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In
The News: Page 3
The Father of Rock
'N Roll, Johnnie Johnson, dies at 80. April 2005 |
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Visitation
And Jam Session Held For Johnnie Johnson
KSDK Channel
5, NBC Affiliate in St. Louis, 4/22/2005
http://ksdk.com/news/hot_topics_article.aspx?storyid=78396 |
By Jeff
Small (KSDK) - Visitation for blues legend
Johnnie Johnson is being held Thursday and
a day-long musical celebration is taking
place. Workers were busy Thursday morning
putting on all the final touches on what
is an extraordinary event to honor Johnson.
The visitation is being called a "home-going"
celebration like none other. Ten tour buses
of local and national musicians are expected
to be at the visitation and jam session.
*Read
the Full Article |
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Rock
'N Roll Legend Johnnie Johnson Laid To Rest
KSDK Channel
5, NBC Affiliate in St. Louis
www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=78491 |
Submitted
by Jeff Small (KSDK) -- Funeral services
were held Friday afternoon for blues legend
Johnnie Johnson. The service was an emotional,
musical tribute by loved ones from around
the world. Friends and family say the music
maestro wanted to go home to sweet sounds.
A wish granted with songs Johnson loved
to hear and play. The uplifting spirit was
not only heard, but felt thoughout the pews
of St. Paul Lutheran Church. Friends and
church members say they often forgot Johnson
was a celebrity. They say he was so down
to earth and humble without any hint of
arrogance. *Read
Article |
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Johnnie
Johnson Dies: Pianist was inspiration
for Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"
Rolling
Stone Magazine: Click Here to Read the
Full Article |
Rock & roll pioneer
Johnnie Johnson died yesterday of natural
causes at eighty years old. The Rock &
Roll Hall of Fame inductee collaborated
with Chuck Berry for nearly thirty years,
and was the inspiration for Berry's seminal
1958 hit "Johnny B. Goode." In
1953, the rock and blues pianist invited
the young Berry to join his band, the Sir
John Trio. Berry quickly took over, and
the band soon produced such Fifties classics
as "Maybellene," "Roll Over
Beethoven" and "Sweet Little Sixteen."
The two parted ways in 1973 and then reunited
in 1986 for Berry's sixtieth birthday performance
in St. Louis, documented in Taylor Hackford's
Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll. *Read
full article. |
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Keith
Remembers Johnnie
Stones
guitarist reflects on friend, idol Johnson
Rolling
Stone Magazine: Read the Full Article
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"It's a sad day,"
says Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards,
mourning his idol and good friend Johnnie
Johnson. "I've been playing Chuck Berry
records all day, listening to Johnnie."
Johnson died on Wednesday
at his home in St. Louis, at the age of
eighty, after recent bouts with pneumonia
and a kidney ailment. With his death, rock
& roll lost a vital link to its roots
in the Chicago boogie-woogie of Meade Lux
Lewis and the jumping-piano jazz of Earl
Hines and Count Basie. Born on July 8th,
1924, in Fairmont, Virginia, Johnson was
the son of a coal miner and entirely self-taught
on the piano. By the early Fifties, he was
in St. Louis, leading his own combo. But
on New Year's Eve 1952, Johnson hired a
struggling, local guitarist, Chuck Berry,
to sit in for another member of the band.
Johnson quickly ceded the limelight to Berry's
guitar and songs, and both of their lives
were changed forever.
Johnson went on to become
the greatest sideman in rock & roll,
at the very moment the music was being born.
He played on most of Berry's biggest and
best records of the Fifties and early Sixties,
including "Maybellene," "Roll
Over Beethoven," "Memphis, Tennessee,"
"Little Queenie" and "Nadine
(Is It You?)." Johnson played with
Berry, on and off, into the Seventies, until
personal tensions, compounded by Johnson's
drinking, caused Johnson to retire back
to St. Louis. He was driving a van for the
elderly when Keith Richards brought him
out of retirement to play at the 1986 shows
filmed for the Chuck Berry concert movie,
Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll. *ReadFull
Article |
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Johnnie
Johnson dies at 80
By
Kevin C. Johnson, Post-Dispatch, 04/13/2005 |
Boogie-woogie blues
‘n’ rock artist Johnnie Johnson,
a stalwart on St. Louis’ music scene
for several decades, died early Wednesday
morning of natural causes in his St. Louis
home, according to a publicist at Talent
Consultants International in New York City.
He was 80. Eric Clapton once called Johnson
the best blues pianist in the world, and
his work can be heard on a number of Chuck
Berry classics, including "School Days"
and "Back in the U.S.A." Johnson
was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in 2001. *Read
the Full Article |
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Johnnie
Johnson Tribute Concert
By
Kevin C. Johnson, Post-Dispatch Pop Music
Critic, 04/30/2005 |
Tom "Papa"
Ray called Friday night at the Pageant "the
hippest place to be on the whole planet,"
while Joe Edwards summed it up as the "greatest
assemblage of blues musicians you will ever
see on stage." The reason for the overwhelming
absolutes was the tribute concert to rock/blues
pianist Johnnie Johnson, who died last month.
Dozens of mostly blues acts gathered at
the Pageant Friday in recognition of Johnson,
with many of them honoring him through dedicated
song choices to the Rock and Roll Hall of
Famer or his widow Frances Johnson, seated
with family and her husband's old friend,
Henry Townsend. The event, hosted by Ray
and Bernie Hayes and organized in about
a week's time by St. Louis Blues Society's
John May, was a sell-out. "Johnnie
Johnson is still packing the house,"
a teary Rondo of Rondo's Blues Deluxe said
after his winning rendition of "Hootchie
Coochie Man." *Read
the Full Article. |
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Johnnie
Johnson
www.stlblues.net/johnnie_playback.htm |
St. Louis’ Boogie
Woogie Hero, Johnnie Johnson, died April
13th at his home in North St. Louis at the
age of 80. Those familiar with St. Louis’
blues community know it’s nothing
new to bury one of the elder musicians.
Tommy Bankhead and Oliver Sain come immediately
to mind when thinking of recently fallen
icons, but none has touched the lives of
so many around the world as Johnnie Johnson,
Father of Rock’n’Roll. *Read the Full Article |
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The
Johnnie Johnson Memorial Concert
Held at the Pageant in St. Louis on April
29th, 2005.
www.stlblues.net/review_jj_memorial.htm
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One of the most beloved
musical talents St. Louis has ever known
- Mr. Johnnie Johnson - was paid homage
by a sold out house of fans and a endless
procession of artists awaiting their turn
on stage at the Johnnie Johnson Memorial
Concert held at the Pageant on April 29th,
2005... A 'who's who' of St. Louis Blues
talent - over 16 acts - displayed once again
that St. Louis is a world class music town.
Kudos to John May and the St. Louis Blues
Society for pulling this show off in under
10 days - "they told me I couldn't
do it". But do it he did, and it will
go down in STLBlues history as one of the
best Blues concerts ever held in this town.
*Read
the Full Article |
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Johnnie
Johnson - May His Music Be Eternal
STLBlues.Net
Tribute Page to Mr. Johnnie Johnson |
St. Louis lost a musical
treasure with the passing of a legend, Mr.Johnnie
Johnson. Long a fixture here on the St.
Louis music scene, Johnnie passed quietly
away in his sleep on April 13th, 2005. Right
up until the end, Johnnie was out there
doing what he loved best, rocking the 88's
like no one else! We'll always have the
gift of his 80th birthday party at the Botanical
Garden, his incredible Old Webster Fest
appearances, and countless others, including
the honor of his performance at the 2005
STLBlues concert. *Read
the Full Article |
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Rock
& Roll Hall Of Famer Johnnie Johnson dies
at 80
WKYC Channel
3, NBC Affiliate in Cleveland Ohio
www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=33268 |
Wednesday,
April 13, 2005: ST. LOUIS -- Rock
& Roll Hall of Famer Johnnie Johnson
died Wednesday morning. Johnson is best
known for his longtime collaboration with
Chuck Berry. He was 80 years old. n the
1950s, Johnson was a local bandleader who
hired Chuck Berry to fill in when another
band member was ill on New Year's Eve. That
was the beginning of a decades-long partnership
that landed both men in the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame.Legend has it that Berry's
rock and roll classic Johnny B. Goode was
named after Johnnie Johnson. *Read
the Full Article. |
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