Wednesday, December 17, 2008

CB is still going...

The St. Louis house where Chuck Berry lived when he wrote such legendary rock and roll classics as "Johnny B. Goode," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Memphis, Tennessee," "Maybellene" and "Sweet Little Sixteen," among many others, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Associated Press reported that Berry and wife Toddy lived in the one-story house in the city's Ville neighborhood from 1950 to 1958.

George Thorogood has been a lifelong fan of Berry's and says that as far as rock artists go, Berry is a complete and unbeatable package, "With Chuck Berry, you've got the all-time four-star player. He's a great performer, a great writer, a great singer, and a great player. Not many people have that, all four things combined. Some can sing great, but they don't write. Some write, but they don't sing. Chuck Berry was the first of that. There's only a handful of them. John Fogerty is one, the Beatles... There's very few that have all that covered. And I'm talking about great writing and great performing. I'm not just talking about, 'Oh, he plays guitar pretty good or he writes pretty good.' (He's) up there on the top with all four things... Arguably, probably the greatest rock and roll star ever."

The National Register of Historic Places is the nation's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. The National Register is administered by the National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Chuck Berry will next perform two New Year's Eve shows on December 31st in the heart of New York's City's Times Square at B.B. King's Blues Club.

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