Chuck Berry Heads All-Star Jam at First Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction

Chuck Berry Heads All-Star Jam at First Rock and Roll Hall of Fame InductionKeith Richards, Neil Young and Billy Joel share stage with rock icon $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

Talk about a super group: Back on January 23rd, 1986, Keith Richards, Neil Young and Billy Joel joined Chuck Berry onstage to close out the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Check out this rare clip of the performance, which features the freshly inducted Berry demonstrating his famous duck walk before leading the group in a synchronized guitar swing.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recently opened a new exhibit called "Roll Over Beethoven: The Life and Music of Chuck Berry," which collects heaps of memorabilia, from the rock icon's 1958 recording contract with Chess Records to the vest he wore at the Toronto Rock & Roll Festival in 1969.

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Chuck Berry Heads All-Star Jam at First Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction

Chuck Berry Heads All-Star Jam at First Rock and Roll Hall of Fame InductionKeith Richards, Neil Young and Billy Joel share stage with rock icon $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

Talk about a super group: Back on January 23rd, 1986, Keith Richards, Neil Young and Billy Joel joined Chuck Berry onstage to close out the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Check out this rare clip of the performance, which features the freshly inducted Berry demonstrating his famous duck walk before leading the group in a synchronized guitar swing.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recently opened a new exhibit called "Roll Over Beethoven: The Life and Music of Chuck Berry," which collects heaps of memorabilia, from the rock icon's 1958 recording contract with Chess Records to the vest he wore at the Toronto Rock & Roll Festival in 1969.

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Flashback: John Lennon and Chuck Berry Jam on 'Johnny B. Goode'

Flashback: John Lennon and Chuck Berry Jam on 'Johnny B. Goode'They appeared together on 'The Mike Douglas Show' $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

In February of 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono took over The Mike Douglas Show for a week. The talk show was never particularly socially conscious, but with Lennon at the helm guests included Ralph Nader, Jerry Rubin and Surgeon General Dr. Jesse Steinfeld. The musical highlight was an appearance by Chuck Berry, who played "Johnny B. Goode" and "Memphis, Tennessee" with Lennon and Ono. "He was writing good lyrics and intelligent lyrics in the 1950s when people were singing 'Oh baby I love you so,'" Lennon said during an interview on the show. "It was people like him that influenced our generation to try and make sense out of the songs rather than just sing 'do wah diddy.'"

The interview came at a good time for Chuck Berry. Nostalgia for the Fifties was becoming big business on the road, and that summer he'd release "My Ding-a-Ling." It's an incredibly stupid novelty song; ironically, it became the single biggest hit of Berry's long career. 

In a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone, Lennon spoke very highly of Chuck Berry. "He is one of the all-time great poets, a rock poet you could call him," he said.  "He was well advanced of his time lyric-wise. We all owe a lot to him, including Dylan. I’ve loved everything he’s done, ever. He was in a different class from the other performers."

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Chuck D on Public Enemy's Two New Albums: 'They Will Talk to Each Other'

Chuck D talks new Public Enemy albums.

This is shaping up to be an extremely fruitful year for Public Enemy: the veteran hip-hop group will release two albums, Most of My Heroes Still Don't Appear on No Stamp in June and The Evil Empire of Everything in September.

"They're totally separate albums," Chuck D tells Rolling Stone. "But 25 years ago, it probably would have been called a double album. And maybe 25 years ago, it would have been called an extended A-side or extended B-side. But now, in today's digital space, we thought it's very important to be able to slow the listener down. The fact that you work on something, and a reviewer or a listener listens to it on their iPod or their file in about 15 or 20 seconds, it's like, 'Wait a minute. Slow down.'"

Chuck D describes the albums as "fraternal twins. Unidentical. And these records will talk to each other." Both albums will feature numerous guests, including Brother Ali, Henry Rollins, Tom Morello, Z-Trip, Large Professor, Bumpy Knuckles and Gerald Albright.

As for confirmed song titles, Chuck D says, "One song title just emerged. It's still the same song, but it talks about so many things that are pertinent to the issue, and it's called 'Beyond Trayvon.' Another title is 'Catch the Thrown.'" But don't expect the tunes to reflect a specific Public Enemy era of the past. "Public Enemy has never made two albums alike," he says. "This is all its own ilk."

Public Enemy are aiming to tour heavily behind the releases – beginning in May, the band plans on touring Australia, Europe and Brazil. After that, they will launch the "Hip Hop Gods" tour of the United States in the fall, which will see Public Enemy joined by other classic hip-hop artists. "People like EPMD, Naughty by Nature," notes Chuck D. "We want to be able to show rap artists who ask us, 'How do we do what you guys do?' Keep going 25 years in a row, releasing what we want when we want, playing whatever we want when we want – that type of thing. Just like classic rock, we want to do the same thing in hip-hop. It's that time."

But first up for Chuck D, he will induct his friends the Beastie Boys into the Roll and Roll Hall of Fame. "It came about because they requested, and definitely it's an honor to do so. The third hip-hop group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's a very important juncture of rap and hip-hop."

Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys first crossed paths in 1987. "We were on the License to Ill tour. That was our first tour, and it was very influential in Public Enemy developing a stage show. It was '(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)', with the big phallus popping out of the stage. It was just ridiculous – it was a mind-blowing show. The beer cans… it was just like, 'What the fuck?'"

Finally, how did Chuck D's unexpected guest appearance on Meat Loaf's latest release, Hell in a Handbasket, come about? "Meat Loaf is [Anthrax guitarist and former Public Enemy collaborator] Scott Ian's father-in-law. I think he was looking for something on his album that answered to a dynamic that he didn't want to do himself. So he reached out to Scott, Scott reached out to me, and I said sure."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Chuck D on Public Enemy's Two New Albums: 'They Will Talk to Each Other'

Chuck D talks new Public Enemy albums.

This is shaping up to be an extremely fruitful year for Public Enemy: the veteran hip-hop group will release two albums, Most of My Heroes Still Don't Appear on No Stamp in June and The Evil Empire of Everything in September.

"They're totally separate albums," Chuck D tells Rolling Stone. "But 25 years ago, it probably would have been called a double album. And maybe 25 years ago, it would have been called an extended A-side or extended B-side. But now, in today's digital space, we thought it's very important to be able to slow the listener down. The fact that you work on something, and a reviewer or a listener listens to it on their iPod or their file in about 15 or 20 seconds, it's like, 'Wait a minute. Slow down.'"

Chuck D describes the albums as "fraternal twins. Unidentical. And these records will talk to each other." Both albums will feature numerous guests, including Brother Ali, Henry Rollins, Tom Morello, Z-Trip, Large Professor, Bumpy Knuckles and Gerald Albright.

As for confirmed song titles, Chuck D says, "One song title just emerged. It's still the same song, but it talks about so many things that are pertinent to the issue, and it's called 'Beyond Trayvon.' Another title is 'Catch the Thrown.'" But don't expect the tunes to reflect a specific Public Enemy era of the past. "Public Enemy has never made two albums alike," he says. "This is all its own ilk."

Public Enemy are aiming to tour heavily behind the releases – beginning in May, the band plans on touring Australia, Europe and Brazil. After that, they will launch the "Hip Hop Gods" tour of the United States in the fall, which will see Public Enemy joined by other classic hip-hop artists. "People like EPMD, Naughty by Nature," notes Chuck D. "We want to be able to show rap artists who ask us, 'How do we do what you guys do?' Keep going 25 years in a row, releasing what we want when we want, playing whatever we want when we want – that type of thing. Just like classic rock, we want to do the same thing in hip-hop. It's that time."

But first up for Chuck D, he will induct his friends the Beastie Boys into the Roll and Roll Hall of Fame. "It came about because they requested, and definitely it's an honor to do so. The third hip-hop group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's a very important juncture of rap and hip-hop."

Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys first crossed paths in 1987. "We were on the License to Ill tour. That was our first tour, and it was very influential in Public Enemy developing a stage show. It was '(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)', with the big phallus popping out of the stage. It was just ridiculous – it was a mind-blowing show. The beer cans… it was just like, 'What the fuck?'"

Finally, how did Chuck D's unexpected guest appearance on Meat Loaf's latest release, Hell in a Handbasket, come about? "Meat Loaf is [Anthrax guitarist and former Public Enemy collaborator] Scott Ian's father-in-law. I think he was looking for something on his album that answered to a dynamic that he didn't want to do himself. So he reached out to Scott, Scott reached out to me, and I said sure."

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Chuck Berry, Leonard Cohen Get First PEN Songwriting Awards

Leonard Cohen and Chuck Berry backstage at the PEN New England Awards for Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

Midway through Paul Simon's praise of Chuck Berry, who was honored alongside Leonard Cohen as the first two recipients of PEN New England's Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award Sunday at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Berry beckoned Simon to lean over so he could whisper in his ear.

The presenter returned to the microphone laughing. Berry, he said, told him he had a bad ear and couldn't hear a word he was saying.

Yet fans of Berry and Cohen, unquestionably two of the most original writers the rock & roll era has produced, have been listening very closely from the beginning. Addressing a tony crowd of writers and rock fans, Salman Rushdie presented Cohen's award, and Elvis Costello and surprise guest Keith Richards (introduced as "the best-selling author in this room") performed in tribute to Berry.

Given the intent of the Song Lyrics award, the event was peppered with references to great writers. In an email read by organizer Bill Flanagan, Bob Dylan called Berry "the Shakespeare of rock & roll" and Cohen "the Kafka of the blues." Cohen, accepting his award, compared Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" to Walt Whitman's joyful noise – his "barbaric yawp."

"If Beethoven hadn't rolled over," he said, "there'd be no room for any of us."  

After quoting key lines from Cohen's "Bird on the Wire" – "Like a bird on the wire/ Like a drunk in a midnight choir/ I have tried, in my way, to be free" – the author Rushdie, a former president of PEN American Center, said, "Put simply, if I could write like that, I would."

Last year the New England chapter of the world's oldest literary and human rights organization convened a panel to select the first recipients of the new songwriters' award. The panel included Costello, Simon, Rushdie, Bono, Rosanne Cash, Smokey Robinson and poet Paul Muldoon. After opening remarks from Caroline Kennedy, who spoke of her father's conviction that "the artist has a special responsibility in our democracy," PEN New England Chairman Richard Hoffman explained the symbolism of the oversize image of a lyre projected above the stage. It was a reminder, he said, that through most of history, "literature was sung."

After Shawn Colvin sang Cohen's "Come Healing" from his new album Old Ideas, Costello took the stage to pay tribute to Berry. "This is one of the more intimidating things you'll do," he joked – "play a Chuck Berry song in front of Chuck Berry, without a band." But his characteristically tweaked version of "No Particular Place to Go" drew smiles and finger-points from the master, who, at 85, looked the same as ever in his sailor's cap and string tie. 

Rather than take the microphone to make an acceptance speech, Berry surprised the event organizers by indicating he'd just as soon take Costello's hollow-body guitar off his hands. After fumbling with some feedback, he played a muted version of "Johnny B. Goode." 

"That's the way rock & roll is," he said when he finished. "It's funky. Is that too bad a word to say?"

For the event's final surprise, Richards, who famously squabbled with his guitar hero during the filming of Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, stepped out of the front row and onto the stage, where he took Costello's guitar and joined him – Costello grabbing an acoustic – on an unrehearsed romp through Berry's cross-country yarn "Promised Land."

"We have a Mount Rushmore thing going on here," as Flanagan noted earlier in the program. The guests of honor were, of course, united in rock. 

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Free Download: Chuck Ragan's Anthem 'Camaraderie of the Commons'

Click to listen to Chuck Ragan's 'Camaraderie of the Commons'

Singer-songwriter Chuck Ragan released his latest album, Covering Ground, in September, and has spent considerable time touring in support of the record inspired by two decades on the road. The album's bonus track, the acoustic "Camraderie of the Commons," is a powerful "rally for hope" inspired by Garrett Hardin's term "the tragedy of the commons," Ragan says.

Ragan explains that Hardin's tragedy of the commons referred to a "problem in which a community or group of individuals, living and working independently will eventually extinguish and eliminate a limited common resource."

Though his song "Camraderie of the Commons" was inspired by this idea, Ragan considers it to be a "positive mockery of the term itself."

"The first time I read this term and found the meaning, it stuck with me in a way where I realized that whether we understand the initial outcome of our acts or not, whether we deplete our resources or not, there are common bonds, communities and individuals who truly wish to make a difference in this world within the time that we're here and preserve as much as we're able to for the young ones who'll follow us," he explains. "Even if we as a society have passed the point of no return and at times live in a way that is of detriment to our longevity."

Chuck Ragan's upcoming Revival Tour dates can be viewed here. You can download Chuck Ragan's hidden track "Camraderie of the Commons" for free here.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Free Download: Chuck Ragan's Anthem 'Camaraderie of the Commons'

Click to listen to Chuck Ragan's 'Camaraderie of the Commons'

Singer-songwriter Chuck Ragan released his latest album, Covering Ground, in September, and has spent considerable time touring in support of the record inspired by two decades on the road. The album's bonus track, the acoustic "Camraderie of the Commons," is a powerful "rally for hope" inspired by Garrett Hardin's term "the tragedy of the commons," Ragan says.

Ragan explains that Hardin's tragedy of the commons referred to a "problem in which a community or group of individuals, living and working independently will eventually extinguish and eliminate a limited common resource."

Though his song "Camraderie of the Commons" was inspired by this idea, Ragan considers it to be a "positive mockery of the term itself."

"The first time I read this term and found the meaning, it stuck with me in a way where I realized that whether we understand the initial outcome of our acts or not, whether we deplete our resources or not, there are common bonds, communities and individuals who truly wish to make a difference in this world within the time that we're here and preserve as much as we're able to for the young ones who'll follow us," he explains. "Even if we as a society have passed the point of no return and at times live in a way that is of detriment to our longevity."

Chuck Ragan's upcoming Revival Tour dates can be viewed here. You can download Chuck Ragan's hidden track "Camraderie of the Commons" for free here.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

Read more »

Chuck Berry, Leonard Cohen Get First PEN Songwriting Awards

Leonard Cohen and Chuck Berry backstage at the PEN New England Awards for Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

Midway through Paul Simon's praise of Chuck Berry, who was honored alongside Leonard Cohen as the first two recipients of PEN New England's Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award Sunday at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Berry beckoned Simon to lean over so he could whisper in his ear.

The presenter returned to the microphone laughing. Berry, he said, told him he had a bad ear and couldn't hear a word he was saying.

Yet fans of Berry and Cohen, unquestionably two of the most original writers the rock & roll era has produced, have been listening very closely from the beginning. Addressing a tony crowd of writers and rock fans, Salman Rushdie presented Cohen's award, and Elvis Costello and surprise guest Keith Richards (introduced as "the best-selling author in this room") performed in tribute to Berry.

Given the intent of the Song Lyrics award, the event was peppered with references to great writers. In an email read by organizer Bill Flanagan, Bob Dylan called Berry "the Shakespeare of rock & roll" and Cohen "the Kafka of the blues." Cohen, accepting his award, compared Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" to Walt Whitman's joyful noise – his "barbaric yawp."

"If Beethoven hadn't rolled over," he said, "there'd be no room for any of us."  

After quoting key lines from Cohen's "Bird on the Wire" – "Like a bird on the wire/ Like a drunk in a midnight choir/ I have tried, in my way, to be free" – the author Rushdie, a former president of PEN American Center, said, "Put simply, if I could write like that, I would."

Last year the New England chapter of the world's oldest literary and human rights organization convened a panel to select the first recipients of the new songwriters' award. The panel included Costello, Simon, Rushdie, Bono, Rosanne Cash, Smokey Robinson and poet Paul Muldoon. After opening remarks from Caroline Kennedy, who spoke of her father's conviction that "the artist has a special responsibility in our democracy," PEN New England Chairman Richard Hoffman explained the symbolism of the oversize image of a lyre projected above the stage. It was a reminder, he said, that through most of history, "literature was sung."

After Shawn Colvin sang Cohen's "Come Healing" from his new album Old Ideas, Costello took the stage to pay tribute to Berry. "This is one of the more intimidating things you'll do," he joked – "play a Chuck Berry song in front of Chuck Berry, without a band." But his characteristically tweaked version of "No Particular Place to Go" drew smiles and finger-points from the master, who, at 85, looked the same as ever in his sailor's cap and string tie. 

Rather than take the microphone to make an acceptance speech, Berry surprised the event organizers by indicating he'd just as soon take Costello's hollow-body guitar off his hands. After fumbling with some feedback, he played a muted version of "Johnny B. Goode." 

"That's the way rock & roll is," he said when he finished. "It's funky. Is that too bad a word to say?"

For the event's final surprise, Richards, who famously squabbled with his guitar hero during the filming of Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll, stepped out of the front row and onto the stage, where he took Costello's guitar and joined him – Costello grabbing an acoustic – on an unrehearsed romp through Berry's cross-country yarn "Promised Land."

"We have a Mount Rushmore thing going on here," as Flanagan noted earlier in the program. The guests of honor were, of course, united in rock. 

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

Amazon Music and MP3 Center

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