The stories behind 12 essential Chuck Berry masterpieces
ALAN LIGHT The New York Times
<http://newspapers.web.ca/news/nr/en/The%20Toronto%20Star> The Toronto Star ,
Mar. 20, 2017
John Lennon said, "If you tried to give rock 'n' roll another name, you might
call it 'Chuck Berry.'" Bob Dylan once called the musician "the Shakespeare of
rock 'n' roll." His songs staked out the territory, in both sonics and lyrics,
for a new art form, and in the decade from 1955 to 1965, he created a body of
work filled with dozens of perfectly crafted masterpieces.
"Maybellene" (1955)
Berry's first single sounds like nothing that came before it and the key
ingredients are all in place - revved-up guitar, clever language ("as I was
motorvatin' over the hill"), girls and cars. Based on "Ida Red," a 1938 Western
Swing hit for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, the new title and beefed-up
rhythm section were the ideas of producer and Chess Records co-owner Leonard
Chess.
"Too Much Monkey Business" (1956)
No one before Berry thought to write a pop song about the headaches of paying
bills or losing your change in a pay phone. In his 1987 autobiography, he wrote
that the lyrics were "meant to describe most of the kinds of hassles a person
encounters in everyday life."
"Brown Eyed Handsome Man" (1956)
Berry said this song - a sly and daring commentary on race relations - was
written after an episode he witnessed outside a concert he did in California. In
masterful manner, Berry effortlessly drew on the worlds of art (the Venus de
Milo) and baseball to convey the wide-ranging allure of "brown-eyed" - barely
encoded to mean visible minority - men.
"Roll Over Beethoven" (1956)
A declaration of musical independence for a new generation, "Beethoven" was
initially aimed at Berry's younger sister, who monopolized the family piano
practising classical music.
The rest, he said, came "out of my sometimes unbelievably imaginative mind."
"School Day" (1957)
By 1957, rock 'n' roll's teenage takeover was complete and Berry responded with
a song that directly targeted these new consumers - set in the focal point of
their daily life, regardless of race or class. The final verse gave Berry's
genre its greatest rallying cry (and became the title of his 1988 concert film):
Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll!
"Rock and Roll Music" (1957)
The music itself was Berry's greatest subject and greatest muse. Laying out the
merits of rock 'n' roll against modern jazz, tango and symphonies, the popping
rumba rhythm proved its own argument - "It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it."
"Johnny B. Goode" (1958)
If rock 'n' roll has a national anthem, this would be it.
The stinging introduction (pinched from jump-blues star Louis Jordan's "Ain't
That Just Like a Woman") set a standard that every rock guitarist still chases.
The story, a semi-autobiographical rags-to-riches tale, was a classic
articulation of the American dream, although Berry was savvy enough to change
the original lyric about a "coloured boy" to "country boy" for a shot at radio
play.
"Carol" (1958)
This was one of the few songs recorded by both the Beatles and the Rolling
Stones.
A simple story about a boy who needs to learn to dance to hold on to his girl,
the description of the club they go to is so vivid you can practically smell it
("A little cutie takes your hat and you can thank her, ma'am/Every time you make
the scene you find the joint is jammed").
"Memphis" (1959)
Berry worked for more than a month on the words to his most tender and arguably
most literary song, a one-sided conversation between the narrator and a
telephone operator, expressing that he misses a girl named Marie and they are
being kept apart by her mother. The final verse reveals Marie is the narrator's
6-year-old daughter and her mother left home with Marie; in a remarkable phrase,
he recalls the girl's cheeks covered in "hurry-home drops."
"Back in the U.S.A." (1959)
A dream vision of '50s America, unmarred by racial tension, this song was
reportedly inspired by Berry's return to the United States after a brief tour of
Australia. Once again, he found poetry in the everyday details of middle-class
life ("Looking hard for a drive-in, searching for a corner cafe/Where hamburgers
sizzle on an open grill night and day").
"Come On" (1961)
A hard-luck story of a guy who has watched everything go wrong since he broke up
with his girlfriend, "Come On" is full of seemingly throwaway lines that tell
full stories. While he tries to persuade her to come back (Berry's sister Martha
provides a slightly dissonant background vocal), he wishes somebody would wreck
the car he can't afford; every time the phone rings, it's "some stupid jerk
trying to reach another number."
"Nadine" (1964)
The first single released after Berry served a 20-month prison term for
violation of the Mann Act, "Nadine" was practically a sequel to his debut
recording, "Maybellene." But while the story of pursuing a girl through the
bustle of the city (not in a car this time, but on a bus, in a taxi and on foot)
tells the same tale, the language and imagery are more complex. This writing
would prove a huge influence on songwriters who were concurrently discovering
the Beatles.
