Top 40 Chuck Berry Quotes

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

I didn’t connect with the kids. I was in the studio. I never saw the kids. I hoped they liked it, of course. And then I’d go write some more. And then I’d go buy me a home. Very American.

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.

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.

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.

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

I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn’t paint.

In a way, I feel it might be ill-mannered to try and top myself. The music I play is a ritual. Something that matters to people in a special way. I wouldn’t want to interfere with that.

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

I wanted to be a comedian. And I did that so much in high school, I couldn’t get a girlfriend.

Chuck Berry doesn’t give interviews.

I always want to play the songs that people want to hear.

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.

The world has done nothing to me that I haven‘t done with the world.

Maybe it is true what they say, that playing these Chuck Berry songs is easy. But try singing them. The words come out hard, like bullets.

Had I been pushed like Colonel Parker pushed Elvis, had I been a white boy like Elvis, sure, it would have been different.

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.

Remember that my view, the only true view I can see with, is through the black eyes that I have.

Science and religion are both the same thing. They’re there; they’re life. If it’s not science, it’s not a fact.

I would sing the blues if I had the blues.

My father married once. I married once. This is a conviction of ours. This is the way we grew up.

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.

Praise doesn’t mean anything to me. I don’t judge myself.

I think my interviews were much better than what some of the writers wrote. I just wanted the truth out.

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.

The Rolling Stones… The Rolling Stones have a reflection to my music; I wouldn’t deny it. I think that’s honest.

Elvis’ songs will always be there, and I hope mine will be after I’m gone.

What kind of shorts I wear has nothing to do with music.

It’s amazing how much you can learn if your intentions are truly earnest.

If I wasn’t a musician, I’d take up the law. They are the rottenest, wealthiest people in America.

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.

It amazes me when I hear people say, ‘I want to go out and find out who I am.’ I always knew who I was. I was going to be famous if it killed me.

The media dresses things up. There’s a lot of inaccuracy.

If you want to release your aggression, get up and dance. That’s what rock and roll is all about.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I don’t want the bottom, so I have to sacrifice the top.