{"id":4653,"date":"2026-10-20T22:52:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T22:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4653"},"modified":"2026-10-21T02:14:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T02:14:57","slug":"roll-over-beethoven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/?p=4653","title":{"rendered":"ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Parish Church is full to bursting. Light pours through the ancient stained-glass windows. The glorious notes of a Beethoven sonata fill the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I glance down at Chuck Berry\u2019s shoes as the Minister\u2019s voice intones those familiar words: \u201cWho gives this woman?\u201d I answer firmly: \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was nineteen-eighty-something. I was a young man, free as air, making my way around Europe in what I suppose you\u2019d now call a \u2018gap year\u2019. I\u2019d arrived in Paris and, after a month of tatty, one-star hotels, decided to splash out and stay for one barely affordable night at the H\u00f4tel d\u2019Aubusson on Rue Dauphine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spotted him when I was checking in: Chuck Berry, the Poet Laureate of Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll, making his way to the elevator. He was dressed in a white suit and carried a small valise. I\u2019d heard he was careful with money and usually travelled from one gig to another without an entourage, employing whatever session musicians were on hand for his live shows. After all, the adoring public came to hear the legendary Chuck Berry. Everything else was just sonic wallpaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My room on the third floor was as luxurious as I\u2019d expected, and I treated myself to a hot bath and a few drinks before heading out for an evening\u2019s excitement in the City of Light. As I waited for the lift, a door opened along the corridor and Chuck Berry stepped out, saw me and nodded. He set a pair of shoes down outside his door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure it still happens in the best hotels nowadays: you leave your shoes outside your door, a porter takes them away, polishes them and returns them. Anyway, they did that thirty years ago, the last time I was able to splash out on a hotel of that quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paris at night was a place of delight and wonder. I stumbled back around midnight, having imbibed one too many cocktails, and rode the lift up to the third floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside Chuck Berry\u2019s door sat his newly polished shoes. In my inebriated state, I couldn\u2019t resist the temptation to slip off my own shoes and try Chuck\u2019s on. Amazingly, they fitted me perfectly, and, in that surreal state that alcohol can foster, it seemed natural for me to leave my own shoes outside his door and slip away in those highly polished brogues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I woke the following morning with a thunderous hangover and noticed the shoes by my bed. I grabbed them, fought down a wave of nausea and embarrassment, and set off to apologise and return them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was too late. A maid was busy cleaning Chuck Berry\u2019s room when I arrived, and enquiries at Reception confirmed that the great man had checked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve had these shoes for nearly thirty years now. Wingtip brogues in soft two-tone leather, a bit flash maybe, probably quite old-fashioned, but I\u2019ll never part with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wore them when Jill and I were married and later when each of the children was christened, and today I\u2019m wearing them again at Anne, our daughter\u2019s, wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, I don\u2019t feel much guilt about pinching those shoes. In the last forty years, I\u2019ve bought enough of Chuck\u2019s records to have paid for them twice over.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Editor’s Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Known as the \u201cFather of Rock and Roll,\u201d Charles Edward Anderson \u201cChuck\u201d Berry<\/strong> (October 18, 1926 \u2013 March 18, 2017) reshaped rhythm and blues into the signature sound of rock and roll through groundbreaking classics such as\u00a0Maybellene<\/em>\u00a0(1955) and Roll Over Beethoven<\/em> (1956).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Guernsey-based poet and humorist Richard Fleming<\/strong> is an acclaimed literary voice whose work fuses sharp wit, lyricism and emotional depth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Parish Church is full to bursting. Light pours through the ancient stained-glass windows. The glorious notes of a Beethoven sonata fill the air. I glance down at Chuck Berry\u2019s shoes as the Minister\u2019s voice intones those familiar words: \u201cWho gives this woman?\u201d I answer firmly: \u201cI do.\u201d It was nineteen-eighty-something. I was a young man, free as air, making my way around Europe in what I suppose you\u2019d now call a \u2018gap year\u2019. I\u2019d arrived in Paris and, after a month of tatty, one-star hotels, decided to splash out and stay for one barely affordable night at the H\u00f4tel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":"{\"authors\":[624,577],\"author_categories\":{\"577\":\"1\",\"624\":\"1\"},\"fallback_author_user\":\"2\",\"ppma_author_box_select\":\"\",\"selected_authors\":[{\"id\":624,\"display_name\":\"Richard Fleming\",\"is_guest\":0,\"category_id\":\"1\"},{\"id\":577,\"display_name\":\"editor\",\"is_guest\":0,\"category_id\":\"1\"}]}"},"categories":[627,46,372,502,120,118,12],"tags":[629,625,626,628],"ppma_author":[624,577],"class_list":["post-4653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chuck-berry","category-fiction","category-legends","category-richard-fleming","category-sixmorearts","category-tunes-into-tales","category-yore","tag-brogues","tag-centenary","tag-chuck-berry","tag-fiction"],"aioseo_notices":[],"authors":[{"term_id":624,"user_id":5,"is_guest":0,"slug":"richard-fleming","display_name":"Richard Fleming","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/RF.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/RF.jpg"},"author_category":"1","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""},{"term_id":577,"user_id":2,"is_guest":0,"slug":"editor","display_name":"editor","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b7133890497a379016d07d15c8f68f3993586eafda65167e3214b1a026d0ae34?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4653"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4657,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4653\/revisions\/4657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4653"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurolit.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=4653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}