Mad, bad and dangerous

BERRY		LEWIS		RICHARD

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Chuck Berry Age: 77 Birthplace: San Jose, Calif. Finest moment on wax: "Maybellene" (No. 5, Billboard, 1955) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction: 1986 (first year)

Seven years before heralding rock 'n' roll's unofficial arrival with 1955's "Maybellene," an 18-year-old Chuck Berry received a three-year stint in Missouri's Algoa Reformatory for helping rob a bakery, a clothing store and a liquor store. At the height of his fame in 1958, Jerry Lee Lewis derailed his career by marrying his 13-year-old first cousin Myra — a legal union in Mississippi that nonetheless scandalized the nation. And Little Richard? Well, he did wear a lot of makeup and pretty much maul his piano in performance. And a line like "A wop bop a loo bop, a whop bam boom!" didn't exactly help parents sleep well at night.

Now safely (if not exactly quietly) living out their sunset years still on the road, the trio may hardly look the part of rebellious hooligans to anyone familiar with the mug of, say, 'Ol Dirty Bastard. But don't be fooled: These are three of the most legendary and influential performers rock 'n' roll has ever produced.

Jerry Lee Lewis Age: 68 Birthplace: Ferriday, La. Finest moment on wax: "Great Balls of Fire" (No. 2, Billboard, 1958) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction: 1986

Little Richard Age: 67 Birthplace: Macon, Ga. Finest moment on wax: "Tutti-Frutti" (No. 17, Billboard, 1956) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction: 1986

Rock And Roll Super Show With Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard 8 p.m. Saturday, Blaisdell Arena $45-$55 ticketmaster.com or (877) 750-4400

"It's history alive," said Little Richard, with only the slightest hint of hyperbole. "That's what it is to see Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee and myself. I'm sure you won't ever get a chance to see this again."

Agreed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum curatorial director Howard Kramer: "Run. Don't walk! You need to see it. Period! These men were revolutionary. And each artist for their own reason."

To understand the establishment's reaction to rock 'n' roll in the 1950s, you have to know that this music's ascension was perceived as a challenge to the era's race relations, and encouragement for the eternally raging teenage

libido. "The majority of the population — read: whites — was looking for stability," explained Kramer. "It was a very prosperous time for the country as opposed to other parts of the world." With post-World War II industry strong, the suburbs growing and more people graduating from college thanks to the G.I. Bill, "things were good, and people didn't want anything to upset it."

Enter stage left, rock 'n' roll.

"The people had a fear because they didn't want us to run their children crazy," Little Richard remembered of the music's instantaneous appeal to predominantly white teenagers. "This music and rhythm — they called it 'African drums' — was taking their kids minds. It wasn't. But that's what they thought. The music was so energized and so full of rhythm, it just took over everything."

Much of rock music's sexual lyricism at the time was kept cleverly subversive rather than overt. Even so, any lyric even subtly suggesting a decay of traditional morals enraged adults.

"People were afraid of 'race mixing.' But what they were really afraid of was outward manifestations of sex among teenagers," said Jay W. Junker, a University of Hawai'i-Manoa music instructor who teaches a credit course on rock 'n' roll history. "It had already started with Sinatra ... and even in the jazz era of the '20s. And I think on a conceptual level, we're still looking at that American battle between control and chaos, between ecstasy and socialized civilization" in American culture."

With an eye always toward the financial promises of mainstream commercial success, Berry was particularly adept at aiming his comically defiant word play toward middle-class white kids, using slang that both spoke to their teenage experience and sailed over most parents' heads.

In other words: If you still think "Maybellene" is about street racing, you may need to retake your driving exam.

"Chuck Berry is one of the great craftsmen of rock," said Junker. "Whether you admire his music or not, you have to admire the architecture. The way the lyric matches the rhythm. The sound of the words. The pure physical delight of the sounds. He's so influential for writers and arrangers in rock.

"When you're listening to the Rolling Stones, you're listening to a lot of things. But I think the primary structure — again, thinking of it as architecture — is Chuck Berry. You can put punk on top of it. You can put rap on top of it. He really mastered the storytelling craft, and especially ... the way the lyric fits the melody, and the instruments support the storyteller."

Reckless, uncontrollable and undeniable talent eventually recognized as embodying the anti-establishment soul of rock 'n' roll is what's kept the 1950s music and performances of Jerry Lee Lewis influential. This, in spite of only three Billboard Top-10 rock hits — "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," "Great Balls Of Fire" and "Breathless" — and a rock career cut short by his marriage scandal.

Lewis' possessed piano-pounding is as legendary as his self-flagellation for playing and enjoying the spoils of the "evil" music — a result of his fundamentalist Christian upbringing. Said Hall of Fame director Kramer: Lewis "had the devil in him. And that's exactly how he played. He played the devil out of that piano, and he sang the most salacious things you could imagine. 'Great balls of fire'? Those were almost the words of the devil for some people."

Like Lewis, Little Richard was a Christian-reared Southerner whose manic music and even more manic stage performances unveiled the spirit of rebellion that would come to personify rock 'n' roll through the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and White Stripes. But the Georgia-born Richard Wayne Penniman also brought his own secret ingredient to the recipe: flamboyance.

"Little Richard was, as Eric Burdon of The Animals once said, 'Every white parent's worst nightmare,' " said Kramer. "A large African-American man with a pompadour that's even taller than him, wearing the loudest clothes you can imagine, singing in the most primal gospel-fueled voice, (with) lyrics that mean nothing unless you're a teenager. He was just one of those forces of nature."

As one of the first musicians to blend New Orleans rhythm and blues with the firepower of gospel music and performance, Little Richard has also long agreed with those who have called him the "architect of rock 'n' roll." And he's always happy to remind you of it.

"When I came out, I didn't hear no rock 'n' roll no place," said Little Richard. "I ain't never heard nothing but blues — Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and Fats Domino. Everybody was playin' blues. Lowdown blues. So I believed what they said about me was right, and I accepted it."

Little Richard is correct, of course. He, along with Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, really did have a large hand in drafting the blueprint for what is still recognized as rock 'n' roll music.

Are they still wicked enough to be considered bad boys of rock?

Don't even ask to see their membership cards come Saturday night.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8005.