Remembering Rock N' Roll Pioneer Chuck Berry

Copyright 2017 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. When Chuck Berry died Saturday at the age of 90, we lost a musician who was central to the whole meaning of rock 'n' roll. What made him so important was the subject of a profile by rock historian Ed Ward, which we broadcast in 2008, after Berry's entire recorded output from the 1950s was released in the four-disc set, "Chuck Berry: Johnny B. Goode, His Complete '50s Chess Recordings." Let's listen back. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JOHNNY B. GOODE ") CHUCK BERRY: (Singing) Deep down in Louisiana, close to New Orleans... (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) ED WARD, BYLINE: Say the words rock 'n' roll, and the notes we just heard seem to play in a lot of heads automatically. They were played on January 6, 1958 by a 33-year-old black man, who was a licensed cosmetician as well as a convicted car thief. He was two and a half years into a career as one of the top, popular musicians in the United States and