Culture

Chuck Berry dies, Twitter cries 'Hail, hail rock 'n' roll'

The legendary guitarist, songwriter, singer and showman gets a final ovation from his famous disciples and others.

Edward Moyer Senior Editor

Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.

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Ed was a member of the CNET crew that won a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for general excellence online. He's also edited pieces that've nabbed prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists and others.

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Edward Moyer

March 19, 2017 9:05 a.m. PT

2 min read

Rock 'n' roll died Saturday, and Twitter let loose with a chorus of tributes.

The social network filled up with eulogies pegged to the passing of a certain duckwalking guitar player, of whom John Lennon once said, "If you tried to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry."

The 90-year-old Berry was found dead Saturday at his home in St. Charles County, Missouri.

With classic songs like "Maybellene," "Johnny B. Goode" and "No Particular Place to Go," Berry influenced innumerable musicians and left an indelible mark on pop culture.

The Beatles covered "Roll Over Beethoven" on their second album. The Rolling Stones made a version of Berry's "Come On" their first single. The Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA" hung ten on the melody of "Sweet Little Sixteen."

Berry's influence made its way to Hollywood too. Among other big-screen Berry moments, Marty McFly (aka Michael J. Fox) gets into a little "Johnny B. Goode" action in 1985's "Back to the Future."

And it doesn't stop there. In fact, Berry's influence quite literally stretches beyond the solar system. "Johnny B. Goode" was included alongside music by the likes of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart on the golden record launched aboard the Voyager I spacecraft in 1977. The craft left the solar system in 2013, the first human-made object ever to do so.

Some of Berry's most famous disciples took to Twitter to sing the man's praises. Here's a sampling.

First published March 18, 7 p.m. PT
Update, March 19 at 9:05 a.m.: Adds tweet from former US President Barack Obama.