{"id":8905,"date":"2017-03-31T15:15:27","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T15:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=8905"},"modified":"2017-03-31T15:15:27","modified_gmt":"2017-03-31T15:15:27","slug":"was-chuck-berry-the-lone-genius-hes-made-out-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/was-chuck-berry-the-lone-genius-hes-made-out-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Chuck Berry the lone genius he’s made out to be?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim McFarlin<\/a>, Elon University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In the days following Chuck Berry\u2019s death, commentators have trampled over each other in a race to honor him as the \u201cFather of Rock and Roll,\u201d the art form\u2019s lodestone<\/a> and mastermind<\/a>. They\u2019ve marveled at his songs, not just because of how witty, influential and danceable they were, but because they were the work of Berry alone. \"The<\/p>\n

A few<\/a> have mentioned a lawsuit involving Berry\u2019s longtime piano player Johnnie Johnson<\/a>, where Johnson claimed he was Berry\u2019s co-writer, but which the court dismissed because he took too long to sue. And that\u2019s all they say.<\/p>\n

As a St. Louis lawyer, teacher and music geek, I had heard about the case a few years back and wondered if there was more to the story than simply \u201cJohnson sued too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

I felt this case was still important, given the songs\u2019 seismic cultural influence, as well as Berry\u2019s notorious reluctance to discuss his creative process (\u201cTalking to Chuck Berry about his music is a little like meeting God and finding out He doesn\u2019t remember making the Earth or care what people do there,\u201d author and MTV executive Bill Flanagan once wrote<\/a>). <\/p>\n

So I reached out to the attorneys, and they gave me access to the case file, which, until then, had been gathering dust in storage, unavailable for study. First, in 2015, I used it to explore authorship in copyright law<\/a>. But now, as we reflect on Chuck Berry\u2019s life, I think the case of Johnson v. Berry has an even greater meaning: a search for truth in the fog of legend.<\/p>\n

\u2018In a roundabout sense, I suppose he did\u2019<\/h2>\n

On Aug. 21, 2002, sitting in a nondescript little conference room inside a St. Louis law firm, Chuck Berry was asked something that called into question not only his own legacy, but that of rock and roll itself.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Johnnie Johnson, photographed in 1997 at the age of 72.<\/span>
\n AP Photo\/Adam Nadel<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two years prior, Johnnie Johnson had sued Berry. In his suit, Johnson claimed he\u2019d co-written, on his piano, nearly every song in Berry\u2019s remarkable 1950s and \u201860\u2019s run \u2013 \u201cRoll Over Beethoven,\u201d \u201cBack in the U.S.A.\u201d and \u201cNadine,\u201d among many others \u2013 classics that helped sow the seeds of a worldwide musical and cultural revolution.<\/p>\n

Having gotten neither credit nor a dime of the millions in royalties those songs had generated, Johnson set out \u2013 nearly 50 years later \u2013 to rewrite history via the courts.<\/p>\n

Though the case had started slow \u2013 lawyers jousting, sending letters, serving subpoenas \u2013 on that day in August 2002, inside that little conference room, Johnson\u2019s attorney had the chance to ask Chuck Berry, in person and under oath, the question that cut to the heart of the case:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cDo you believe as you sit here today, that Johnnie Johnson had any, played any part in creating the songs that we\u2019ve said he did?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cNo\u201d or even \u201cHell no\u201d would have been perfectly acceptable (and, to Berry\u2019s lawyers, highly desirable) answers. But instead, Berry\u2019s response was profoundly equivocal:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn a roundabout sense, I suppose he did. I don\u2019t know, but I suppose he did; but in a legal sense, no, because I consider myself having written any songs that is out now with Chuck Berry on it, because that\u2019s the way it went, I composed it and I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A good trial lawyer could\u2019ve made a lot of hay with that: \u201cMr. Berry has testified that Johnnie Johnson helped create these songs in a roundabout sense\u2026just not in a legal sense,\u201d one can easily picture a jury hearing in closing argument, \u201cbut you, ladies and gentlemen, get to decide how the law applies here, not Mr. Berry.\u201d<\/p>\n

A jury, however, would never hear the case. On Oct. 21, 2002, just two weeks before trial was set to begin, the judge ruled against Johnson<\/a>. He decided that the statute of limitations had expired \u2013 Johnson had waited too many years to sue \u2013 and that was that. Or was it?<\/p>\n

Father(s) of rock and roll?<\/h2>\n

In the course of Berry\u2019s sworn deposition, and Johnson\u2019s own, taken two months earlier, the two men spoke more expansively about their part in rock and roll\u2019s creation than they ever had before \u2013 or ever would again.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, they spoke most freely when discussing how they worked together.<\/p>\n

From Johnson: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201c[T]hat\u2019s the way our teamwork came in together, whoever come up with the idea, it was tried by the both, he would try it, my piano part, which mostly I would do, I would try his guitar part, and together we collaborated on it\u2026and [would] find out which part worked the best, and that\u2019s the one that would be used.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And from Berry:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c[T]here was a harmonious understanding after a few recordings, that when I stop singing, Johnnie played this riff, or that riff, or that riff, and there are certain ones that I can name\u2026he played it and played the da-da-da-da riff, I could implicate the rhythm and he would remember the thing that I liked so much, and the same thing would happen, turned around, when I would play the riff, that I\u2019d ask him to play a certain thing, seemed like to me, he would just fall in\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

They even played their instruments \u2013 Johnson on piano and Berry on guitar and piano \u2013 trying to show what they did and how they did it. <\/p>\n

Neither man would bend on his respective legal position. On that, reasonable minds can disagree. It\u2019s not easy to mark the point at which a creative contributor becomes a co-author. But both men were candid about the creative process, itself, and how it was fueled by their musical interplay. That is what\u2019s most instructive for us today.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Johnnie Johnson, left, and Chuck Berry pose in an undated photo.<\/span>
\n AP Photo<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most of us view Berry as the self-reliant father of rock and roll, the mastermind who created these amazing songs essentially from scratch. Others<\/a> see Johnson as the jilted, true composer of the music that turned Berry\u2019s lyrics into classic songs. <\/p>\n

But read what Berry and Johnson have said themselves, under oath, and you can see it was a collaboration \u2013 their unspoken musical bond \u2013 that gets closest to the truth of how these classic, wildly influential songs were born.<\/p>\n

Society often constructs (and then fights to preserve) myths around individual genius. Collaboration \u2013 with past influences<\/a>, as well as with present partners \u2013 isn\u2019t nearly as sexy. But it\u2019s how works of genius regularly get written, designed, sculpted, filmed and recorded. From the songs of Leiber and Stoller<\/a> and Holland-Dozier-Holland<\/a>, to the film \u201cCasablanca<\/a>,\u201d to the writings of Raymond Carver<\/a>, collaborative creativity has produced many of our most prized cultural treasures, often without our knowing it.<\/p>\n

And sometimes, perhaps, an individual genius finds a partner, one who helps him hit a creative zenith higher than he could\u2019ve reached alone. Recognizing this in the story of Chuck Berry \u2013 or at least acknowledging its possibility \u2013 doesn\u2019t detract from his legacy; it honors it more deeply. <\/p>\n

Near the end of the film \u201cHail! Hail! Rock ‘n\u2019 Roll<\/a>,\u201d director Taylor Hackford asked Berry how he wanted to be remembered. <\/p>\n

\u201cI tell you what,\u201d Berry replied. \u201cWhatever it be, I just hope it\u2019s real and it\u2019s a fact, which will be the truth. That\u2019s it. I hope they\u2019ll just speak the truth be it pro, con, bad, good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amen, Chuck.<\/p>\n

Tim McFarlin<\/a>, Fellow, Elon University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim McFarlin, Elon University In the days following Chuck Berry\u2019s death, commentators have trampled over each other in a race to honor him as the \u201cFather of Rock and Roll,\u201d the art form\u2019s lodestone and mastermind. They\u2019ve marveled at his songs, not just because of how witty, influential and danceable they were, but because they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":8906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,36],"tags":[594,1766,438,840,1931,53,1414,2121],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8907,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905\/revisions\/8907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}