Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll

I took a short walk up the road today. It was a bit blustery but OK. Various things got photographed but I liked this one best.

I can't let the day pass without a mention of Chuck Berry. If you listen to a song like his 'Nadine' you can't help being struck by the sheer poetry in his lyrics. More than any other artist who was there at the birth of rock'n'roll in the fifties, it was his work which continued to influence musicians, certainly through the twentieth century and probably up to the present time. 

He did cloud his reputation with 'that novelty song' in the seventies and it's true that he's never given the respect to his performance or back catalogue that many of us would have liked. I last saw him live 9 or 10 years ago and it was a fairly shoddy performance. Still, I can forgive that because I have memories of seeing him when he was at his best and I give tremendous thanks for the inspiration he's provided in the world I live in. As John Lennon famously said, "If you had to give rock'n'roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry".