Meeting Max Weinberg of the E-Street Band
On the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Meeting my Heroes is an occasional essay series from Matt Carmichael.
A while ago, I watched Back to the Future with my kids. In one scene, Michael J. Fox’s character plays “Johnny B. Goode” and wows the crowd with a song and a sound that was still a few years off. The band leader calls his cousin, Chuck Berry, to tell him about this new sound he heard. That’s funny because “Johnny B. Goode,” was a song written by Chuck Berry – one of many that would help define a new genre called rocknroll.
In 1995 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and museum opened in Cleveland, Ohio, over Labor Day weekend. I was still in college, but school hadn’t started yet. I had a friend who lived there and it wasn’t that long of a road trip so I got myself an assignment to cover it, which meant I also got a free ticket to the opening concert. Lou Reed fronting Soul Asylum and dedicating “Sweet Jane” to his recently departed bandmate, Sterling Morrison was one highlight in a night filled with legends doing their thing. Google the lineup sometime (or seems you can watch the whole thing), but it included Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Little Richard, the Kinks, Johnny Cash (the man in black), and the Boss, whom you know to be Bruce Springsteen. His band, the E-Street Band, backed a good many of the performers including, Mr. Chuck Berry.
That afternoon there was a press conference and the E-Street drummer, Max Weinberg was one of the people being interviewed. He was asked what it’s like to rehearse with Chuck Berry, who could be demanding and who was also known not to even show up for rehearsals.
Max looked at the reporter and said, “"If you have to rehearse Johnny B. Goode, you shouldn't be playing it.. When Chuck Berry's foot goes down you play. When it comes up, you stop. And you’d better know the rest.”
That's the kind of song it was. Legends grew up on and it was in their, and therefore rock's very own DNA.
When I told this story to Meredith, I asked her “Why is that? How do you get so good at something?”
She of course knew the answer: “Practice.”
Now, knowing the answer and living the answer are two different things, right kids? But knowing the answer is a good step in the right direction. Beyond that, you just have to do the work. Find the thing that you love as much as Max Weinberg loves the drums. Then doing the work won’t seem so much like work. It’ll seem like rocknroll.
Funny side-note. At the end of a very long day I wandered back to my car in the lot. The parking attendant saw me and said, rough day for your team. I was confused for a moment. Then I remembered. It was colder than I’d thought it would be and I hadn’t packed well. The friend I was staying with loaned me her boyfriend’s sweatshirt. His Notre Dame sweatshirt. I asked the attendant, incredulous. “Are you saying Notre Dame LOST?” He replied in the affirmative. Which mean that Notre Dame had lost to… Northwestern. And thus started the conversion of my school into a football school, and our Run for the Roses started out in high gear.
Here’s what I wrote at the time for CoverStory.
Al Green is singing his heart out already. And this is just the press conference. Some people illustrate their points with hand gestures, he does it with song. But what to you expect from a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, especially on this day, the opening of the Hall of Fame itself. In addition to a couple of numbers himself he tells us that he going to duet with Aretha on "Freeway of Love." She saw him in the parking lot after rehearsals and suggested it. He is modest about sharing a stage with the Queen of Soul, "I'll just tip-toe up to the mic and do my little thing," he says.
The King of Soul, James Brown, was on that stage as well. His performance at almost 2 am brought the audience back from the verge of slumber and kicked them into high gear. Little Richard, making his entrance standing atop his piano, carried on that wave with a neck breaking "Tutti Fruti."
This was a concert about legends doing what they do best: making the audience rock and roll.
Rock n Roll is about moments and scenes. Chuck Berry in a white tux doing his low down strut while playing "Johnny B. Goode." Jerry Lee Lewis kicking out a piano bench as "Great Balls of Fire" reaches a climax. Jams where the stars all just get up on stage and play. Springsteen and the E Street band joined Chuck Berry for the show’s opener, "Johnny B. Goode," without even rehearsing it. "If you have to rehearse Johnny B. Goode, you shouldn't be playing it." says Max Weinberg E Street's drummer. "When [Chuck Berry's] foot goes down you play. When it comes up, you stop."
Perhaps this theory held true for some of the other unlikely combinations as well: Soul Asylum, fronted by Iggy Pop and then by Lou Reed, kicking out "Sweet Jane," in memory of former bandmate Sterling Morrison who had just passed away; Slash and Boz Scaggs doing Hendrix's bluesy "Red House"; The Man In Black, Johnny Cash, deathly cool playing "Ring of Fire" with John Mellencamp. The list goes on.
Dylan showed up, but the Brits, with the notable exception of the "Way-oh" screaming Kinks, skipped this party. No Who here, nor any Beatles or Stones. Of course with a concert as long as this, maybe less was more. The Beatles music was well represented by, of all people, Jon Bon Jovi who did classy covers of "With a Little Help from my Friends," and "Imagine/Give Peace a Chance."
The older artists belted out the tunes that helped shape music, and those who were shaped, such as Melissa Etheridge and Jackson Browne, played tributes to the artists who paved the way for them.
As the concert came to an abrupt halt after Berry, Springsteen, and Etheridge with the "house band" (Booker T. and the MGs with G. E. Smith) doing "Rock and Roll Music," some fans felt cheated out of the planned All-Star jams but they shouldn't have. What they got was six and one half hours of fame and fun. Rock history in a nut shell, played as it should be: Live, loud and fast.