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the House Foreign Affairs Committee, First, Putin has control over the police,
called Kara-Murza “one of the bravest
people I know.”
the judiciary, and the media. Good luck
convicting him or his agents. Second, we Founding
Kara-Murza says he now has three should ask the old question Cui bono?
birthdays: “the one my parents gave
me, and the two that Dr. Protsenko has
Who benefits from these killings and
maimings? Third, there is an unusually
Rocker
given me.” high mortality rate among people who We all live in
Does he have any doubt that it was oppose Putin or work as independent Chuck Berry’s world
his government that tried to kill him, journalists in Russia—a mortality rate
twice? No. This kind of poison is not that defies any statistical model.
BY ANDREW CLINE
your garden-variety weapon. “You can’t According to Kremlin propaganda, the
go into a pharmacy and buy it.” The likes of Kara-Murza are “national trai-
Russian security services have been tors.” According to the likes of me, they cultural history

W
ESTERN
developing these poisons for years. are Russian patriots. Kara-Murza agrees, can be divided into two
They have used them all over the world, but will not speak of himself. Instead, he eras: B . C . B . and A . C . B .
not just in Russia. One of their most speaks of Nemtsov. For those of us raised in
famous hits was in London: Alexander “He was a great Russian patriot. He the A.C.B. era (after Chuck Berry), the
Litvinenko, the Russian security agent gave his life for his country. What old world can never come into focus.
who turned whistleblower. more can you do than that? So many It appears as through a lens whose
And the hit, or hits, on Kara-Murza? He other people who are supposedly liber- edges are softly vignetted. It can be
can’t tell you the “who” or the “how.” als or democrats from the ’90s chose to neither experienced nor understood.
He has no idea who, specifically, carried settle for a quiet and comfortable exis- The July 1955 release of Chuck
out the attacks on him, or how he (or she tence under the Putin regime, either Berry’s “Maybellene” did more than
or they) did it. But he’s sure of the “why”: working for it or keeping their distance define rock ’n’ roll: It changed West-
These attacks were retribution for his from the opposition.” ern culture.
work in the political opposition, espe- Many in the West—including President On The Mike Douglas Show in
cially his support of the Magnitsky Act. Trump—claim that Putin is popular in 1972, John Lennon met Chuck Berry
You can read long lists of Putin critics Russia, citing opinion polls. Those polls for the first time. When Douglas asked
who have died in mysterious ways. are farcical, says Kara-Murza: It could be Berry whether the latter had invented
Strange suicides and the like. In the past bad for your health if you tell a stranger rock ’n’ roll, Lennon quickly interject-
couple of weeks, there have been at least taking a poll that you oppose President ed, “I’ll answer for him. He did.”
three incidents that have made the interna- Putin. Moreover, says Kara-Murza, if a Music historians might scoff at the
tional news. leader is so popular, why does he have to assertion that Berry invented the
Yevgeny Khamaganov, a journalist, 35 censor the media, rig elections, and exile, genre, noting that Ike Turner, Bill
years old, died in an emergency room. No imprison, or kill opponents? Haley, Big Joe Turner, and many others
one seems to know why. Two years earli- Kara-Murza rejects, emphatically, the were banging out jump blues, boogie-
er, thugs jumped him and broke his neck. idea that Russians are unfit for democ- woogie, and rockabilly in the early
In Kiev, Denis Voronenkov was shot racy, or undesirous of it—that they like a ’50s (and even the late ’40s). But
dead in the street. Once a member of the strong autocratic hand. He regards this as Lennon understood what Chuck Berry
Russian parliament, he had fled to a smear and a lie, cherished by those who had created with “Maybellene.” Al -
Ukraine and was a key witness in the are loath to see an open Russia. though some of that earlier music might
treason case against Viktor Yanukovych, Despite all that he has experienced, have been called “rock ’n’ roll” at the
the Putin ally who was deposed as he is going back to Russia, once he time, each kind remained a distinct
Ukraine’s president in 2014. regains his health. He will resume his ingredient until Chuck Berry blended
In Moscow, Nikolai Gorokhov was work in his homeland. If he wanted to them together.
tossed from the fourth floor of his apart- hang back, anyone would understand: As Lennon put it, “If you tried to give
ment building. He is the Magnitsky fam- Two poisonings is enough. If there is a rock ’n’ roll another name, you might
ily’s lawyer. The next day, he was to third one, his doctors have told him, he call it ‘Chuck Berry.’”
make an important court appearance. He won’t survive it. But Kara-Murza feels Within weeks of the release of
survived the fall and, at this writing, is compelled to return and defend his “Maybellene,” Elvis Presley was cov-
still breathing. country, as he sees it. ering the song in his live shows. Bill
People will tell you that these endless His wife, Yevgenia, is supportive. If Haley, who had scored big hits with
incidents can’t be pinned on Putin and you ask her, she’ll say that she knew his rockabilly numbers “Crazy Man,
his men. While running for president, what she was signing up for, when she Crazy” and “Rock around the Clock”
Donald Trump defended Putin, saying, married this man. He says, with a hint of in 1953 and 1954, all but vanished
“It’s never been proven that he’s killed a blush, “I’m grateful to have such a from the top of the charts after Berry
anybody. So, you know, you’re supposed woman in my life.”
to be innocent until proven guilty, at least Before we part, I tell him how much I Mr. Cline is a writer in New Hampshire. He co-hosts
in our country.” Vladimir Kara-Murza admire him, how astounding he is. He will the alternative-rock podcast and radio show
makes several points. have none of it. “I’m just stubborn.” Suburban Underground.
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broke through. Haley’s fusion of swing

and country was polished and un -
threatening. There was no masculine,
sensual growl in his guitar. Rock gets
that from the electrified fingertips of
Chuck Berry.
A look at the B.C.B.-era charts illus-
trates this perfectly. The No. 1 Billboard
hit of 1954, Kitty Kallen’s “Little
Things Mean a Lot,” is a violin-
streaked waltz that sounds as though it
were written for a Disney princess
movie but didn’t quite make the cut.
That year’s top-ten hits were all soft,
safe, and breezily innocent. Not a song
on the list has a hint of testosterone.
“Maybellene” was different. No one
had ever recorded a song quite like it.
Not Bill Haley. Not Elvis. Not even the
great Muddy Waters. The country tune
“Ida Red,” on which it was based,
shows only how innovative Berry’s
creation was. The distinctive voice, the
aggressive guitar, the driving rhythm,
the “motorvatin’” tempo, the bent dou-
ble notes all combined to form some-
thing unheard before.
For the next five years, Chuck Berry
pioneered a sound. The Berry creations
“Thirty Days,” “Roll Over Beethoven,”
“School Days,” “Rock and Roll Music,”
“Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Reelin’ and
Rockin’,” “Little Queenie,” “Memphis,
Tennessee,” “Carol,” and Berry’s mas-
terpiece, “Johnny B. Goode,” form the
foundation of A.C.B.-era music.
The Elvis phenomenon deserves its
place in cultural history, but to get a
sense of why the King of Rock ’n’ Roll
could never be considered its father,
imagine Back to the Future’s climactic
school-dance scene ending with an
Elvis song. Any Elvis song. It doesn’t
work. “We didn’t have an alternative,”
producer Bob Gale said of Michael J.
Fox’s performance of Chuck Berry’s
“Johnny B. Goode.”
In the 60 years since Berry’s break-
through, the term “rock ’n’ roll” has
become antiquated. It’s now just Chuck Berry, 1969
ROBERT ALTMAN/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

“rock.” Bill Haley’s swing is gone.

Muddy Waters’s blues are nurtured by raw, animal id. Elvis made R&B 1970s would instinctively understand.
“roots rock” bands but otherwise acceptable to white audiences, but it It was fast, electric, raw, edgy, even a
appear only in hints and echoes. Elvis was Berry who brought white kids to little dangerous.
is remembered as a lounge act. What black shows. It was Berry who opened Five months before Rosa Parks
remains is Chuck Berry’s aggression, millions of white teenagers’ bedrooms refused to give up her bus seat, a highly
screaming guitar, raw sensuality, and to black LP records, who turned rock- intelligent, well-spoken black ex-con
outsider ethos. abilly into rock ’n’ roll by killing the (armed robbery) was reaching the souls
When Berry bent his electrified jazz out of it and teaching it how to of white, middle-class teenagers. Two
double notes, he vibrated the world’s rock in the way metalheads in the of Berry’s first three songs are about
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racing cars (one in pursuit of a woman, The Stones covered 13 Chuck Berry covered that students who boasted of
one outrunning the law). The third is songs. Their first single was a cover of having no heroes secretly had a passion
about sending his wayward woman to “Come On.” The Beach Boys stole to be like Mick Jagger, to live his life,
prison. As the civil-rights movement “Sweet Little Sixteen” so blatantly they have his fame.”
was getting started, Berry was doing had to give Berry songwriting credit on The electrification of the id at a
more than making it acceptable to lis- “Surfin’ USA.” Buddy Holly and Elvis young age doomed students to an
ten to black music. He was main- covered him. So did AC/DC and the Sex impoverished spiritual and intellectual
streaming racial mixing, lawbreaking, Pistols. Hard rock was invented in 1964 life, Bloom believed: “Rock music pro-
and nonconformity. when the Kinks released “You Really vides premature ecstasy and, in this
In 1956, he released a song (“Brown- Got Me.” It was the last song on side respect, is like the drugs with which it
Eyed Handsome Man”) about white one of their debut album. The opening is allied.”
women running off with dark-skinned track was a cover of Chuck Berry’s Whether rock is so malign an influ-
men. White kids in America—and, “Beautiful Delilah.” Joe Strummer, lead ence is a debate for another day, but it’s
soon, across the Atlantic—were taking singer of the Clash, covered Berry’s hard to deny that the creation of pre-
social cues from this larger-than-life “Monkey Business” with his first band, mature ecstasy is rock’s effect. Rock
black man who was standing defiantly the 101ers. produces this rush before maturity,
and proudly against convention. “I Berry’s sound was so far ahead of its creating a demand for ever greater
have found no happiness in any associ- time that his own band wasn’t sure stimulation. It creates a state of ex -
ation that has been linked with regula- what to do with it. The great blues tended adolescence in which the
tions and custom,” Berry wrote in his bassist Willie Dixon was a producer search for satisfaction becomes a more
autobiography. “In other words, con- and session musician at Chess Records powerful motivating force than the
formity is not the fragrance found in when Berry arrived. He found himself future rewards of adhering to social
my fantasies.” stuck playing a traditional walking bass norms. We grow up seeking to be cool,

Without Chuck Berry’s breakthrough sound, there

could have been no Rolling Stones, no Beatles, no Kinks,
no Beach Boys.
That attitude was unmistakable, line on “Johnny B. Goode.” It’s out of aloof, and regularly stimulated. That
and the kids were paying attention. place, reluctantly tethering the song to does not preclude the pursuit of honor
Berry “was writing good lyrics and the old blues of the B.C.B. era. But what and truth, as Bloom believed, but it
intelligent lyrics in the 1950s when was Dixon to do? There was no blue- does precede it. For many, it diverts
people were singing ‘Oh baby, I love print. Like the Starlighters, the fictional what might have become an impulse to
you so,’ ” Lennon said in that Mike band that found itself backing Marty higher pursuits.
Douglas Show interview. “It was peo- McFly’s “Johnny B. Goode” in Back to A culture influenced by rock is fun-
ple like him that influenced our gen- the Future, you just had to find the right damentally different—more individu-
eration to try and make sense out of key, watch for the changes, and hope to alistic, more pleasure-centered, more
the songs rather than just sing ‘Do keep up. rebellious—from what prevailed be-
wah diddy.’” Without Chuck Berry’s breakthrough fore 1955. Obviously, the culture was
Berry’s poetically articulated rebel- sound, there could have been no Rolling already shifting before Berry recorded
liousness was soon vibrating teens all Stones, no Beatles, no Kinks, no Beach “Maybellene” that May. Playboy mag-
over the West. On October 17, 1961, Boys. Without the Beach Boys, there azine was first published in 1953.
18-year-old Mick Jagger stood on the would have been no Ramones. Without Rebel without a Cause was released in
Dartford Station platform waiting for a the Kinks and the Rolling Stones, no October 1955. The Man in the Gray
train into London. In his arms were two hard rock. Berry gave a yawping but Flannel Suit was published that year,
records, The Best of Muddy Waters and undefined new musical spirit its form. too; Peyton Place the following year.
Chuck Berry’s Rockin’ at the Hops. A Before Chuck Berry, there was R&B, But nothing was as explosive as the
childhood friend, 17-year-old Keith country swing, blues, jump blues, jazz, music Chuck Berry put out in the
Richards, saw the records and struck up rockabilly, and boogie-woogie. After years 1955–59.
a conversation. A year later, they were Chuck Berry, there was rock ’n’ roll. Today, rock as a genre has faded,
rehearsing Chuck Berry and Muddy And the sound Berry shaped had replaced by hip-hop and pop. But the
Waters songs as the Rolling Stones. immense consequences. culture it created is dominant. We live
Their bad-boy image, which came to In The Closing of the American Mind, in the lyrical and spiritual universe of
define the rock ’n’ roll counterculture, Allan Bloom writes of the Stones’ Mick the Chuck Berry song. More than any
was not original to them. It came, like Jagger, “He was the hero and the other figure, it was Berry who, in his
their blues-based guitar rock, from model for countless young persons in phrasing, delivered us from the days
Chuck Berry. universities as well as elsewhere. I dis- of old.
26 | w w w. n a t i o n a l r e v i e w. c o m APRIL 17, 2017
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