Top 111 Quotes & Sayings by Chuck Berry
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Chuck Berry.
Last updated on November 21, 2024.
A song is a song. But there are some songs, ah, some songs are the greatest. The Beatles song 'Yesterday.' Listen to the lyrics.
Elvis' songs will always be there, and I hope mine will be after I'm gone.
I'm thankful for each and every day. We never know when time is up.
Had I been pushed like Colonel Parker pushed Elvis, had I been a white boy like Elvis, sure, it would have been different.
It's not me to toot my horn. The minute you toot your horn, it seems like society will try and disconnect your battery. And if you do not toot your horn, they'll try their darnedest to give you a horn to toot, or say that you should have a horn.
If you want to release your aggression, get up and dance. That's what rock and roll is all about.
My father married once. I married once. This is a conviction of ours. This is the way we grew up.
Respect isn't enough. You've got to have a proprietary interest.
I've written songs on everything. Menus. Napkins. Little pieces of paper.
Everything I wrote about wasn't about me, but about the people listening.
That's all there was in our house: poetry and choir rehearsal and duets and so forth; I listened to Dad and Mother discuss things about poetry and delivery and voice and diction - I don't think anyone could know how much it really means.
Of the five most important things in life, health is first, education or knowledge is second, and wealth is third. I forget the other two.
There has been a great laziness in my soul. Lots of days I could write songs, but I could also take my $400 and play the slot machines at the riverfront casino.
In the Fifties, there were certain places we couldn't ride on the bus, and now there is a possibility of a black man being in the White House. You have to feel good about it.
Rather than have joy, I would rather be absent of pain.
The first thing I heard was spiritual music, which was imbedded. The second thing I heard was swing. And shortly, along with that, I began to hear the blues. And then I began to hear Latin music. Each one left its mark.
My 12th was my most Christian and most boring year of my life. Try as I did, day after day, to cling to righteousness, I was washed down in suds of sinful surroundings.
I eat meat daily. I'm not Jewish. I'm not Arabic. What's the kind of person that doesn't eat meat? That's right - I'm not a vegetarian.
My first job at Gleason's Bar in Cleveland was $800 a week, when I was making $92 a week with overtime at the automobile plant.
I love poetry. I love rhyming. Do you know, there are poets who don't rhyme? Shakespeare did not rhyme most of the time, and that's why I do not like him.
My dad was the cause of me being in show business. He was not only in poetry but in acting a bit. He was Mordecai in the play 'A Dream of Queen Esther.'
Listening to Nat Cole prompted me to sing sentimental songs with distinct diction.
Rock's so good to me. Rock is my child and my grandfather.
Music should be made to make people forget their problems, if only for a short while.
I would sing the blues if I had the blues.
Don't let the same dog bite you twice.
I'm thankful for performing as long as I am allowed.
Charlie Christian played amplified guitar with Benny Goodman's quartet. He was the greatest guitar player that ever was. But he never looked up from the guitar. But I put a little dance to it. They appreciate seein' something along with hearin' something.
What the heck is a king? I'm a cog in the wheel.
People don't want to see 17 pieces in neckties. They wanna see some jeans, some gettin' down, and some wigglin'.
I don't want the bottom, so I have to sacrifice the top.
I have lots of ambition!
My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.
The music played most around St. Louis was country-western and swing. Curiosity provoked me to lay a lot of the country stuff on our predominantly black audience. After they laughed at me a few times, they began requesting the hillbilly stuff.
That's the misconceptions that people have, that Chuck Berry went to jail. They're just totally wrong. It might have said something in the large papers in the bigger city headlines and things. But, you take a look at any of the local papers, and you will see that I was acquitted. I never went to jail.
I should have been a son of Einstein.
Science and religion are both the same thing. They're there; they're life. If it's not science, it's not a fact.
Chuck Berry doesn't give interviews.
You know, your ears record. You might can sing a song once you hear it.
My singing days have passed. My voice is gone. My throat is worn. And my lungs are going fast.
I wanted to play blues. But I wasn't blue enough. I wasn't like Muddy Waters, people who really had it hard. In our house, we had food on the table. We were doing well compared to many. So I concentrated on this fun and frolic, these novelties.
I think my interviews were much better than what some of the writers wrote. I just wanted the truth out.
I just feel I got my inspiration, education and all from others that came before me. And I added my... I don't even know if I added anything. I played what they played, and it sounded different, I guess.
I made records for people who would buy them. No color, no ethnic, no political - I don't want that, never did.
In a Toyota, the cops don't think about stopping you so much.
Music is science. Everything is science. Because science is truth.
The Rolling Stones... The Rolling Stones have a reflection to my music; I wouldn't deny it. I think that's honest.
You don't just go to the studio and say, 'I'm going to write a hit.' It becomes a hit when people like your compositions.
There had to be a market in order for you to be successful in a business. The market had to need your business, or the product of it.
The Big Band Era is my era. People say, 'Where did you get your style from?' I did the Big Band Era on guitar. That's the best way I could explain it.
Remember that my view, the only true view I can see with, is through the black eyes that I have.
If the people in the audience are talking, you're being ignored. If the people are gazing at you, you've got something they want to hear.
Praise doesn't mean anything to me. I don't judge myself.
The Man Upstairs is taking care of me.
The world has done nothing to me that I haven't done with the world.
It's amazing how much you can learn if your intentions are truly earnest.
I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn't paint.
Rock 'n' roll accepted me and paid me, even though I loved the big bands... I went that way because I wanted a home of my own. I had a family. I had to raise them. Let's don't leave out the economics. No way.
If you're going to be mad, at least let the people know what you're mad about.
A contract is an ask game, and if it asks for an hour, and I submit to an hour, then it's an hour. When I look at a contract, I look at the obligation - where, when, how long, the compensation. If I agree to it, that's the way it is. I have an obligation. They have an obligation.
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