Chuck Berry digs, Oct. 2025. (D. Hoekstra photo)
A few months ago, I drove by the empty Chuck Berry House on the near north side of St. Louis. The modest red brick home is where Berry wrote hits like “Roll Over Beethoven” in 1956 and “Johnny B. Goode” in 1958. The Berry house is at 3137 Whittier Street in the economically challenged Greater Ville neighborhood.
The Berry house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, a rarity since Berry was still alive. Berry and his wife bought the three-room house in 1950 in what then was a middle-class Black neighborhood that included comedian Dick Gregory, [...]
Congress Theater, Chicago, Jan. 1, 2011 (Photo by Diane Soubly)
Jan. 4, 2011— One moment was lost in the storm of Chuck Berry’s collapse during his New Year’s night concert at the Congress Theater in Chicago.
About halfway through the show a thin and somewhat wobbly Berry approached the front of the stage of the dank 85-year-old theater. Berry stood alone. He did not know his band. He hadn’t been to Chicago in years. He was out of the shadows.
Berry began to recite a prose poem about winter. It was difficult to decipher all the words from my perch in the steamy first balcony. I’ve seen Berry several times, including his home base of the Duck Room at [...]
