http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51764-2005Apr13.html

I agree, one of the unsung heroes of Rock'n'Roll. Try and get some Chuck Berry stuff on a label called Point to hear Johnny's influence on the early Chess releases

Rock'n'roll is here to stay, It will never die

Well until I followed the link I had no idea who he was, and still not a great deal any the wiser to be honest.

One of the reasons chuck berry plays guitar the way he does is because of johnnie johnson.
I've copied this from his website

A multi-count lawsuit against guitarist/lyricist Chuck Berry was filed yesterday by attorneys for legendary pianist/composer Johnnie Johnson (aka "Johnnie B. Goode") in St. Louis Federal District Court. The suit seeks Johnson's rightful share of monies realized from numerous Johnson/Berry composed songs for which Johnson never received proper credit or royalties.

Amongst the allegations is that Johnson collaborated with Berry to compose songs which virtually defined a new musical genre; "Roll Over Beethoven," "No Particular Place To Go," "Rock and Roll Music," "Sweet Little Sixteen" among numerous others. Johnson maintains that he and Berry, together, created the music for these hits, but that Berry claimed sole copyright ownership as well as the profits generated from them. The suit further indicates that Johnson and Berry were partners, and that Berry took advantage of him when Berry registered the copyrights in his name alone. In addition, Berry has for years, refused to publicly recognize Johnson's central role in the composition of the music for those songs or pay Johnson for any of the royalties and other monies resulting from their collaborations. In fact, Johnson recently approached Berry in an effort to avoid litigation but Berry refused to discuss settlement.

While Berry lived luxuriously for decades, Johnson toiled in obscurity and abject poverty until he was rediscovered in 1986 by Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards during the making of the documentary, "Hail, Hail Rock 'n Roll." At the time Richards located Johnson, he was driving a bus for the elderly in St. Louis.

A Boogie Woogie Hall of Famer, and St. Louis resident, Johnson's music has influenced the entire rock pantheon, from Elvis, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. A self-taught player, he hired Berry into his band in 1953 and manned the keys as pianist, composer, and bandleader for more than 30 years. The first rock 'n roll writer/performer team in history, Johnson collaborated with Berry on 50+ songs. Ironically, the song which many consider the "national anthem of rock 'n roll" - "Johnny B. Goode" was the one song written by Berry alone in honor of his partner, Johnson.

In September 2000, Johnson was recognized by the Rhythm & Blues Foundation with a Pioneer Award. Additional honors he has received recently include a three-day celebration of his music presented by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum, and a congressional commendation for Lifetime Achievement in American Music. He is the subject of an upcoming Atlantic Records tribute album, as well as a proposed PBS documentary.

Details of Johnson's life can be found in the 1999 authorized biography, Father Of Rock & Roll: The Story of Johnnie 'B. Goode" Johnson (Thomas, Cooke & Co.). Written by rock historian Travis Fitzpatrick, and with forewords by both Keith Richards and Bob Weir, the book chronicles Johnson's lifetime career as a musician and his mercurial relationship with Chuck Berry.

Originally posted by Cutglass
Well until I followed the link I had no idea who he was, and still not a great deal any the wiser to be honest.

What's the point of posting a meaningless and demeaning reply like that?

You may not know or care who he was, but anyone who loves music will know that Johnnie Johnson was right there at the birth of rock & roll and played piano on virtually all of Chuck Berry's classic 50s Chess recordings. It's also rumoured that he had a hand in writing some of those songs too, even though he went uncredited.

Without those groundbreaking Chess records, it's probably fair to say that the Beatles and everything that came after would have sounded very different indeed.

I'd say that's more than enough reason to remember him.

Just stating the fact that I didn't know who he was, and even following the link didn't clue me up that much.
Unless you're aware of that style of music like you obviously are (and I'm obviously not), then of course it wouldn't mean anything to me.

Originally posted by Cutglass
Just stating the fact that I didn't know who he was, and even following the link didn't clue me up that much.
Unless you're aware of that style of music like you obviously are (and I'm obviously not), then of course it wouldn't mean anything to me.

Very sorry for snapping at you, but I couldn't see why you'd bothered to post such a negative reply about something you'd never heard of and had no interest in.

Chuck Berry and the records he made with Johnnie Johnson is not simply "a style of music". It's the building blocks on which all rock music was created. Without him and a handful of others we would have no rock music today. That's why Johnnie Johnson was so important.

Well now I know a little bit about him but I don't think it was a negative response that I gave, yourself and others posted a bit of information about the guy and his influence on music which wouldn't otherwise have been posted had I not made any comment.
No offence was intended I was just stating that the name and corresponding article didn't clue me up as to who he actually was or what he had done music-wise.

Mojoworking
You make it sound as if the survival of the world depended on Rock n' Roll music. I quite like Rock n' Roll but if it had never come about , then there'd be some other form of popular music in number 1 position.
Have you ever considered too , that there are perhaps millions of people who wish Rock n' Roll had been strangled at birth.?
I love Edith Piaf and other French chanteuses but I don't kid myself that music would have had a nervous breakdown , had Piaf been knocked down by a bus in 1934. She's important to my enjoyment but not important in the great scheme of things.

The survival of my world is dependent on Rock and Roll and most other forms of music.
I posted this thread about Johnnie johnson because I have a love of 50's Rock and Roll and blues. Johnnie Johnson formed the band that Chuck Berry joined and took over. He pioneered a form of music along with people like Ike turner in a small town on the outskirts of St Louis and was part of changing the musical direction for a massive amount of people on this planet.

Originally posted by Fareast
Mojoworking
You make it sound as if the survival of the world depended on Rock n' Roll music. I quite like Rock n' Roll but if it had never come about , then there'd be some other form of popular music in number 1 position.
Have you ever considered too , that there are perhaps millions of people who wish Rock n' Roll had been strangled at birth.?
I love Edith Piaf and other French chanteuses but I don't kid myself that music would have had a nervous breakdown , had Piaf been knocked down by a bus in 1934. She's important to my enjoyment but not important in the great scheme of things.

You quite obviously have no idea of the social impact of Rock & Roll. Whether you admit it or not, it changed virtually everything.

You're quite correct when you say that "Edith Piaf and other French chanteuses" did not have the same impact. That's because they were (obviously) not part of the rock revolution.

Well , I do realise that Rock n' Roll has had a big impact on a lot of people's lives and that a lot of money has been involved , over the years. However , Rock n' Roll is only one part of Popular Music and Popular Music is only one part of the whole musical scene.
I would say that every musical form is inspired from somewhere----it's not created in a vacuum and that Rock n'Roll is part of a continuum , which you could say began with Jazz , which in turn got its inspiration from a combination of the old Cotton Field work [and prison ] songs and the Black urban experience in America.......which in turn .........and so on.....
What I said was that if for some reason Rock n' Roll had never developed , then there would be something else which was the most popular of the Pop Music world.
Despite the popularity of Rock n' Roll , I would bet that even in Britain and America , far more people are indifferent to Rock n' Roll or actively dislike it than there are people who like it------and that's not to mention the world as a whole.
.

I was a school kid in the 50's and the music we had to listen to
was pretty bland and boring.Then along came Elvis love him or hate him,the fact is he opened up the world of music.He made it the music kids wanted to listen to,others copied him and went off to do their own stuff.It was like an explosion at the time,the next big event was The Beatles and so it goes on and evolves.My own preference is still for Rock 'n' Roll also I am now going to the blues.
But because you don't like it, don't knock it you now have the choice.To each his own.

Well , I did say that I liked Rock n' Roll. I was born in 1941 and so when Little Richard , Fats Domino , Elvis ...et ...al... hit the scene , a lot of us went crazy about it . There could be no better feeling than , being 15 , whizzing round in the Waltzer at Norfolk Park fairground and hearing Little Richard , belting it out .
But..... Rock n' Roll is by no means the be all and end all of music and there are plenty of people who are not musical at all.
We have to recognise this and stop treating our particular favourite music as the Cultural Glue that holds the world together !
The way the original poster was going on you would think that Rock n' Roll had saved the World from a fate worse than death------yet , it's only one part of a musical division , which in turn is part of something even larger.

Originally posted by Fareast
Well , I did say that I liked Rock n' Roll. I was born in 1941 and so when Little Richard , Fats Domino , Elvis ...et ...al... hit the scene , a lot of us went crazy about it . There could be no better feeling than , being 15 , whizzing round in the Waltzer at Norfolk Park fairground and hearing Little Richard , belting it out .
But..... Rock n' Roll is by no means the be all and end all of music and there are plenty of people who are not musical at all.
We have to recognise this and stop treating our particular favourite music as the Cultural Glue that holds the world together !
The way the original poster was going on you would think that Rock n' Roll had saved the World from a fate worse than death------yet , it's only one part of a musical division , which in turn is part of something even larger.

I think you're misunderstanding my original point. When I said "Rock & Roll" I didn't just mean the original 50s music which included Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard etc. I meant ALL of popular/rock music right up to the music of today. Those original 50s artists passed the music on to the Stones, Beatles and the whole Merseybeat movement, which in turn developed and exploded into the 60s pop scene, the 70s prog, glam & punk movements and so on right up to today's music.

50s Rock & Roll may have been simply a cocktail of blues, R&B, country music and certain forms of jazz (ie Louis Jordan), but it brought all those elements together into a youth-friendly and irresistible package which spoke all languages and quickly conquered the world.

Virtually all popular music we have today (with a couple of notable exceptions) can be traced back to those 50s (and in some cases late 40s) artists. And yes, now that you mention it, rock & roll did save the world from a fate worse than death. And it probably continues to do so.

I would argue that you could include a lot of electronica and dance music as been influence by the stuff that rock and roll started. 3 or 4 chords, same sort of tempo, drums and bass very prominant, same sort of mathmatical structure.
Sorry I've gone off on a bit of a tangent.