RIP Chuck Berry

(Photo: MICHAL CIZEK, AFP/Getty Images)

But sometimes you need a refresher course. That’s what Bruce Springsteen gave the horn section of the E  Street Band during a 2013  concert in Leipzig, Germany.

The Boss grabbed a sign from the audience with the name of Berry’s “You Never Can Tell” written on it.

“Every night we try to pull one out that we haven’t played since we were, I don’t know, 16,” Springsteen said. “If maybe ever.”

Berry,  who died at the age of 90 on Saturday, March 18, according to St. Charles County, Missouri, police, is perhaps the greatest rock ‘n’ roller ever, greater than Bill Haley, Elvis Presley and the Beatles. He established the guitar as the music’s primary instrument, teenage drama as its primary lyrical theme and showmanship as its calling card. More than 50 years later, these are still the fundamentals for rock ‘n’ roll, and pop music, too. His hits included “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Rock and Roll Music” and “Johnny B. Goode,” and not a day goes by, if you listen closely, that you don't hear echoes of Berry’s music in contemporary sounds. 

“Chuck Berry was rock’s greatest practitioner, guitarist, and the greatest pure rock ‘n’ roll writer who ever lived,” tweeted Springsteen on Saturday.  “This is a tremendous loss of a giant for the ages.”

Below, see Springsteen and the E Street Band relearn the magic of a Chuck Berry song.

Chris Jordan: cjordan@app.com