpe, Earl Slick and M. Ward are scheduled to perform. http://rockhall.com.
Hollie Gibbs has a BS in journalism from Kent State University and studied photography at School of the Visual Arts in Manhattan. Her articles and photographs have appeared in numerous local and national publications. She can also be found playing guitar with various bands and building life-size monster props.
1100 Rock and Roll Blvd, Cleveland, OH 44114