Hi, Linda,
Thanks so much for this very interesting article. I always like hearing or
reading of how songs came about.
Rosie
From: ourplace-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ourplace-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Linda Gehres
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2017 10:18 AM
To: ourplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ourplace] The stories behind 12 essential Chuck Berry masterpieces
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.
