Yet no matter how accurate, original, sharp and funny his songs, the man [Chuck Berry] was hard to love: 'The dollar dictates what music is written' was his mantra. He would duck-walk across the stage in a strange, crouched shuffle, and seemed disdainful of his audience. He was the least charming of the original rockers, rude and incredibly tight-fisted. Publicising his biography on British TV in the eighties, he was asked if he could play his signature tune, 'Johnny B. Goode'. 'No,' he said. 'For second-class money you get a second-class song,' and he played 'Memphis, Tennessee' instead.
B. Stanley, Yeah yeah yeah: the story of modern pop (2013), 56-7
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