Yes, the inventor of the famous duck walk, in Rome! This was about two years ago. Tickets were rather high (47 euros) but I thought I couldn’t absolutely miss Mr. “Johnny Be Goode” himself. Berry was on the eve of his 80th birthday that night. He was accompanied by both his daughter and son. He played most of his hits, including also Maybellene and Sweet Little Sixteen. He only played for one hour and with not even one encore! His duck walk? He did it for about 3 seconds and naturally the crowd went wild.
As I got up close to the stage to take pictures, I kept on looking at him in awe for here was a man who had inspired thousands of musicians all over the world, beginning with The Beatles (the one artist which the Fab Four sang most of their songs from 1962-1966 was Berry himself), Keith Richards (Richards had organised for Berry’s 60th birthday in 1986 two concerts in St. Louis. That would be eventually turned into the Hail! Hail! Rock’n’Roll video and album) and his former mate, bass guitarist Bill Wyman (who played for more than 30 years with the Stones). In fact, Wyman likes to tell the following story in his DVD on the history of the blues: he was 18 and on military duty in Germany. He came back to London and one day went to a movie theatre where there was a Berry movie. The year was 1957. Watching Berry for the very first time doing his duck walk (copied to by AC/DC's Angus Young), Wyman himself said the following: “Not only was it the most exciting moment of my life but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up”!
John Lennon had also been a keen admirer of Berry and had him play at the Toronto “R&R Revival Festival”. Lennon’s drummer that day was Alan White who would later go on to play with that other great band, Yes Berry’s encore that evening in Rome was naturally Johnny Be Goode. And we all naturally went crazy (all pics by M. Rimati)!
As I got up close to the stage to take pictures, I kept on looking at him in awe for here was a man who had inspired thousands of musicians all over the world, beginning with The Beatles (the one artist which the Fab Four sang most of their songs from 1962-1966 was Berry himself), Keith Richards (Richards had organised for Berry’s 60th birthday in 1986 two concerts in St. Louis. That would be eventually turned into the Hail! Hail! Rock’n’Roll video and album) and his former mate, bass guitarist Bill Wyman (who played for more than 30 years with the Stones). In fact, Wyman likes to tell the following story in his DVD on the history of the blues: he was 18 and on military duty in Germany. He came back to London and one day went to a movie theatre where there was a Berry movie. The year was 1957. Watching Berry for the very first time doing his duck walk (copied to by AC/DC's Angus Young), Wyman himself said the following: “Not only was it the most exciting moment of my life but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up”!
John Lennon had also been a keen admirer of Berry and had him play at the Toronto “R&R Revival Festival”. Lennon’s drummer that day was Alan White who would later go on to play with that other great band, Yes Berry’s encore that evening in Rome was naturally Johnny Be Goode. And we all naturally went crazy (all pics by M. Rimati)!
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