Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus. This week on our program -- the music of Chuck Berry. The man often called the "father of rock and roll" will be eighty-six this week and is still performing.

Another music great, Smokey Robinson, has described Chuck Berry as "the inspiration for all of today's rock 'n' roll guitarists." And, Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers calls him "a musical scientist who discovered a cure for the blues."

One of Chuck Berry's first releases was "Brown Eyed Handsome Man." The last verse goes like this:

Two, three count with nobody on
He hit a high fly into the stand
Rounding third he was headed for home
It was a brown eyed handsome man
That won the game; it was a brown eyed handsome man

The song came out in nineteen fifty-six, less than ten years after major league baseball began to accept black players. The first was Jackie Robinson.

Rob Sheffield at Rolling Stone magazine wrote about baseball songs on his blog and had this to say: "The guitar speeds up as Chuck Berry heads into the climactic final verse, when that brown-eyed handsome man (Willie Mays? Hank Aaron? Jackie Robinson?) wins the game with a home run. Chuck would've made a lousy sportscaster ('two-three the count'?) but that just adds to the excitement."

On stage, he became known for his wild performances, and his "duck walk" that many musicians copied. But his songwriting skills -- some call him a rock and roll poet -- and his guitar work really set him apart.