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Before Bob Dylan there was Chuck Berry

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Here’s a great tribute to Chuck Berry from Newport Daily News columnist Jim Gillis:

You could argue that Chuck Berry, who died recently at age 90, helped invent rock ‘n’ roll. I’d throw Little Richard and Elvis in as well.

Berry’s appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival was rife with controversy—a rocker crashing a jazz event.

This was seven years before Bob Dylan rocked out at the folk fest. You can see Berry in “Jazz on a Summer’s Day,” the documentary on the ’58 fest.

Berry never traveled with a band. He gathered with whichever local band signed on (never providing a set list). When Berry played here at the Rockport R&B festival in 1996, the band was a tremendous outfit headed by New Orleans pianist Allen Toussaint.

Berry created magic with tight lyrics, three guitar chords and a limber duck-walk move. Without Berry, The Beatles and the Stones would have sounded a lot different.

Read more about Chuck Berry from Dave Hammer here.

Chuck Berry in Newport, 1958

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

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E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.