Chuck Berry Statue Approved Despite Local Controversy

Barry Brecheisen/FilmMagic

An eight-foot statue of Chuck Berry has been approved in St. Louis, Missouri despite objections from locals who say the rock legend should not be honored because he is a "felon and not a friend to women." The University City council, which has jurisdiction over the spot in the Delmar Loop section of the city where the statue will stand, shot down a last-minute petition to block the monument that was signed by 100 residents of the city.

Photos: Chuck Berry's New Years Day Performance

The statue will depict a young Berry playing his guitar and will stand in a plaza that will also feature illuminated walls with laser-engraved musical notes from the singer's most famous hit "Johnny B. Goode." The tribute to Berry is being installed now and will be dedicated at a ceremony tomorrow that will include an appearance by the 84-year-old rocker.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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