Latest / DISGRACELAND / Chuck Berry: Systemic Racism, Sexual Depravity and the Invention of Rock ‘N’ Roll

Transcript

Chuck Berry: Systemic Racism, Sexual Depravity and the Invention of Rock ‘N’ Roll · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.
0:15
Speaker 2: The stories about Chuck Berry are insane.
0:19
Speaker 3: He was imprisoned numerous times, a victim of violent systemic racism,
0:24
Speaker 3: and accused of horrific acts of sexual depravity. He also
0:28
Speaker 3: invented rock and roll, but more on that later. Chuck
0:32
Speaker 3: Berry was as complex a character as he was influential
0:35
Speaker 3: as a musician, penning some of rock and roll's earliest
0:38
Speaker 3: and most consequential hits, as well as an autobiography that
0:42
Speaker 3: reads like a first person account of the genre's big
0:45
Speaker 3: bang theory. Throughout his career, he found himself in numerous
0:49
Speaker 3: dust ups with authorities, some of it justified, most of
0:52
Speaker 3: it not. And through it all, whether he cared or didn't,
0:56
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry made great music, literally some of the greatest
1:00
Speaker 3: music ever made. Unlike that music I played for you
1:03
Speaker 3: at the top of the show that wasn't great music.
1:06
Speaker 3: That was a preset loop for my mellotron called Kinicki's
1:10
Speaker 3: cab Kiss MK.
1:12
Speaker 2: Two.
1:14
Speaker 3: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:16
Speaker 3: rights to Another Day in Paradise by Phil Collins, And
1:20
Speaker 3: why would I play you that specific slice of but seriously, cheese?
1:24
Speaker 3: Could I afford it because that was the number one
1:28
Speaker 3: song in America on December twenty seventh, nineteen eighty nine,
1:32
Speaker 3: and that was the day the Saint Louis Dispatch ran
1:35
Speaker 3: the headline Chuck Berry tape women suit charges, leading to
1:40
Speaker 3: a series of events that would land Chuck Berry in
1:42
Speaker 3: prison for a fourth time and most certainly do irrevocable
1:47
Speaker 3: damage to his legacy. On this episode, systemic racism, sexual deprevity,
1:53
Speaker 3: the invention of rock and roll in Chuck Berry, I'm
1:57
Speaker 3: Jake Brennan, and this is Graceland. Chuck Berry couldn't sleep,
2:31
Speaker 3: not on his government issued mattress anyway, not in the
2:34
Speaker 3: fifteen by fifteen foot cell with two other prisoners he
2:37
Speaker 3: was forced to shack up with, and not without sex.
2:42
Speaker 3: Horny wasn't strong enough a word. Chuck Berry was driven
2:46
Speaker 3: to distraction. Who thought it wise to staff this place
2:49
Speaker 3: with female security officers? There weren't a lot, but hell,
2:54
Speaker 3: one female was one too many, and these women were
2:58
Speaker 3: easy on the eyes, long hair, heels, curves for days.
3:02
Speaker 3: Chuck knew he was in trouble, so he wrote Chuck
3:07
Speaker 3: Berry loved words the way they showed up for him,
3:10
Speaker 3: and then rolled off of his tongue and out onto
3:12
Speaker 3: the page, first as poetry, then later in life as
3:16
Speaker 3: songs and behind bars he wrote both. The aptly titled
3:20
Speaker 3: No Particular Place to Go, Nadine is a You, Carol,
3:23
Speaker 3: and You Never Can Tell were among the songs Chuck
3:26
Speaker 3: had written during his second Stretch and lock Up back
3:29
Speaker 3: in nineteen sixty two. This curR instant was different. He
3:33
Speaker 3: was older, wiser, and had more mileage in the rear view.
3:37
Speaker 3: It was nineteen seventy nine and Chuck Barry was hellbent
3:41
Speaker 3: on using his time away to write his autobiography and
3:44
Speaker 3: to set the record straight.
3:46
Speaker 2: But the women changed everything.
3:49
Speaker 3: Chuck couldn't focus keeping his thoughts off sex, the kind
3:53
Speaker 3: of sex that lands you in jail or keeps you
3:55
Speaker 3: in jail. That was a problem. There was only so
3:59
Speaker 3: much of the mess around he could do by himself,
4:01
Speaker 3: so he wrote what his fellow inmates called Chuck's Good Stories.
4:06
Speaker 3: They were pure sex, bluer than a red Fox party record.
4:09
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry America's greatest cultural exports since jazz, in an
4:14
Speaker 3: effort to keep himself from spinning off of the planet
4:16
Speaker 3: from a lack of sex. In the pen hand down
4:20
Speaker 3: in dirty Fuck Fiction and as far as prison was concerned,
4:27
Speaker 3: Charles Edward Anderson Barry aka Chuck Berry, aka the man
4:31
Speaker 3: who invented rock and roll wasn't really bothered by him.
4:34
Speaker 2: It was the reason he was locked up that bothered him. Emensely.
4:38
Speaker 3: Sentenced to one hundred and twenty days for tax evasion
4:41
Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy nine, was bunk.
4:44
Speaker 2: He was guilty.
4:45
Speaker 3: Sure, one hundred and twenty grand or so unreported to
4:48
Speaker 3: Uncle Sam is legit tax evation. But come on, despite
4:52
Speaker 3: previously serving two prison sentences, one a ten year stint
4:56
Speaker 3: of which he served three for armed robbery at the
4:59
Speaker 3: age of seventeen, and one for violating the Man Act,
5:02
Speaker 3: a beef that sent him to the federal pen for
5:04
Speaker 3: a year and a half in nineteen sixty two to
5:06
Speaker 3: serve legit hard time.
5:08
Speaker 2: We'll get to that later.
5:09
Speaker 3: Chuck couldn't help but think that had he not been
5:12
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry, the rock and Roller, he would have been
5:14
Speaker 3: given the opportunity to work out a deal with authorities
5:17
Speaker 3: for the relatively harmless white collar crime he had committed.
5:21
Speaker 2: Chuck knew that.
5:22
Speaker 3: The real reason he was in jail was because he
5:24
Speaker 3: was a black man who enjoyed his freedom just a
5:27
Speaker 3: little too freely in a white man's world. But being
5:30
Speaker 3: alone now it wasn't all that bad.
5:35
Speaker 2: Chuck was used to it. In fact, he preferred it.
5:38
Speaker 3: From an early age he learned to occupy that big
5:40
Speaker 3: brain of his first with the family radio, sitting alone
5:43
Speaker 3: as a twelve year old in his living room at
5:45
Speaker 3: four three one nine Lavity Street in Saint Louis, Missouri,
5:49
Speaker 3: listening to various jazz, blues, big band and boogie woogieyart
5:52
Speaker 3: as popular at the time. Ella Fitzgerald, Big Joe Turner,
5:56
Speaker 3: Benny Goodman, Jelly Roll Morton, and Fatz Waller were among
5:59
Speaker 3: his favorites. Then with his camera, his friend Harry had
6:03
Speaker 3: a dark room, and Chuck loved it. The solitude, the
6:06
Speaker 3: attention to detail, the way had slowed down the world
6:09
Speaker 3: around him, and of course, the way it sped up
6:12
Speaker 3: his heart rate. Whenever pinup photos circulated through in need
6:15
Speaker 3: of development, women, some of them white and nearly see
6:19
Speaker 3: through lingerie, flirting with him from beyond the lens. Out
6:22
Speaker 3: of the dark room, they were strictly off limits. But here,
6:26
Speaker 3: among the smell of the Eastman Kodak chemicals and within
6:29
Speaker 3: the climate controlled temperature, he could at least speak to them.
6:32
Speaker 3: If nothing else, Chuck dug the singular nature of it all.
6:37
Speaker 3: It gave him time to think about the things that
6:39
Speaker 3: teenage boys think about, to think about where he was,
6:42
Speaker 3: who he was, and what he wanted out of his life.
6:45
Speaker 3: And it gave him time to think about poetry. He
6:47
Speaker 3: put poems together in his head to pass the time,
6:50
Speaker 3: and soon he would begin to think about that poetry
6:53
Speaker 3: as music. Being alone was where it was at.
7:00
Speaker 2: It was how Chuck liked it.
7:02
Speaker 3: Even years later, while he was at the height of
7:04
Speaker 3: his success and financially able to employ bands big enough
7:07
Speaker 3: to rival his beloved count Basis Orchestra, Chuck preferred no
7:11
Speaker 3: insisted on traveling alone with no band, just him his
7:16
Speaker 3: guitar in an open road. He didn't even carry a
7:19
Speaker 3: guitar court never mind an amplifier. He'd roll from town
7:22
Speaker 3: to town in one of his late model coffee colored Cadillacs,
7:25
Speaker 3: stone alone, no manager, no roadie, no handlers, and no
7:29
Speaker 3: accompanying musicians. At about thirty minutes before showtime, he'd pull
7:34
Speaker 3: up to whatever ten to twenty thousand capacity venue he
7:36
Speaker 3: was headlining that night, near the backstage entrance park wherever
7:40
Speaker 3: the hell he wanted, waltz into the promoter's office, confidently
7:43
Speaker 3: and politely demand payment in advance in cash, and, usually
7:47
Speaker 3: under the threat of not performing, extored an extra thousand
7:50
Speaker 3: dollars cherry on top before going on stage. Once satisfied
7:57
Speaker 3: that the pockets of his polyester bell bottoms were proper lined,
8:00
Speaker 3: he'd walk on stage with his Gibson the S three
8:03
Speaker 3: thirty five, straight past his backing band, a combo of
8:06
Speaker 3: local musicians he'd yet to meet, who stood scared shitless
8:10
Speaker 3: with their instruments ready for the Great Chuck Berry's cue.
8:13
Speaker 3: Chuck would then plug his guitar into whatever amp the
8:15
Speaker 3: promoter had set up for him, and proceeded to tune
8:18
Speaker 3: his guitar loudly in front of the entire auditorium, and then,
8:22
Speaker 3: without having said one word or making any eye contact
8:25
Speaker 3: at all with his new band, he'd launch into one
8:27
Speaker 3: of his classic opening riffs and drag the terrified musicians
8:30
Speaker 3: along with him for a clumsy but exhilarating ride. Even
8:35
Speaker 3: on stage playing with other people in front of thousands
8:37
Speaker 3: of fans, he was alone in his own head while
8:40
Speaker 3: playing the hits and mugging.
8:42
Speaker 2: For the crowd.
8:43
Speaker 3: Occasionally allowing himself to get lost and tearing the ass
8:46
Speaker 3: out of one of his guitar solos if he was
8:49
Speaker 3: really feeling it. By mid set, he turned to his
8:52
Speaker 3: band and playfully shout play for that money, boys, and
8:55
Speaker 3: if they were lucky and good, he'd kick a grand
8:58
Speaker 3: back to them after the show, on top of what
9:00
Speaker 3: the promoter was paying. But more often than not, he
9:04
Speaker 3: was gone after the last encore without a word, usually
9:08
Speaker 3: before the house lights were even on, sometimes before the
9:11
Speaker 3: band had even finished the outro to his last song,
9:14
Speaker 3: drifting off down some American highway into the night, words
9:18
Speaker 3: moving through his head in slow motion, his guitar in
9:22
Speaker 3: its case, strapped in vertically in the passenger seat to
9:25
Speaker 3: his right, but otherwise totally loone. Chuck Berry didn't need
9:49
Speaker 3: a band. He was Chuck Berry. Bands were just another expense,
9:53
Speaker 3: another hassle, and who needed more hassle? Life was filled
9:57
Speaker 3: with them, going back as far as he could remember,
10:00
Speaker 3: especially in Saint Louis, Missouri in the nineteen thirties and forties.
10:05
Speaker 3: It wasn't quite the Deep South, but it was a
10:07
Speaker 3: racist social construct filled with hassles. From his earli as
10:10
Speaker 3: Chuck could remember, white cops were suspicious of everything you did,
10:14
Speaker 3: everywhere you went.
10:16
Speaker 2: Chuck learned to live with it.
10:17
Speaker 3: He had to, and there was no other choice, but
10:20
Speaker 3: it wasn't easy, especially as he hit puberty. A young
10:23
Speaker 3: man's hormones don't see in black and white, but any
10:26
Speaker 3: sort of interracial romantic relationship was strictly taboo and likely
10:30
Speaker 3: to land a young black man in jail, or werese
10:32
Speaker 3: swinging from a rope at the end of a poplar tree.
10:36
Speaker 3: In Saint Louis at the time, if a black man
10:38
Speaker 3: and a white woman were stopped by a cop, there,
10:40
Speaker 3: at the very least immediately hauled into the police station
10:43
Speaker 3: for mandatory venereal disease shots. A young Chuck tried not
10:49
Speaker 3: to stare at the bat. If he fixated on it,
10:52
Speaker 3: they'd be more likely to use it under the high
10:55
Speaker 3: wate fluorescent light bulb in the Saint Louis District Police
10:58
Speaker 3: headquarters interrogation. He tried not to look at anything at all,
11:02
Speaker 3: but his eyes just couldn't help glancing back to the bat.
11:07
Speaker 3: The nineteen forty nine Louisville Slugger was an especially strong
11:10
Speaker 3: baseball bat, but in the years following World War Two,
11:14
Speaker 3: after having served its country by supplying the US Army
11:17
Speaker 3: with wooden gunstocks and billie clubs. The Louisville Slugger Company
11:21
Speaker 3: took its wartime knowledge and improved upon what was previously
11:24
Speaker 3: considered perfect.
11:26
Speaker 2: The Model won twenty five.
11:28
Speaker 3: Turning it out of select second growth ash wood, Louisville
11:31
Speaker 3: Slugger created a new batch of incredibly powerful bats, the
11:35
Speaker 3: stick of choice for Alzheimers like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.
11:39
Speaker 3: Oil tempered with a distinct saddle tan finish. The nineteen
11:42
Speaker 3: forty nine Model one twenty five, being born from war,
11:46
Speaker 3: was imbued with violence.
11:50
Speaker 2: Chuck Berry knew.
11:51
Speaker 3: None of this as he sweated and kept looking to
11:53
Speaker 3: and fro, trying to find some appropriate place for his
11:56
Speaker 3: eyes to land. As he tried not to stare at
11:58
Speaker 3: the men across the table from him in a carfrontational way,
12:01
Speaker 3: or at that damn baseball bat. All he could think
12:04
Speaker 3: of were his brains being painted onto the wall. The
12:06
Speaker 3: police sergeant positioned above him with the Model one twenty
12:09
Speaker 3: five Louisville Slugger cocked on his shoulder, decided to get
12:13
Speaker 3: all stam musel and swing at Chuck's skull for the
12:16
Speaker 3: cheap seats too on. Nobody else, did you, fugger, asked
12:21
Speaker 3: the police captain, Sergeant stand. The man kept the bat
12:25
Speaker 3: held high, staring right through Chuck, sitting hot in the box,
12:28
Speaker 3: daring him to say the wrong thing. Chuck lobbed one
12:32
Speaker 3: straight down the middle. No, sir, a white woman, No sir.
12:35
Speaker 3: Chuck was scared. He'd been informed, after being picked up
12:39
Speaker 3: by the cops on a tip by a jilted boyfriend
12:41
Speaker 3: of a white girl he'd been messing around with that
12:43
Speaker 3: if one word of his statement was a lie, sergeants stand,
12:47
Speaker 3: the man would swing for the fences. Even then, Chuck
12:52
Speaker 3: knew what his audience wanted. They wanted fear. The racist
12:56
Speaker 3: white cops needed to feel like they were in control,
12:58
Speaker 3: so Chuck gave them what they wanted. He was indeed
13:01
Speaker 3: legitimately frightened, but now he played to the cheap seats,
13:05
Speaker 3: laying it on thick over, dramatizing a WinCE here and
13:08
Speaker 3: a shudder there, until finally both the captain and the
13:11
Speaker 3: sergeant broke into laughter, amused at what they thought they
13:15
Speaker 3: had done brought a young black man to his knees.
13:19
Speaker 3: He was eventually let go, but the gravity of the
13:21
Speaker 3: incident was never lost on him. He knew the cops
13:24
Speaker 3: could have killed him at their will, and no doubt
13:26
Speaker 3: frame it up as justifiable. From then on, Chuck would
13:30
Speaker 3: think twice about which women he slept with and where,
13:34
Speaker 3: But regardless, thinking about sleeping with women was most of
13:37
Speaker 3: what he did in prison. There was lots to think about.
13:41
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry had been a successful entertainer for most of
13:43
Speaker 3: his adult life. Women were never a problem, or, depending
13:47
Speaker 3: on how Chuck looked at it, women were always a problem.
13:51
Speaker 3: What wasn't a problem was his prowess and innovation as
13:53
Speaker 3: a guitar player and songwriter. Chuck Berry invented rock and roll.
13:58
Speaker 3: There I said it needed to say it come at me, Aliauan,
14:02
Speaker 3: about Ike Turner and Sister Rosetta, Little Richard, Elvis Presley,
14:05
Speaker 3: and whoever else you want. The fact of the matter
14:08
Speaker 3: is that the Chuck Berry rift, the rhythm rift he
14:11
Speaker 3: nicked from his piano player Johnny Johnson, not the two
14:14
Speaker 3: string lead riff, the Chuck Berry lick that introduces many
14:17
Speaker 3: of his greatest hits and is the guitar part he
14:19
Speaker 3: is most identified with. But Chuck's rhythm rift is the
14:23
Speaker 3: thread that ties together the most influential rock and roll
14:26
Speaker 3: artists of all time, and this rift did not fully
14:29
Speaker 3: exist before Chuck Berry. Guitar players know it well. It's
14:33
Speaker 3: the root six or Root five power chord that stretches
14:36
Speaker 3: the pinky up two frets.
14:37
Speaker 2: On the neck.
14:38
Speaker 3: Non guitar players think of the rhythm guitar part appropriated
14:41
Speaker 3: by Marty McFly and the movie Back to the Future.
14:45
Speaker 3: This is the same rift that the most consequential rock
14:47
Speaker 3: and roll guitarist from the most influential groups could not
14:51
Speaker 3: and will not leave alone. It is everywhere in rock
14:54
Speaker 3: and roll music, from Chuck to the Beatles, to the
14:57
Speaker 3: Stones Clapped in Hendrick Zeppelin to the sex Pist the Ramones,
15:01
Speaker 3: all the way up to Green Day, White Stripes, Black
15:03
Speaker 3: Keys into today's low cut Connie. The riff is everywhere.
15:07
Speaker 3: It is synonymous with the sound of rock and roll,
15:09
Speaker 3: and it didn't exist before Chuck Berry. And though the
15:13
Speaker 3: term rock and roll had been in use for years
15:15
Speaker 3: before Chuck Berry started recording, the riff he invented, had
15:19
Speaker 3: not been used in tandem with the term rock and
15:21
Speaker 3: roll or with any other distinctive rock and roll elements
15:24
Speaker 3: like the straight ahead, back beat and youth oriented appeal
15:27
Speaker 3: until Chuck Berry's recording and release of his song rock
15:31
Speaker 3: and Roll Music in nineteen fifty seven. This song is
15:35
Speaker 3: rock and roll's big bang. It is the first rock
15:38
Speaker 3: and roll song, and it has nothing to do with
15:40
Speaker 3: the song's title. It's about everything else, the beat, the lyrics,
15:44
Speaker 3: and the production, but it's especially about Chuck's rhythm guitar.
15:48
Speaker 3: It's the first recorded appearance of his signature riff on
15:51
Speaker 3: the airwaves, the riff that he took out of his
15:53
Speaker 3: piano player's hands and then shredded through his tiny, distorted amp.
15:58
Speaker 3: For a more detailed defense of this argument that I
16:00
Speaker 3: can already tell has annoyed the shit out of my
16:02
Speaker 3: music's nob listeners, I encourage you to read the Chuck
16:05
Speaker 3: Berry chapter in my book Disgraceland Musicians Getting Away with
16:09
Speaker 3: Murder and Behaving Very Badly, where I further qualify the
16:12
Speaker 3: overwhelming influence of Chuck Berry's riff and the fact that
16:15
Speaker 3: he Charles Edward Anderson Barry, without a doubt, convented rock
16:20
Speaker 3: and roll. But before attaining such influence, Chuck Berry needed
16:26
Speaker 3: a record contract. A chance meeting with his hero blues
16:30
Speaker 3: musician Muddy Waters led to a recording contract with Chess Records.
16:33
Speaker 3: In his first single for Chess, Maybelene was quick to
16:36
Speaker 3: blanket the airwaves. Chuck was on his way. Maybelene hit
16:42
Speaker 3: number one on the R and B charts and number
16:44
Speaker 3: five on the Pop chart, and it was largely due
16:47
Speaker 3: to the efforts of a DJ in New York named
16:49
Speaker 3: Alan Freed. Freed spun the song one night on his
16:52
Speaker 3: show for two hours straight, one song over and over
16:56
Speaker 3: again for two hours straight. When Chuck he was shocked
17:00
Speaker 3: at the passion for you to had show him for
17:02
Speaker 3: his song, but that wore off quickly when Chuck learned
17:05
Speaker 3: that the DJ was credited alongside Chuck as one of
17:08
Speaker 3: the songwriters of Mabeli and a scam set up by
17:11
Speaker 3: Leonard Chess, owner of Chess Records, who gave Freed the
17:14
Speaker 3: DJ songwriting credit as an incentive to spin the song
17:18
Speaker 3: and rack up publishing royalties to line his pockets with.
17:22
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry had just learned the most important lesson in
17:24
Speaker 3: the music business, the hard way, never trust your record label.
17:29
Speaker 3: Regardless the song was a hit, and Chuck was a
17:32
Speaker 3: star and touring frequently all over America, from the Midwest
17:36
Speaker 3: to New England to the deep South, where life for
17:38
Speaker 3: a successful young black man could be downright dangerous.
17:47
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this word word word.
17:56
Speaker 3: Chuck didn't mean to kiss her. She threw herself at her,
18:00
Speaker 3: right there on stage, in front of everyone. Chuck was
18:04
Speaker 3: feeling loose, his set was tight, and the crowd was jazzed.
18:07
Speaker 3: The adrenaline from everyone on and off stage was pumping.
18:11
Speaker 3: It was a small, intimate dance for some college students
18:14
Speaker 3: in a renovated army barracks and Meridian, Mississippi. A girl
18:17
Speaker 3: couldn't have been younger than a key. Didn't matter. Her
18:21
Speaker 3: tongue when it hit his took him completely out of
18:23
Speaker 3: the moment and delivered him to some place far away.
18:27
Speaker 3: His mouth sunk into hers, right there on the stage,
18:30
Speaker 3: under the house slights that were now on and blasting
18:33
Speaker 3: down upon the couple. The moment didn't last. Chuck snapped
18:36
Speaker 3: himself out of it and pulled away. This was Mississippi.
18:40
Speaker 3: She was white, he was black. When he opened his eyes,
18:45
Speaker 3: she was staring at him as if to say, what's
18:47
Speaker 3: the matter, don't you want me? A question he would
18:51
Speaker 3: have happily answered, if it weren't for the staring eyes
18:53
Speaker 3: of the rest of the crowd, which now a few
18:56
Speaker 3: minutes removed from his performance, had snapped back to reality.
19:00
Speaker 3: The crowd had just witnessed a black man kissing a
19:02
Speaker 3: white girl in a segregated hall where the black kids
19:04
Speaker 3: weren't even allowed to sit next.
19:05
Speaker 2: To white kids. That was Chuck's q.
19:08
Speaker 3: He unplugged his guitar, quietly stepped off the stage and
19:12
Speaker 3: made his way to the side door the makeshift auditorium
19:14
Speaker 3: under the glaring eyes of the crowd.
19:17
Speaker 2: The place was stone cold quiet.
19:19
Speaker 3: Chuck was nearly at the door, nearly free, until a
19:22
Speaker 3: frat boy rose up in front of Chuck, flanked by
19:25
Speaker 3: seven of his brothers, Big white dumb Chuck, did you
19:30
Speaker 3: try to date my sister? Chuck was quick to the point, No,
19:34
Speaker 3: of course, not another lunkhead, this one to the side
19:37
Speaker 3: of the original frat boy pointed to Chuck and shouted,
19:39
Speaker 3: he did.
19:40
Speaker 2: He's a Yankee like the rest of them.
19:42
Speaker 3: This was a cue for the other frat boys to
19:44
Speaker 3: chime in with their own racist accusations.
19:47
Speaker 2: The crowd turned on Chuck.
19:48
Speaker 3: Boos were swelling up throughout the auditorium, and Chuck could
19:52
Speaker 3: feel the fear. It cooled, the sweat on his skin,
19:55
Speaker 3: and that's when he saw it. The gleam of the
19:57
Speaker 3: swish play extended menacingly from the hand of the first lunkhead.
20:01
Speaker 3: The promoter saw it too. Fearing the worse, he decided
20:04
Speaker 3: to play peacemaker and jump between the knife and Chuck,
20:07
Speaker 3: pushing him aside.
20:09
Speaker 2: Chuck, while being dragged away out of the mob.
20:11
Speaker 3: And backward toward the exit, started singing it was an unconscious,
20:15
Speaker 3: visceral attempt to quash the violence in the air. The
20:18
Speaker 3: booze continued, and so did the shouting, and Chuck shouted slash,
20:22
Speaker 3: saying back. Lunkhead wasn't having it. Enraged and now being
20:26
Speaker 3: held back by a small basketball squad and still holding
20:29
Speaker 3: his switchblade, he was quick to get lippy. I'm a
20:32
Speaker 3: Mississippian and this black boy asked my sister for a date.
20:36
Speaker 3: Lunkhead grew more upset and struggled to break away from
20:39
Speaker 3: his classmate to tear Chuck limb from limb. Chuck shouted,
20:43
Speaker 3: sang more lyrics at him, and Chuck was pushed out
20:45
Speaker 3: of harm's way and out the exit door into the night,
20:48
Speaker 3: where he was soon greeted by Mississippi's finest and hauled
20:51
Speaker 3: in for what exactly He wasn't told. He was kept
20:55
Speaker 3: in jail overnight, but he was alive in the morning.
20:58
Speaker 3: He was driven to the airport, but only after being
21:00
Speaker 3: relieved of the seven hundred dollars he'd made from the
21:03
Speaker 3: previous night's show by the cops.
21:05
Speaker 2: Say Leavie Chuck thought.
21:10
Speaker 3: Chuck experienced plenty of racism back home in Saint Louis
21:13
Speaker 3: as well, despite his growing fame, and not just from
21:16
Speaker 3: lunkhead frat boys judges, particularly the judge presiding over his
21:21
Speaker 3: appeal for the charge that he violated the Man Act.
21:25
Speaker 3: Chuck was hauled in before a gig at Club Bandstand,
21:28
Speaker 3: the club he owned in Saint Louis, on December twenty third,
21:31
Speaker 3: nineteen fifty nine.
21:33
Speaker 2: Violating the Man.
21:34
Speaker 3: Act was a serious charge designed to cut down on
21:37
Speaker 3: human trafficking and prevent the transport and thus spreading of prostitution.
21:41
Speaker 3: It was nefariously used by authorities to target high profile
21:44
Speaker 3: black men see boxer Jack Johnson as Exhibit A to
21:48
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry as Exhibit B. Chuck was fucked. The cops
21:53
Speaker 3: said she was only fourteen in white Ish. Chuck thought
21:57
Speaker 3: she was Native American. The authorities didn't care she was
22:00
Speaker 3: under age, and thus she was the hammer they were
22:02
Speaker 3: going to use to bust up Chuck Berry in his nightclub,
22:05
Speaker 3: the one that cops viewed as a black mark on
22:08
Speaker 3: the image of white purity that the city wanted to project.
22:11
Speaker 3: Club Bandstand was where the girl worked after Chuck brought
22:14
Speaker 3: her up in his Cadillac from El Paso across state lines,
22:18
Speaker 3: thus committing, according to the Man Act, white slavery. Her
22:22
Speaker 3: age wasn't the only problem. Saint Louis cops got wind
22:25
Speaker 3: of her because they'd heard about the young, quote unquote
22:27
Speaker 3: exotic looking girl working over at Chuck's place who was
22:31
Speaker 3: tricking herself out. Chucks diod trial and faced ten years
22:36
Speaker 3: in prison hard time. After two weeks, the all white
22:40
Speaker 3: male jury found him guilty and the racist judge gave
22:43
Speaker 3: him five years. Chuck appealed, successfully claiming improving bias on
22:47
Speaker 3: behalf of the judge, and had his sentence dropped down
22:50
Speaker 3: to three years. He eventually had the sentence reduced to
22:53
Speaker 3: a year and a half, but in the end, the
22:55
Speaker 3: cops got what they wanted in Chuck's absence. Club Bandstand
22:58
Speaker 3: went under and closed. Chuck served his time, but he
23:02
Speaker 3: was never the same afterward.
23:04
Speaker 2: He was no angel, but he.
23:06
Speaker 3: Wasn't what authorities claimed he was either. He was a target,
23:09
Speaker 3: He was a marked man. It was unjust, and Chuck
23:12
Speaker 3: was unable to accept it. He would never be the same.
23:32
Speaker 3: It was one of those headlines that thoroughly did its job.
23:35
Speaker 3: It screamed at you off of the page. It forced
23:38
Speaker 3: you to pick up the paper it was printed on.
23:40
Speaker 3: Fork over your fifty cents and dive In the Saint
23:44
Speaker 3: Louis Dispatches front page read Chuck Berry taped women suit charges.
23:53
Speaker 3: By the late eighties, Chuck Berry, despite his various legal troubles,
23:56
Speaker 3: was a very rich man. Constant roadwork in a nineteen
24:00
Speaker 3: seventy two smash with the novelty Song Mike Dingling kept
24:03
Speaker 3: the bread coming in, as did various other investments. Chuck
24:08
Speaker 3: invested in a real estate venture called Barry Park, where
24:11
Speaker 3: he would rent rooms, trailers, and homes to locals while
24:14
Speaker 3: he resided in the property's quote unquote big house.
24:17
Speaker 2: Like the boss that he.
24:18
Speaker 3: Was, Chuck Berry, the man who invented rock and roll,
24:22
Speaker 3: as big a BMOC.
24:23
Speaker 2: As there ever was.
24:25
Speaker 3: Chuck also indulged his childhood photography hobby and invested in
24:29
Speaker 3: a new company he'd incorporated called chuck Berry Communications Systems,
24:33
Speaker 3: in spending as much as three quarters of a million
24:36
Speaker 3: dollars on sophisticated video editing equipment to take his hobby
24:40
Speaker 3: to the next level. And Chuck also invested in local restaurants,
24:44
Speaker 3: namely the Wentsville Southern Air Restaurant. And it was there
24:48
Speaker 3: that the confluence of Chuck's investments all came together to
24:51
Speaker 3: create one giant mess of a situation for the.
24:54
Speaker 2: Rock and roll pioneer.
24:56
Speaker 3: Chuck owned the property, He owned the restaurant. He was
24:59
Speaker 3: the boss, and he also owned the video equipment, the
25:05
Speaker 3: equipment that his employee Hasana Huck alleged Chuck used to
25:09
Speaker 3: videotape her and other women in the bathroom of the
25:11
Speaker 3: restaurant he owned. The suit Miss Huck brought specifically alleged
25:15
Speaker 3: that the videotapes were created for the improper purpose of
25:19
Speaker 3: the entertainment and gratification of what it describes as Barry's
25:23
Speaker 3: sexual fetishes and sexual predilections. Oh yeah, and there were videotapes,
25:30
Speaker 3: lots and lots of videotapes. How they surfaced and came
25:35
Speaker 3: into the hands of authorities as a matter of debate.
25:38
Speaker 3: Miss Huck, who filed the initial claim against Chuck, made
25:41
Speaker 3: her statement to authorities after her husband, a handyman who
25:45
Speaker 3: also worked for Chuck, supposedly found a box of videotapes
25:49
Speaker 3: and a trash dumpster on public Wentsville property, not on
25:52
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry's property. And when he stumbled upon this cardboard
25:56
Speaker 3: box of lude and scandalous VHS tapes that happen and
26:00
Speaker 3: to contain videos of his own wife. There just happened
26:03
Speaker 3: to be two of Saint Louis's finest on hand to
26:06
Speaker 3: witness mister Huck's discovery. It could not be claimed that
26:09
Speaker 3: mister Huck took possession of the tapes illegally.
26:11
Speaker 2: How could it.
26:12
Speaker 3: He found them in a public place and there were
26:15
Speaker 3: cops there who could back him up. The tapes told
26:19
Speaker 3: their own story, and it was not a good one.
26:22
Speaker 3: There were numerous recordings featuring hundreds of women, most of
26:29
Speaker 3: them blonde, all of them white, and in the act
26:33
Speaker 3: of relieving themselves. The women were filmed surreptitiously from cameras
26:38
Speaker 3: position behind toilet.
26:40
Speaker 2: Seats and Chuck's restaurants.
26:42
Speaker 3: Close ups from the front and the back footage was
26:46
Speaker 3: expertly spliced together with a second camera positioned above the
26:50
Speaker 3: toilet to capture the wide shots of the women before
26:52
Speaker 3: and after relieving themselves, and these clips were all edited
26:57
Speaker 3: together into compilation reels with various shots frozen in time
27:02
Speaker 3: for lasting effect. The women, for the most part, were adults,
27:06
Speaker 3: but there was also footage of girls under the.
27:08
Speaker 2: Age of ten.
27:10
Speaker 3: After the tapes were found, Barry Park was raided small
27:13
Speaker 3: amounts of marijuana what looked like hash, one hundred and
27:16
Speaker 3: twenty two grand in cash, and fifty nine more VHS
27:20
Speaker 3: tapes were hauled out of Chuck's home. County Prosecutor William J.
27:25
Speaker 3: Hannah took too big a swing and tried to claim
27:27
Speaker 3: that not only was Chuck Barry's sexual predator, but also
27:31
Speaker 3: a major drug player dealing millions of dollars in cocaine.
27:35
Speaker 3: Chuck maintained his innocence in the matter. As far as
27:38
Speaker 3: he was concerned, nothing had changed since the fifties. Saint
27:41
Speaker 3: Louis authorities were still about to break him because he
27:44
Speaker 3: was a success, because.
27:45
Speaker 2: He was black, because he liked white women.
27:48
Speaker 3: Nevertheless, Chuck was charged with marijuana possession and child abuse.
27:52
Speaker 3: Missouri law stated that featuring young people naked on video
27:56
Speaker 3: constitutes to child abuse. Chuck turned himself in, and then
28:05
Speaker 3: he turned his lawyers loose. He sued for the return
28:10
Speaker 3: of his tapes. He sued the lawyers. He sued the plaintiffs.
28:14
Speaker 3: The women spoke up, and what they had to say
28:16
Speaker 3: did not help Chuck Barry's cause they had had it
28:19
Speaker 3: with the man known around Barry Park as Charles Scharisa Kissner,
28:24
Speaker 3: who lived on Chuck's property with her mom and one
28:27
Speaker 3: of the trailers, claimed that Chuck approached her one day
28:29
Speaker 3: and told her that he could see her in her
28:31
Speaker 3: room from the big house. According to Sharisa, he said quote,
28:34
Speaker 3: I was thinking of you yesterday while I was playing
28:37
Speaker 3: with myself. What a fucking creep. Chuck sued who he
28:43
Speaker 3: thought was a grand standing prosecutor. At the same time,
28:46
Speaker 3: the prosecutor lost his reelection bid, and with that, the
28:49
Speaker 3: prosecutor's office dropped the child abuse charges. In turn, Chuck
28:53
Speaker 3: dropped his suit against the prosecutor and pleaded guilty only
28:56
Speaker 3: to the marijuana charge. He got what amounted to his
28:59
Speaker 3: slap on the wrist, two years probation for the weed,
29:03
Speaker 3: and an agreement to pay five thousand dollars to a
29:05
Speaker 3: local substance abuse program that took care of the authorities,
29:10
Speaker 3: but it didn't take care of the women. They rolled
29:13
Speaker 3: their multiple beefs concerning Chuck's toilet tapes into one class
29:16
Speaker 3: action suit. Chuck paid out a reported one point two
29:19
Speaker 3: million in settlement fees to make the case go away,
29:23
Speaker 3: and that was remarkably that Puff gone the case the beef.
29:31
Speaker 3: Chuck's reputation and subsequent legacy barely took a hit.
29:36
Speaker 2: Afterward, and for.
29:37
Speaker 3: The rest of his life, Chuck was defiant in the
29:40
Speaker 3: face of his critics, who was downright trumpion years before,
29:43
Speaker 3: the unreliable narrator in chief?
29:46
Speaker 2: What do they know about it? Anyway?
29:48
Speaker 3: Videography to Chuck was merely self expression, just like music
29:52
Speaker 3: and poetry and sex.
29:54
Speaker 2: Rock and roll had once been.
29:55
Speaker 3: His outlet in the early days anyway, when he was
29:58
Speaker 3: younger making young people's music, But for the majority of
30:01
Speaker 3: his life, rock and roll, the music he invented, was
30:04
Speaker 3: just a job. Chuck Barry was the position he made
30:07
Speaker 3: for himself and filled. Charles was who he really was.
30:12
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry was defiant, but he wasn't angry. Later in life,
30:16
Speaker 3: his critics, the ones from the Big newspapers and magazines
30:19
Speaker 3: back East would from time to time attempt to get
30:22
Speaker 3: Chuck to cop to that rock and roll racial resentment rap,
30:25
Speaker 3: the white man stealing from the black man. How did
30:27
Speaker 3: Chuck feel about being appropriated that sort of thing? Chuck
30:31
Speaker 3: never took debate, even if he knew he had a case.
30:34
Speaker 3: The critics take was lazy and simple. They didn't get it.
30:37
Speaker 3: Chuck knew what his contribution was. He didn't need the
30:40
Speaker 3: king of rock and roll moniker that Elvis had. Sure
30:43
Speaker 3: he wouldn't mind Elvis's bank account or the freedom Elvis
30:46
Speaker 3: was allowed to come and go as he pleased, to
30:48
Speaker 3: sleep with whoever he wanted to be, whoever he wanted
30:51
Speaker 3: to be. But Chuck was content with what he'd accomplished.
30:54
Speaker 3: He'd admitted as much to The New York Times. Once,
30:57
Speaker 3: had I've been pushed like Colonel Parker pushed out Elvis,
31:00
Speaker 3: had it been a white boy like Elvis, sure it
31:02
Speaker 3: would have been different. He regretted the comment as soon
31:05
Speaker 3: as he left his lips. Why let him see his sweat,
31:08
Speaker 3: Why give him the satisfaction? Besides, what really bothered him
31:12
Speaker 3: was how racist attitudes affected who and how you could
31:15
Speaker 3: love free love was always a joke.
31:18
Speaker 2: Asked Sammy Davis Junior about free love.
31:21
Speaker 3: Chuck was unable to love how he wanted, and unlike
31:23
Speaker 3: the white artists who were starting out at the same
31:26
Speaker 3: time as him, Chuck couldn't express this injustice through music.
31:30
Speaker 3: Rock and roll was just that rock and roll. It
31:33
Speaker 3: stayed the same no matter how much it changed, no
31:36
Speaker 3: matter who was playing it or what they were wearing,
31:38
Speaker 3: no matter what year it was, There was only one constant,
31:41
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry, one thread, his riff, and Chuck had other
31:45
Speaker 3: interests he could rely on, explore, tinker with, and dabble in.
31:49
Speaker 3: Chuck was writing again and thinking about music. He wasn't
31:52
Speaker 3: writing about sex, and he wasn't writing poems. He was
31:55
Speaker 3: giving his hand a spin at music criticism.
31:57
Speaker 2: And why not? What did the critics action? We know anyway? Nothing.
32:02
Speaker 3: That's what he was Chuck Berry, and he invented rock
32:04
Speaker 3: and roll. So who better an authority to opine on
32:07
Speaker 3: this new type of music that the kids are all
32:08
Speaker 3: telling him.
32:09
Speaker 2: Was going to make rock and roll obsolete? Punk rock.
32:13
Speaker 3: Chuck was approached by some local kids who had a
32:15
Speaker 3: handmade zine called jet Lag and asked to give his
32:18
Speaker 3: take on some of the more popular punk records that
32:21
Speaker 3: had come out over the past couple of years. Chuck
32:24
Speaker 3: thought that writing some record reviews would be fun, and
32:27
Speaker 3: it was, but as he expected, it was all just
32:30
Speaker 3: rock and roll. Chuck said of the ramone Sheena is
32:34
Speaker 3: a punk rocker, a good little jump number. These guys
32:36
Speaker 3: remind me of myself when I first started. I only
32:39
Speaker 3: knew three chords too. And on God Save the Queen
32:43
Speaker 3: by the sex Pistols, Chuck stated, can't understand most of
32:46
Speaker 3: the vocals. If you're going to be mad, at least
32:48
Speaker 3: let the people know what you're mad about. Chuck Berry
32:53
Speaker 3: wasn't mad. He was Chuck Berry, Charles Anderson, Edward Berry.
32:58
Speaker 3: Now that guy had a legitimate beef. He also had
33:01
Speaker 3: some videotapes to edit and a second book to write.
33:04
Speaker 3: Chuck Berry said so in the pages of his autobiography,
33:07
Speaker 3: penned from behind Bars quote, now that I know much
33:11
Speaker 3: more about the writing of a book, strangely enough, I
33:14
Speaker 3: intend to go for another one that I will enjoy.
33:17
Speaker 3: The true story of my sex life shall not infringe
33:21
Speaker 3: on anyone or thing but me and my excessive desire
33:24
Speaker 3: to continue melting the ice of American hypocrisy regarding behavior
33:28
Speaker 3: and beliefs that are now in the closet an only
33:31
Speaker 3: surface in court, crime or comical conversation. End quote Chuck Berry,
33:38
Speaker 3: a reliable narrator or a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and
33:44
Speaker 3: this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and
34:03
Speaker 3: is produced in partnership.
34:04
Speaker 2: With Double Elvis.
34:05
Speaker 3: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
34:08
Speaker 3: notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as a.
34:12
Speaker 4: Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for supporting the show.
34:15
Speaker 4: We really appreciate it, and if not, you can become
34:18
Speaker 4: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com
34:21
Speaker 4: slash Membership. Members can listen to every episode of Disgraceland
34:26
Speaker 4: ad free, Plus you'll get one brand new exclusive episode
34:29
Speaker 4: every month, weekly unscripted bonus episode, special audio collections, and
34:34
Speaker 4: early access to merchandise and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com
34:39
Speaker 4: slash membership for details, rate and review the show, and
34:42
Speaker 4: follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at disgracelampod
34:46
Speaker 4: and on YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at disgracelampod,
34:51
Speaker 4: rock a roller.
34:54
Speaker 2: He Thebann