Rock & Roll:
Its effects on our culture
Many Rock historians have a difference in opinion on who really started the Rock movement. Some say that it was absolutely Elvis Presley. While other historians say that the Beatles truly started the revolution. When I think of the beginning of Rock and Roll the following names come up: Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Bill Haley. Yes, it is true that Chuck Berry seems to be the most well renowned artist in that list for starting the Rock revolution but who really came up with the idea. Of course Chuck Berry was the one doing the actual guitar playing and ripping out all of those well known riffs in AJohnny Be Good,@ but it was Johnnie Johnson who actually came up with the idea to play those types of guitar riffs. Johnson was born in West Virginia and started playing the piano at the age of 5.
Chuck Berry in Brunnsparken, Örebro, Sweden.
English: A photograph promoting the film Jailhouse...
Français : Le chanteur américain Chuck Berry en ...He amazed his family each time he sat down to play. A lot of Johnson=s musical influence came from jazz bands and musicians such ast Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson. Johnson played a radio gig at the age of and joined ABlue Rhythmn Swingsters@ shortly after and the rest is history.(Graff, 2nd link)
Johnnie Johnson was the piano player in a band that he lead. Back in 1952 on New Year=s Eve, Johnson=s saxophone player called in sick so Johnson called in Chuck Berry, a young guitarist, to sit in with the band. Johnson had the idea to take some of the riffs that he played on his keyboard and transpose them to his bandmate=s guitar. Berry played the songs and the crowd went nuts for it. Johnson didn=t realize that Berry was getting the credit for this new type of music and...