Back in high school there was an artist in my class that I looked up to. His name was Andy and he was stunningly talented. He loved the music of the “rock group” Yes, which I never really got -- still don’t. I loved Neil Young, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, ELO and Supertramp. Whenever I played him any of my music, Andy would shake his head and say it all sounded like Chuck Berry in way that made me feel ashamed -- made me feel common. Thank God I never played him any of my Olivia Newton-John records.
Fast forward thirty years, Diva played me the movie Cadillac Records about Chess records and the birth of rock and roll. Sure, one can argue the point, but whenever I go round and round with someone on this -- it keeps coming back to Chuck. This guy picked up a guitar, put blues and country together, and invented rock and roll. He walked into Chess records, cut some tracks and duck-walked across the stage: segregation began to crumble, women of all races swooned as men (and women) started to play guitar just like that. I don’t care who you slap down on the table (from Louis Jordan to Little Richard) to trump me on this -- they didn’t have a guitar on their record that sounded like THAT. Nobody did. Now everybody does.
My friend was right -- it all sounds like Chuck. Andy saw a hick from the deep south walking out of a tarpaper shack with a guitar in a gunny sack. I see a gentleman who change the world as much as Bach or Beethoven.
Here is Chuck’s Ninth Symphony:
“Johnny B. Goode”
by Chuck Berry
Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode
He never ever learned to read or write so well
But he could play the guitar like a-ringing a bell
{Refrain}
Go go Johnny go, go
Go Johnny go, go
Go Johnny go, go
Johnny B. Goode
He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack
And sit beneath the trees by the railroad track
Old engineers would see him sitting in the shade
Strummin' to the rhythm that the drivers made
People passing by would stop and say
Oh, my how that little country boy could play
{Refrain}
His mother told him, "Someday you will be a man
And you will be the leader of a big old band
Many people coming from miles around
To hear you play your music when the sun go down
Maybe some day your name'll be in lights
Saying Johnny B. Goode tonight
{Refrain}
Video
Fast forward thirty years, Diva played me the movie Cadillac Records about Chess records and the birth of rock and roll. Sure, one can argue the point, but whenever I go round and round with someone on this -- it keeps coming back to Chuck. This guy picked up a guitar, put blues and country together, and invented rock and roll. He walked into Chess records, cut some tracks and duck-walked across the stage: segregation began to crumble, women of all races swooned as men (and women) started to play guitar just like that. I don’t care who you slap down on the table (from Louis Jordan to Little Richard) to trump me on this -- they didn’t have a guitar on their record that sounded like THAT. Nobody did. Now everybody does.
My friend was right -- it all sounds like Chuck. Andy saw a hick from the deep south walking out of a tarpaper shack with a guitar in a gunny sack. I see a gentleman who change the world as much as Bach or Beethoven.
Here is Chuck’s Ninth Symphony:
“Johnny B. Goode”
by Chuck Berry
Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode
He never ever learned to read or write so well
But he could play the guitar like a-ringing a bell
{Refrain}
Go go Johnny go, go
Go Johnny go, go
Go Johnny go, go
Johnny B. Goode
He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack
And sit beneath the trees by the railroad track
Old engineers would see him sitting in the shade
Strummin' to the rhythm that the drivers made
People passing by would stop and say
Oh, my how that little country boy could play
{Refrain}
His mother told him, "Someday you will be a man
And you will be the leader of a big old band
Many people coming from miles around
To hear you play your music when the sun go down
Maybe some day your name'll be in lights
Saying Johnny B. Goode tonight
{Refrain}
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEq62iQo0eU
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