| Johnnie
Johnson is one of the unsung heroes of rock and roll. He has
been called “the world’s greatest living blues pianist” and
“the founding father of rock and roll,” but relatively few
knew his name because he played piano in Chuck Berry’s band
and did relatively little recording on his own.
That, however, is changing,
as Johnson’s unsung role as a key player in some of rock and
roll’s most classic songs has been brought to light through
the efforts of music journalists and boosters like Keith Richards
(of the Rolling Stones), Eric Clapton John Sebastian (of the
Lovin Spoonful) and Terry Adams (of NRBQ).
Johnson began playing at age four when his parents brought
a new piano into their Fairmont, West Virginia, home. The
youngster seemed to possess an innate mastery of the instrument.
By nine he was playing jazz tunes by Count Basie, Oscar Peterson
and Earl “Fatha” Hines on a local radio station. While serving
in the Marines, Johnson performed alongside seasoned jazz
professionals in the Special Service Band, and it was here
he decided to make music his life’s work. Moving to Chicago
after the war, Johnson apprenticed with such blues masters
as Muddy Waters and Albert King on the club scene. By the
early Fifties, he was living in St. Louis, where he worked
in a factory by day and fronted the Johnnie Johnson Trio,
an R&B band, as time allowed. When he had to replace an
ailing saxophonist for a club date on New Year’s Eve 1952,
he called a guitar-playing friend on short notice to sit in.
His name was Chuck Berry.
Berry’s rocking hillbilly
style melded with Johnson’s jazz-tinged blues and boogie.
Many of Chuck Berry’s rock and roll classics - including “Sweet
Little Sixteen,” “School Days” and “Roll Over Beethoven” -
came about during impromptu rehearsals when Berry would show
up with lyrics and ask Johnson to play some music behind it.
“Just me, Chuck and the piano” is how Johnson put it. Johnson
and Berry traveled to Chicago in 1957, where they recorded
“Maybellene,” the first of many Chuck Berry hits that featured
Johnson on piano. In fact, Berry wrote “Johnny B. Goode” as
a tribute to Johnson, who often kept playing piano long after
a show ended, sitting in with jazz bands and anyone who would
have him. “I would play anytime, anywhere, with anybody,”
he has said. Referring to his disappearing acts, Berry would
look at him and say, “Why can’t you just be good, Johnny?”
Johnson remained with Berry until 1973. It was nothing personal,
he said of his departure. I was just tired and, plus, I was
scared to fly. Over time, there was a growing recognition
that Johnson’s musical contributions to Berry’s songs were
essential to their success. The humble, overlooked pianist
finally received some long-overdue attention in the Chuck
Berry film documentary Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll, wherein
Keith Richards and others testified to the importance of Johnson’s
piano stylings. Ironically, Johnson at the time was working
as a bus driver in St. Louis. The intervention of Richards
and others and the attention brought to him by the film returned
Johnson to the world of music.
Johnson began recording
on his own in the late Eighties, debuting with Blue Hand Johnnie
and receiving a lot of help from famous friends on such subsequent
releases as Johnnie B. Bad. In the words of biographer Travis
W. Kirkpatrick, “Without Johnnie Johnson, that perfect mixture
of blues, country and jazz flowing together into joyful cohesion
- that sound we call rock and roll - may never have been.”
Reprinted from Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame
Listen to some of his TUNES-(Rolling
Stone Magazine)
LINKS:
- Rockabilly
Hall
- Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame
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