Monday night, the University City Council “approved”, as in refused to block, the installation of a Chuck Berry statue on city property. Joe Edwards, Loop Godfather, is pleased but not everyone agrees. Some people think University City shouldn’t have a statue of Chuck Berry on community property, even though Berry has performed there 160 times including his famous monthly performance at Blueberry Hill. Despite the fact that the statue has already been made and was just sitting there, Berry’s detractors wonder why University City would want to put up a statue of a man that served time in jail.
University City’s City Council on Monday night refused to block installation of an 8-foot bronze sculpture by artist Harry Weber honoring 84-year-old Chuck Berry.
Edwards says the sculpture is to be installed Thursday or Friday, with a formal dedication scheduled for July 29.
Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time a city has ignored their connection to Berry. Wentzville, Missouri is where the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and long-time sailor according to his headwear, has lived and at one time owned a restaurant, but drive through Wentzville and you’d never know it. No “Home of Chuck Berry” signs, no “Johnny Be Good” references, just one time we saw someone rocking a faded jeans jacket, which might be a Back to the Future reference, but since it has “Whitesnake ‘Slide It In’ Tour 1984” embossed across the back, we doubt it.
Why are people to weird about Berry doing time? We’ve celebrated a lot more for people to did a lot worse. So Chuck Berry sat in jail for four months…so what? He also, was awesome, is still awesome despite being super old, and tries really hard to do that hoppy thing to this day, and for that we celebrate him. Four months in jail is nothing! Hell, the following celebrities have each killed someone: Matthew Brodderick, Laura Bush, Rebecca Gayheart, Howard Hughes, Don King and Ted Kennedy. Seriously go look it up, ll those people killed a guy. There might not be any statues in that list, but we’re just talking about a University City statue. Hell, if you don’t like the thing you can sleep easy knowing some punks will end up stealing it or taking a shit on it by the end of August, tops.
via KMOV