By 1972, Chuck Berry was firmly in legacy mode. As maybe the person who single-handedly formed the sound of rock and roll, Berry had a wild collection of economic highs and private lows that triggered his profession to cease and begin. These infamous occasions, together with arrests for violating the Mann Act and accusations of sexual assault, have sophisticated Berry’s legacy, however within the early ’70s there was a extra speedy challenge – Berry simply wasn’t excellent dwell.
Berry had lengthy since deserted his work with a full-time band and would merely rent no matter native expertise he might discover. Famously travelling with only a guitar on his individual, Berry would insist on being paid in money and didn’t care an excessive amount of about who was backing him. Typically this is able to lead to shocking crossovers, like when the Grateful Lifeless or Bruce Springsteen and the E Road Band turned Berry’s momentary backing bands, however most occasions these had been removed from professional musicians.
Berry’s skilled work had largely fallen off by this level as nicely. Within the UK, Berry hadn’t had a charting single since 1965’s ‘Promised Land’ when he took the stage on the Lanchester Arts Pageant in Coventry, England on February third, 1972. This was a uncommon case of Berry lucking out along with his backing band as future members of The Common White Band helped convey Berry’s rock and roll to life. After busting out a number of of his traditional late ’50s and early ’60s tracks, Berry performed a brand new addition to his dwell present that will land him his first and solely primary single.
‘My Ding-a-Ling’ was a novelty observe initially written by Dave Bartholomew, the identical songwriter who had written ‘Ain’t {That a} Disgrace’ with Fat Domino. The observe was a sophomoric story (Berry calls it a “fourth-grade quantity”) a few younger man enjoying with silver bells that shortly devolves into foolish double-entendres. Berry would get the viewers to chant the refrain again at him, with the ladies within the crowd singing the primary half and the boys enthusiastically taking the second-half title phrase.
Berry’s dwell rendition was undoubtedly spirited, but it surely was additionally crass and much beneath his traditional model of souped-up rock and roll. Berry had first began performing the observe again in 1967, however the enthusiastic crowd-dependent rendition from Lanchester Arts Pageant was the model that gave Berry his solely primary hit in each the US and the UK.
Fuelled by a marketing campaign to get the music banned from the BBC by infamous prude Mary Whitehouse, ‘My Ding-a-Ling’ turned the soiled joke that simply wouldn’t cease spreading. As soon as it was a licensed hit, Berry continued to play the music at his dwell reveals all the best way up till 2014. However when assessments come by way of relating to Berry’s musical legacy, ‘My Ding-a-Ling’ typically seems as a regrettable fluke moderately than a cornerstone of his greatness.
Watch Berry’s full rendition of ‘My Ding-a-Ling’ down under.
