New York: Chuck Berry, one of the creators of rock 'n' roll who helped shape modern youth culture with his dance-ready rhythms but who struggled to overcome institutional racism, died on Saturday. He was 90.
Police in the St. Louis area, where Berry was born and lived most of his life, said that first responders found the guitar legend unresponsive when they answered an emergency call at his home.
"The St. Charles County Police Department sadly confirms the death of Charles Edward Anderson Berry Sr., better known as legendary musician Chuck Berry," it said on Facebook.
Berry became a sensation in the years after the Second World War as the baby boom generation came of age in an increasingly prosperous America. The middle-class son of a carpenter and a high school principal, Berry grew up under segregation but instinctively sensed how to bridge the racial divide.
Berry had played blues guitar but found that his white audience was more interested in country. He merged the styles with an electric energy and consummate stage showmanship, although he hesitated to say that he created rock 'n' roll.
"It used to be called boogie-woogie, it used to be called blues, used to be called rhythm and blues," he later said. "It's called rock now."
Whatever the music was named, Bruce Springsteen, one of many artists heavily influenced by Berry, said the man was indispensable. "Chuck Berry was rock's greatest practitioner, guitarist and the greatest pure rock 'n' roll writer who ever lived," Springsteen wrote on Twitter.
His 1958 hit Johnny B. Goode was so influential and recognisable that the US space program chose it to represent rock music for potential extraterrestrial listeners on the Voyager spacecraft.
Struggles with racism
Roll Over Beethoven from 1956 was almost a manifesto of rock 'n' roll as the charismatic Berry urged the DJ to switch off the classical records and turn to the new genre of the youth.
Other hits included Maybellene, one of the pioneering rock songs that gave a guitar edge to a popular fiddle tune, and Sweet Little Sixteen, in which Berry hailed rock 'n' roll's sweep across the United States.
Berry was one of the first African Americans to find a widespread white audience, with his gentle demeanor and the usually innocuous subject matter of his songs initially insulating him in a country where many black people lived under Jim Crow institutionalised racism.
But that changed as his fame grew. After a packed performance in 1959 in Meridian Mississippi, a white crowd set upon Berry and forced him to leave through a side entrance after accusing him of kissing a white girl among his fans.
"One of the girls threw her arms around me and hung a soul-searching kiss that I let hang a second too long," Berry later explained. He was arrested for disturbing the peace and left the city after paying a fine.
His career soon was interrupted when he was arrested in 1959 under an obscure law for taking a 14-year-old girl across state lines for "immoral purposes."
Berry defended himself against allegations that he had slept with the young waitress. But he was convicted by an all-white jury and served a year and a half in prison. In a bitter irony, he was incarcerated just as the United States was swept by white rockers influenced by him, including the British invasion led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
Mick Jagger hailed Berry on Saturday as an inspiration, saying: "He lit up our teenage years, and blew life into our dreams of being musicians and performers."
Final album due
After his prison time, friends described the laid-back and fun-loving Berry as a changed man, and the conviction has long been viewed in the African American community as a warning sign for artists on the rise.
Berry mostly avoided the media limelight as he resurrected his career. In a rare 1987 interview with NBC television, Berry declined to describe himself as the father of rock 'n' roll, listing others including his contemporary Elvis Presley as well as Fats Domino and Little Richard.
"We're all I think just a cog in the wheel. We all got the ball rolling," he said.
Berry initially found success after record executive Leonard Chess sensed his crossover potential and signed him after an introduction from Muddy Waters. Berry late in his life stayed low-profile in St. Louis where he played two decades worth of shows at the Blueberry Club, with his son Charles Berry Jr. in his backup band.
In a surprise, Berry last year celebrated his 90th birthday by announcing that he had recorded his first album in 38 years.
Entitled simply "Chuck," the album is slated to be released sometime this year.
In a statement as he announced the album, Berry dedicated it to his wife of 68 years, Themetta Berry.
"My darlin', I'm growing old! I've worked on this record for a long time. Now I can hang up my shoes!"
Reactions
Music celebrities took to social media to mourn Berry's death.
"I am so sad to hear of Chuck Berry's passing. I want to thank him for all the inspirational music he gave to us. He lit up our teenage years, and blew life into our dreams of being musicians and performers. His lyrics shone above others and threw a strange light on the American dream. Chuck, you were amazing, and your music is engraved inside us forever." - Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones, in a series of posts via Twitter
"One of my big lights has gone out!" - Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, in a statement
"Thou Shall Have No Other Rock Gods Before Him #ChuckBerry rip @ Rock & Roll Hall of Fame" - Drummer-producer Questlove, via Twitter
"Hail hail rock n roll. I'm glad I had a chance to know, love, and work w Chuck Berry during my life and career. Original Pure Rock n Roll." - Rocker Joan Jett, in a statement
"Chuck Berry was rock's greatest practitioner, guitarist, and the greatest pure rock 'n' roll writer who ever lived." - Bruce Springsteen, via Twitter
"I am so sad to hear about Chuck Berry passing - a big inspiration! He will be missed by everyone who loves Rock 'n Roll. Love & Mercy" - Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, via Twitter
"Chuck Berry's life was a treasure and a triumph, and he'll never be forgotten." - former President Bill Clinton.
"Chuck Berry made the guitar a star. He took it from a rhythm background instrument ....and he intuitively choreographed the first great rock and roll stage moves whether he was playing it behind his head, between his legs, and of course the inimitable duck walk." - Joe Edwards, owner of Blueberry Hill music club in St. Louis where Chuck Berry played regularly until a few years before his death.
"The first, the best, a friend. Rest In Peace Chuck Berry." - Greg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band, via Twitter
"So sad (tilde) with the passing of Chuck Berry comes the end of an era. He was one of the best and my inspiration, a true character indeed." - Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, via Twitter
"Just let me hear some of that rock 'n' roll music any old way you use it I am playing I'm talking about you. God bless Chuck Berry Chuck" - Ringo Starr of the Beatles, via Twitter
"You'll always be the Father of Rock & Roll to us, Chuck. Our thoughts are with the Berry family. #Legend #ChuckBerry" - St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, via Twitter
"It started with Chuck Berry. The 1st album I ever bought was Chuck's 'Live at the Tivoli' and I was never the same. He was more than a legend, he was a founding father. You can hear his influence in every rock & roll band from my generation on. I've been performing his 'Sweet Little Rock & Roller' since 1974 and tonight, when my band and I perform it at Caesars Palace's Colosseum, it'll be for Chuck Berry - your sound lives on." - Rod Stewart, in a statement Saturday
"Chuck Berry merged blues & swing into the phenomenon of early rock'n'roll. In music, he cast one of the longest shadows. Thank You Chuck." - The Jacksons, via Twitter
"Chuck Berry. Maybe the most important figure in all of rock and roll. His music and his influence will last forever. - Huey" - Pop-rocker Huey Lewis, via Twitter
"Chuck Berry was a rock and roll original. A gifted guitar player, an amazing live performer, and a skilled songwriter whose music and lyrics captured the essence of 1950s teenage life. It's fitting that he was the first person inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, as he influenced everyone who has picked up a guitar after him. Today, we celebrate his life. Hail Hail, Chuck Berry." - Rock and Roll of Hall of Fame and Museum, in a statement
"Your music rocketed on Earth. Then it went interstellar aboard @NASAVoyager. #JohnnyBGoode #RIP, Chuck Berry." - Astronaut Scott Kelly, via Twitter
"Heart broken to hear of the passing of Chuck Berry. He was undisputedly the king. A moment of. instagram.com/p/BRzBlKTBSu0/" - Rocker Slash, via Twitter
"Hail Hail Chuck Berry!!! None of us would have been here without you. Rock on brother! instagram.com/p/BRzBbf0Fo5c/" - Rocker Lennie Kravitz, via Twitter
"RIP Chuck Berry !!!! Thank you for the poetry, the passion and the potency! GO JOHNNY GO. - KU" - Country star Keith Urban, via Twitter
"Chuck Berry died. This breaks my heart, but 90 years old ain't bad for rock and roll. Johnny B. Goode forever." - Writer Stephen King, via Twitter
