and he said well i refused to cooperate with the police and lenny bruce said, what are you?as traditional short hair stand-up comic, successful on getting ed sullivan gigs and so forth. >> here is comedian comedy star george carlin. >> que pasa. hippy dippy weather man, tonight's forecast, dark. >> at first wanted to have success. he got that success and felt that he was getting that success in a way that didn't speak to his heart. >> i used to be this guy or maybe this guy used to be me, i don't know, we were each other at one time. wasn't long ago. i liked him. he was really good. he was funny, had fun with him, did nice things for me. but there was nothing behind him, you know? he was kind of just superficial, just surface. all characters. i wasn't in there. i found out i wasn't in my own act. >> guy who picks up from lenny is george, who goes right after the taboos again, constantly picking and picking. >> and irish priests heavily into penance and punishment, couple of novenas to do, nine first fridays, five first saturdays, stations of the cross, trip to lourd's. wow.

make it happen. ♪ maybelline new york. >> time lenny bruce was performing and the police buffed lennycarlin told it, if the cops could get somebody under age, they could wreak havoc. young george carlin was trying to be arrested to ride in the paddy wagon with him. >> they are going to bust lenny, they will bust me. it gives me goose bumps thinking about that. >> lenny bruce said how did you get in here? he said i refused to cooperate with the police. lenny bruce said what are you, a shmuck? >> warmiment came up as a traditional short hair homic. >> here is the comedian comedy star george carlin. >> how is the hippy weather? tonight's forecast is dark. he wanted to have success and got that and felt he was getting that in a way that didn't peek speak to his heard. i used to be this guy. we were each other at one time. i liked him. he was good and funny and did nice things for me. there was nothing behind him. he was all karks. i found out i was not in my own act. >> the guy who picks up is george. he goes right after the ka boos and he is picking and picking. >> they were heavily into

tweeted.ll then the news broke bruce springsteen, chuck berry was rock's g >> lenny kravitz writing hailk berry. none of us would have been here without you. rock on, broer influence reached, country star keith urban tweeting, thank you for the poetry, the passion, and the potency. with much more on the man and his signature sound. good morning, sir. >> reporter: good morning dan, good morning, paula.f the many musicians who played in the backing band of chuck berry. fi music history. writer and performer of dozens of rock's most essential and enduring songs. each one an american classic.odl over beethoven." ♪ roll over beethoven >> reporter: to "sweet little 16." ♪ all the cats want to dance with ♪ ♪ sweet little 16 >> reporter: chuck berry was rock 'n' roll. its founding father. and warrior hero. the creator of the musical language. filled with poetic, american images. ♪ i'm so glad i'm living in the usa ♪ >> reporter: he was the primary influence and the musical cornerstone for the beatles and the rolling stones. ♪ roll over beethoven >> reporter: his slicked back 'do and duck walk ma

and richard price would riff like lenny bruce when we would pitch, when he was pitching movies or tv shows like we sometimes did together. in the end, it was all practice for his novels. tom used to call it having a long reach. which in his case, which meant being minated to are a national book award in fiction the same year he won teen roping at the small rodeo in gardner, montana. so, book is full of stories like this, but there are interstitial chapters that are about the tricks of editing. editing is about ideas, of course, but it's mechanical as well. and you have to get under the hood, so to speak, if you're making magazines as we used to say, or websites or swimsuit issues, as i did for ten years. and the things that you learn in those exercises, like if you can-- if you can rewrite headlines on deadline. if you can get good at that, it's a kick like those looney tune characters that produce a stick of lit dynamite behind their back, there's nothing more fun than that. one tool that i used in the book, is i left at the top of each chapter, i left a word count. so you know how