{"id":44,"date":"2018-10-25T23:37:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T23:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/?page_id=44"},"modified":"2019-02-10T16:10:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T16:10:33","slug":"my-ding-a-ling-chuck-berry-at-the-roadhouse-ithaca-ny-november-1970","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/home\/my-ding-a-ling-chuck-berry-at-the-roadhouse-ithaca-ny-november-1970\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuck Berry: &#8220;My Ding-a-Ling (Chuck Berry at The Roadhouse, Ithaca, NY, November 1970)&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-44-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/Chuck-Berry-Poem.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/Chuck-Berry-Poem.mp3\">http:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/Chuck-Berry-Poem.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/mainstreetragbookstore.com\/product\/ticket-stubs-liner-notes-tim-hunt\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"262\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/home\/my-ding-a-ling-chuck-berry-at-the-roadhouse-ithaca-ny-november-1970\/top_banner_flat\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?fit=1020%2C80&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1020,80\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?fit=1020%2C80&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-262\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?resize=940%2C74\" alt=\"Available now from Main Street Rag\" width=\"940\" height=\"74\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?w=1020&amp;ssl=1 1020w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?resize=300%2C24&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/12\/top_banner_flat.png?resize=768%2C60&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><\/a><\/h3>\n<p>I doubt I heard \u201cMaybellene\u201d when it came out in 1955.\u00a0 I was five, and our car radio wouldn\u2019t have been tuned to those stations, but somewhere along the way I heard \u201cJohnny B. Goode\u201d (released in 1958), and by the time \u201cNadine\u201d was cruisin\u2019 the charts in 1962, I was truly tuned in, wishing I knew those chords as I tried to rock on my black Danelectro when I was supposed to be practicing the square chords I was expected to play behind the girls in this dumb accordion band my mother\u2019d hooked me into as if life were a string of major triads.\u00a0 But somehow I knew that his riffs, rhythms, and moves were a fundamental language of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, even if the way his lyrics said innocent teenage love but meant sex as they blurred the line between child and adult in this new realm called \u201cteen\u201d were beyond my na\u00efve 12-year-old sense of things\u2014just as the way he played white into black and back with ironic, sardonic innuendo was beyond my small town white world view.\u00a0 Poetry?\u00a0 Damn straight.\u00a0 And if our parents thought Chuck was relatively safe\u2014for rock \u2018n\u2019 roll that is and at least compared to Little Richard shrieking \u201cLucille,\u201d that wild hillbilly singing \u201cGreat Balls of Fire,\u201d and even young Elvis\u2014they weren\u2019t listening to the subtext in \u201cSweet Little Sixteen,\u201d where it\u2019s the \u201ccats\u201d who want to <em>dance<\/em> with missy and not the nice school boy down the block.\u00a0 This album cover from 1959 (look up the listing of songs on it if you want to see how heavily the early Rolling Stones were into Chuck) illustrates that fusion of innocence and innuendo:<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"46\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/home\/my-ding-a-ling-chuck-berry-at-the-roadhouse-ithaca-ny-november-1970\/berry-album\/#main\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Berry-Album.jpg?fit=158%2C158&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"158,158\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Berry Album\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Berry-Album.jpg?fit=158%2C158&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-46\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Berry-Album.jpg?resize=230%2C230\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"230\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Berry-Album.jpg?w=158&amp;ssl=1 158w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Berry-Album.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My guess is that Berry was usually \u201con top,\u201d just as he was, when this album came out, on the top of the hit charts.\u00a0 And <em>yes<\/em> I do think those berries can be seen as suggestive, even as the setting\u2014a booth in a soda shop where teens might gather after school to play the jukebox?\u2014undercuts, yet doesn\u2019t, the possibility of being on top.<\/p>\n<p>When I heard Chuck Berry in November 1970 at a place outside of Ithaca called The Roadhouse, he wasn\u2019t a big name.\u00a0 He was playing small venues, driving from one gig to the next in his Cadillac, his guitar in the trunk, and playing with whatever pickup band the promoter put on the stage.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know that he\u2019d done time on a Mann Act rap, the charges at least in part racially motivated (and the trial and retrials certainly racially inflected).\u00a0 I didn\u2019t understand that his Cadillac was not only his office but some nights, as he drove from town to town, his hotel.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know that his mistrust of white club owners and promoters was such that he\u2019d only go on stage after being paid, up front, in cash (a practice that contributed to a 1979 tax evasion conviction).\u00a0 What I did know was that Berry was one of the Founding Fathers\u2014an architect and pioneer of the music that The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and other British Invasion bands had exported back to the U.S. charts in sped up form (as homage and expropriation; as in part imitation but also re-invention).<\/p>\n<p>And what I still know is that it was a privilege to see him, even if the young white kids put on the stage to back him that night could barely play.\u00a0 Because in spite of that Berry was so strong a musician and so fine an entertainer that his art came through, and I remember being struck with how deftly he coached them through the songs, and how, as the show progressed, he slowly shaped them into something of a band and willed them to help him make his music.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Contextual Material<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p>This video clip of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wzKd0aiaK4c\">Chuck Berry playing with Eric Clapton and Keith Richards in 1972<\/a> that illustrates how foundational Berry\u2019s language has been for rock and, also, something of his ability to fuse musicians into a working unit.<\/p>\n<p>Berry&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lhoyMlX5avU\">February 6, 1965 appearance on Belgian TV<\/a> includes performances of several of his most iconic songs and offers, as well, illustrations of his ability to play not just his music but the audience and occasion.\u00a0 The program also includes examples of Berry\u2019s famous duck walking and other \u201cmoves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hMddte6yD2w\">this 1972 performance of \u201cMy Ding-a-Ling,\u201d<\/a> we see Berry not simply playing for the audience\u2019s satisfaction but playing the audience for his satisfaction (much as he did when I saw him that night at The Roadhouse):<\/p>\n<p>Cub Koda\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/artist\/chuck-berry-mn0000120521\/biography\"><em>All Music Guide<\/em> entry for Chuck Berry<\/a> offers an overview of Berry&#8217;s career, and his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/song\/johnny-b-goode-mt0011544760\"><em>All Music Guide<\/em> entry for &#8220;Johnny B. Goode&#8221;<\/a> provides details on Berry&#8217;s most famous song.<\/p>\n<p><b>Recommended Listening<\/b>:<\/p>\n<p>Chuck Berry, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allmusic.com\/album\/the-great-twenty-eight-mw0000189144\"><em>The Great Twenty-Eight<\/em><\/a> (originally released by Chess Records in 1982; re-released on MCA in 1993; currently available as a digital download and as an LP from Geffen) covers the hits.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Notes to the Poem<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Groucho Marx (1890-1977): a leading figure in the comedy team, the Marx Brothers, whose gliding walk on screen, anticipates Chuck Berry\u2019s duck walking while playing the guitar.<\/li>\n<li>Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993): a Soviet ballet dancer famed for his athleticism and grace, who captivated American audiences with his TV appearances in the 1960s.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cMaybellene\u201d (1955), \u201cSweet Little Sixteen\u201d (1958), \u201cJohnny B. Goode\u201d (1958), \u201cLittle Queenie\u201d (1959), and \u201cNadine\u201d (1962): songs by Chuck Berry.<\/li>\n<li>The phrase \u201cpumpin\u2019 like an ol\u2019 steam drill\u201d comes from Berry\u2019s 1960 recording of \u201cDown the Road Apiece,\u201d a remake of Amos Milburn\u2019s 1947 hit, which in turn derived from the Will Bradley Trio\u2019s top ten 1940 hit.\u00a0 Berry\u2019s version is the basis for The Rolling Stone\u2019s 1965 recording of the song.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><a href=\"http:\/\/mainstreetragbookstore.com\/product\/ticket-stubs-liner-notes-tim-hunt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Ticket Stubs &amp; Liner Notes<\/em> is available from Main Street Rag Publishing<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I doubt I heard \u201cMaybellene\u201d when it came out in 1955.\u00a0 I was five, and our car radio wouldn\u2019t have been tuned to those stations, but somewhere along the way I heard \u201cJohnny B. Goode\u201d (released in 1958), and by the time \u201cNadine\u201d was cruisin\u2019 the charts in 1962, I was truly tuned in, wishing &#8230; <a title=\"Chuck Berry: &#8220;My Ding-a-Ling (Chuck Berry at The Roadhouse, Ithaca, NY, November 1970)&#8221;\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/home\/my-ding-a-ling-chuck-berry-at-the-roadhouse-ithaca-ny-november-1970\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Chuck Berry: &#8220;My Ding-a-Ling (Chuck Berry at The Roadhouse, Ithaca, NY, November 1970)&#8221;\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":8,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-44","page","type-page","status-publish"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PapaTS-I","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369,"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/44\/revisions\/369"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahunt.com\/ticketstubs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}