Chuck Berry famous quotes

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.
-- Chuck Berry

#Guitar #People #Style

I'm a millionaire, but I cut the grass. And each time I cut it, it's my grass. And that is satisfying.
-- Chuck Berry

#Cutting #Grass #Millionaire

Don't let the same dog bite you twice.
-- Chuck Berry

#Dog #Dog Bite

It's amazing how much you can learn if your intentions are truly earnest.
-- Chuck Berry

#Intention #Earnest

Music is an important part of our culture and record stores play a vital part in keeping the power of music alive
-- Chuck Berry

#Play #Important #Culture

Describe Elvis Presley? He was the greatest who ever was, is or ever will be.
-- Chuck Berry

I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn't paint.
-- Chuck Berry

#Art #Thinking #Paint

Rock is my child and my grandfather.
-- Chuck Berry

#Children #Rocks #Grandfather

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

#Facts #Science And Religion

You know, your ears record. You might can sing a song once you hear it.
-- Chuck Berry

#Song #Records #Ears

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.
-- Chuck Berry

#Games #Long #Looks

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.
-- Chuck Berry

#Home #Rocks #Band

Praise doesn't mean anything to me. I don't judge myself.
-- Chuck Berry

#Mean #Judging #Praise

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.
-- Chuck Berry

#Talking #People #Being Ignored

My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.
-- Chuck Berry

#Simple #Sound #Looks

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.
-- Chuck Berry

#Writing #People #Like You

Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news.
-- Chuck Berry

#Tchaikovsky #News

Up come a flat top, he was movin' up with me.
-- Chuck Berry

#Controversy #Flats

My ding-a-ling, my ding-a-ling, won't you play with my ding-a-ling.
-- Chuck Berry

#Play #Controversy

Maybellene, why can't you be true?
-- Chuck Berry

#Being True

I think I see her, please let me off this bus. Nadine, honey, is that you?
-- Chuck Berry

#Thinking #Honey #Bus

Could you imagine the way I felt, I couldn't unfasten her safety belt. All the way home I held a grudge, for the safety belt that wouldn't budge.
-- Chuck Berry

#Home #Safety #Dating

It's gotta be rock and roll music, if you wanna dance with me.
-- Chuck Berry

#Rocks #Rock And Roll #Quality

It used to be called boogie-woogie, it used to be called blues, used to be called rhythm and blues...It's called rock now.
-- Chuck Berry

#Rocks #Used #Boogie

Looking hard for a drive in, searching for a corner cafe, where the hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day,
-- Chuck Berry

#Night #Cafes #Hamburgers

He could play the guitar just like ringing a bell.
-- Chuck Berry

#Guitar #Play #Bells

They're drinkin' home brew from a wooden cup. The folks were dancin' there got all shook up.
-- Chuck Berry

#Home #Beer #Cups

The gateway to freedom...was somewhere close to New Orleans where most Africans were sorted through and sold. I had driven through New Orleans on tour and I'd been told my great grandfather had lived way back up in the woods among the evergreens in a log cabin. I revived the era with a song about a coloured boy named Johnny B. Goode. My first thought was to make his life follow as my own had come along, but I thought it would seem biased to white fans to say 'coloured boy' and changed it to 'country boy'.
-- Chuck Berry

#Country #Song #Boys

Hail, hail rock and roll / Deliver me from the days of old,
-- Chuck Berry

#Rocks #Rock And Roll #Hail

A song is a song. But there are some songs, ah, some songs are the greatest. The Beatles song Yesterday. Listen to the lyrics.
-- Chuck Berry

#Song #Yesterday

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.
-- Chuck Berry

#Two #Important #Firsts

Prejudice doesn't make me mad. It just - I guess 'pisses me off' is the word.
-- Chuck Berry

#Mad #Black History #Black

Don't bother me, leave me alone. Anyway, I'm almost grown.
-- Chuck Berry

#Leave Me Alone #Growth #Leaving Me

Everything I wrote about wasn't about me, but about the people listening.
-- Chuck Berry

#People #Listening

Back in the class room, open your books, keep up, the teacher don't know how mean she looks.
-- Chuck Berry

#Education #Teacher #Book

He never ever learned to read or write so well, but he could play his guitar like he was ringing a bell.
-- Chuck Berry

#Writing #Guitar #Rock And Roll

All I want for Christmas is a rock n roll electric guitar...
-- Chuck Berry

#Rocks #Guitar #Want