Berry’s friend Ira Harris taught him new guitar techniques that became the basis for the Chuck Berry sound. On a trip to Chicago, he hooked up with his idol Muddy Waters who sent him over to Chess Records to make a record. Berry had no recordings of his own and had to return to St. Louis to put some music together on tape. One of those songs was “Maybelline” which would become his first big hit. The
His first musical inspirations were by such talents as: Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard. He formed several bands in high school like Shadow Blasters which was short-lived, but his next band, The Golden Chords, lasted longer and played covers of popular songs. After Dylan graduated from high school, he joined University of Minnesota in early 1959. University was where the thought of becoming a musical artist formed. Dylan begun to listen to folk and rock pioneers: Hank Williams, Robert Johnson and Woody Guthrie.
He became a mentor to Baldwin, and Beauford’s influence brought him to his first realization that a black person could be an artist. While working odd jobs, he wrote short stories, essays, and book reviews. He also was a preacher like his stepfather but was better gifted. During his teenage years in Harlem and Greenwich Village, Baldwin started to realize that he was gay. Baldwin was taunted by American prejudice against blacks and gays, so Baldwin left the United States at the4 age of twenty-four and settled in Paris, France.
Lee 1 Black Boy, an autobiography of Richard Wright, contains twenty chapters with two parts, was divided by him arriving in Chicago, described his miserable childhood and life in Memphis from chapter 1 to chapter 14, recording his early adulthood in Chicago from chapter 15 to chapter 20. He composed his own life experiences in this book in chronological order, starting the story with the fire he set accidentally when he was merely four then ended with him being a communist writer getting kicked out of the Communist Party though he was not defeated and still remained strong will. The author used many foreshadowing techniques in this novel, and gave the readers further explanations of consequences of his major early life events. An example was his
He was considered a class clown and struggled academically, although it wasn’t for a lack of intelligence (Driscoll). He dropped out of school at the age of sixteen and worked odd jobs until joining the United States Air Force, where he worked on bomber jets. He was discharged a year later for failure to appear on guard duty, failure to keep his room clean, and driving while intoxicated (Driscoll). After his discharge, Carlin worked as a DJ at stations in Shreveport and Boston (Altschuler and Burns). In the late 1950s, he teamed up with Jack Burns, doing conventional stand-up routines.
You could say that was the start of his career as a composer. Menken attended Rochelle High School in his home town and after graduation went to Pre-med school to become a dentist. Lucky for us he later changed his major to music. After college Alen attended the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop in New York where he worked at local clubs writing jingles and songs as an accompanist. Alen Menken got his first big break in January of 1979 with Howard Ashman in the Off-Broadway production “God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater.” Three years later he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Music in his Off-Broadway Production “Little Shop of Horrors” and from that in January of 1987 Menken was given his first Oscar nomination for a song with in it called “Mean Green Mother from Outer Space.” In 1990 Menken was nominated for three Oscar nominations and three Golden Globe Nominations and went on to win two of each for his work in the Walt Disney production “The Little Mermaid”.
Willy Russell’s first novel was “The Wrong Boy”, which was published in 2000. Originally, he was writing songs and composing songs on folks idioms. Willy’s father worked a variety of jobs; in the mines, in a factory, ran a fish and chip shop and also ran a library on a bicycle transporting books. Willy did not have a traditional high class background he grew up on a housing estate. “Our Day Out” is a play that echoes his school life and experiences.
Silverstien attended the Art Institute of Chicago, but left after one year. The firs thing he was officially published in was a small student newspaper at Roosevelt University. His cartoons were later went on to be published in Pacific Stars and Stripes in 1955, where he originally was hired to just make layouts. Returning to Chicago, Silverstein began submitting his cartoons to magazines while he was also selling hot dogs at Chicago Ballparks. Then, Shel’s career really started to take off when his cartoons began appearing in Look, Sports Illustrated, and This Week Magazines.
The musical Dr. Sex focuses on the relationship between Kinsey, his wife, and their shared lover Wally Matthews, based on Clyde Martin. The play, with score by Larry Bortniker, book by Bortniker and Sally Deering, premiered in Chicago in 2003, winning seven Jeff Awards. It was produced off-Broadway in 2005. The 2004 biographical film Kinsey, written and directed by Bill Condon, stars Liam Neeson as the scientist and Laura Linney as his wife.
When 17, he left the church and claimed that he had seen though the hypocrisy of religion and he no longer believe in religion. However, this experience brought him a great influence, which reflected in his writing. He later worked as a waiter and servant in the so called Industrial World, and wrote book review and essay in sparetime. In 1944, he met Richard Wright, a man who helped and encouraged him to write. 1948,he left for Europe and Paris, after Wright.