IN this space last month we ran a picture of Chuck Berry, the rock’n’ roll pioneer, playing Glasgow in 1980. Today’s image dates from 1973, when he arrived at Glasgow Airport to perform at Green’s Playhouse. He happily obliged an autograph hunter (above) but was slightly less forthcoming in front of journalists and photographers, perhaps because his luggage was delayed and his limousine was late.
He had not long topped the UK charts with his innuendo-laden novelty hit, My Ding-A-Ling. To no-one’s great surprise, it had provoked Mary Whitehouse into complaining to the BBC, asking them not to play it, but the Corporation’s then director-general, Charles Curran, disagreed, saying the Beeb “did not think [the song] would disturb or emotionally agitate its listeners”, and wondering, ever so subtly, whether Mrs Whitehouse’s efforts had not, in fact, inadvertently boosted sales of the single.
Berry for his part wearily declined to be photographed with Christmas bell-shaped decorations around his neck (“Listen, man, that’s what they all ask. In a word, ‘No’”) and insisted that he’d been singing My Ding-A-Ling for three years before spending just 20 minutes recording it - “and, wow, it really took off.”
And what about the song’s controversial lyrics? “That tickled me, you know, real featherish,” came the reply. “Your Mrs White Horse ... no, that’s wrong, isn’t it? It’s Whitehouse, like the White House? ... I suppose she’s entitled to say what she thinks.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here