Postcard from St. Louis; sweet little seventy-five.(singer Chuck Berry)(The Talk of the Town)

Publication: The New Yorker

Publication Date: 21-JAN-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

It was not precisely a secret that Chuck Berry spent much of last spring in a place called the Four Seasons studio, not far from the airport in St. Louis, his home town. But few people besides family members and friends were aware that he was recording his first studio album in almost twenty-five years, or that the album, which will be released in early summer, will include a dozen new songs.

One day not long ago, Berry took a break from recording and drove from the Interbelt industrial park, where the studio is situated, to a nearby Wendy's. He drives a silver Toyota Avalon XL, with a string of purple Mardi Gras beads swaying from the rearview mirror. He wore a bolo tie with a black silk casino jacket and...

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