Chuck would have been (in one way or another) the inspiration for almost everyone who plays guitar today. Aside from "Stairway to Heaven", the opening riff to "Johnny B Goode" is one lick that almost every guitarist learns to play. I've been playing that lick for 40 years, but still can't get it to sound as cool as Chuck did... RIP.
That lick is my go to when I'm in the middle of a solo and need a minute to think about where to go (and he definitely plays it cooler than me).
Even if lots of people today aren't aware of him, they're probably aware of the uncountable number of artists he directly influenced. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bruce Springsteen [0] immediately come to mind.
[0] Coincidentally, I was watching a video of a Springsteen concert where he was arranging a cover of a Chuck Berry song for his band on the spot yesterday: https://youtu.be/L-Ds-FXGGQg
Exactly. Many youngsters I meet today who were inspired by more contemporary guitarist usually don't realise that their heroes were in turn influenced by Chuck. He was definitely one of the 'founding fathers' of modern guitar playing.
I thought the parent was referring to playing a fifth on the top two strings with a slide, not the blues shuffle (which dates back to at least Robert Johnson).
Cyberferret refers to "the opening riff to Johnny B Goode", which is extremely similar to the opening riff from Ain't That Just Like a Woman. For some reason the link I pasted started several seconds in, which might be causing confusion.
Thanks for posting, and for fixing the link too - I played it the first time and missed it, and thought that you were talking about the standard blues shuffle beat too.
> I've been playing that lick for 40 years, but still can't get it to sound as cool as Chuck did
I'll leave this here as a consolation for you:
Chuck Berry teaching Keith Richards the lick in "O Carol"[1]. Keith had probably 40 plus years experience at that point and still didn't get it right the first time, and not the second and third...
