LITTLE RICHARD and CHUCK BERRY
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THERE are some majestic things ya just gotta see for yourself – like the Grand Canyon, the pyramids . . . and Chuck Berry.
At Westbury Music Fair Sunday night, Berry didn’t play an oldies show. Instead, the 75-year-old legend – who shared the bill with Little Richard – showed how he single-handedly invented rock ‘n’ roll guitar.
Granted, Berry’s memory isn’t what it used to be. Lyrics evaporated and songs were repeated, but it didn’t matter.
From his red Gibson hollow-bodied electric guitar percolated the primordial bubbles of rock – the notes that have been imitated, borrowed or stolen by Jerry Garcia, Brian Wilson, Keith Richards and a million others.
And while he moved like his bones needed oiling, it was clear time hasn’t taken away his ability to play his guitar like he’s ringing a bell.
Appropriately, Berry opened with the anti-establishment anthem “Roll Over Beethoven,” which served nicely as the evening’s musical point of departure.
From there he touched all the bases – “Rock ‘n’ Roll Music,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Carol,” “Maybellene” and more, especially “Johnny B. Goode.”
Just as Berry is the architect of rock guitar, Little Richard can lay claim to the same for rock vocals.
While he’s an extraordinary boogie-woogie pianist, it was when he whooped and hollered through songs like “Jenny, Jenny” and “Long Tall Sally” that his talents were really on display Sunday night.
If there was any doubt that Paul McCartney learned to hit the high notes from Georgia’s most famous peach, all you had to do was sit back and listen to Little Richard’s glass-breaking rendition of “Good Golly Miss Molly.”
For this show, he put his band together as if he were Noah – two bass players, two drummers, two guitarists, two horns and another keyboard player.
Though it sounds excessive, it took every bit of that 10-piece outfit to create the kind of bombastic rock that could stand up to Richard’s over-the-top vocals – not to mention his peacock personality.
Yes, Little Richard, you are beautiful – just please don’t ask us again to confirm it.