JOHHNY B. POLLED: chuck berry's great twenty-eight

In "Hail, Hail Rock 'n' Roll," Springsteen pretty succinctly sums up Berry's genius when he discusses the imagery in "Nadine," which I voted for:

I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back
And started walkin toward a coffee colored cadillac

"I've never seen a coffee colored cadillac," said the Boss. "But I know exactly what one looks like."

there's a massive cumulative accomplishment whose parts talk to one another throughout

For example: "souped-up jitney" shows up in "You Never Can Tell" and in "You Can't Catch Me"!

Always loved that Springsteen quote - maybe the best part of the movie.

ANd the twist at the end when they get married is the kind of thing that Dylan would pull as well, come to think of it.

Wait, is that supposed to be a twist ending? I always thought it was kind of a recap/filler line - they're going to New Orleans to celebrate their anniversary, because New Orleans is where they got married back at the beginning of the song.

Plenty of non-filler lines to love in that song though -

"They furnished off an apartment with a two-room Roebuck's sale
The coolerater was crammed with TV dinners and ginger ale"

...and of course the way the old folks wushed 'em well.

Question: What is that happens when the sun goes down? I always thought it was "..the record tip off the music fell" but Google is telling me it's "the rapid tempo of the music fell" which doesn't scan as well but is sort of cutely randy...

(re: the jitney - I like to imagine "You Never Can Tell" retroactively inserting itself into the continuity of "You Can't Catch Me" - like, it's actually Pierre and Madame that are getting buzzed by high-speed Chuck!)

buy the argument that "Johnny B. Goode" is poetic in terms of its general gesture and recentering of an old story around rock n roll (and in doing so, formulating a good fifth of what would later constitute "rock mythology")

a fifth might be understating it. it almost singlehandedly created the archetype of the guitar-slinger as the male american outlaw figure of the second half of the 20th century. there's a continuum that starts there and maybe eventually implodes with kurt cobain.

(How about "Bo Diddley Is A Gunslinger"?)

I like the comeback single "No Particular Place to Go" best. The (indeed, rather twee) entendre of the safety belt, and those fills...THOSE FILLS.

well "johnny b. goode" predated bo diddley is a gunslinger by a few years. but right, one thing "johnny" did was take the blues model of the six-string hotshot and repackage it for a mass audience.

The original lyric was not "little country boy" but "little COLORED boy". FWTW.

I'm always impressed by the care and effort Chuck put into his lyrics, when his teenage audience of the time probably couldn't care less about the words, as long as they were backed by that crazy rock 'n roll beat. It's as if he knew there'd be rock criticism ten years hence.

"Memphis" is a fantastic song, even though his recording of it isn't terribly spectacular. So, not that one...

The impossibility of actually saying, from this bunch, "here's the best song" is one of the reasons I hate polls

who said we were voting on the best song?

that's what a poll is gabb

no, it is common for people to ask what is being polled and reasonable to regard this as a poll of personal favorites

unless you are the most obtuse dude on the planet, it is self-evident what this poll is asking: which is the best song on chuck berry's great twenty-eight, which is a record of chuck berry's "greatest hits"

which is a record of chuck berry's "greatest hits"

Or CD, or mp3, whichever you like

The whole "best vs favorite" thing is kinda interesting sometimes, but sort of overpowered, for me, by the much more interesting task of identifying really awesome moments in Chuck Berry songs.

favorite moments:

*first five seconds of Beautiful Delilah--the guitar calling and then the drums responding

*the beat of Maybellene

*everything about Almost Grown, esp. the background vocals

* what everyone has said about Memphis--such a great song

* i love everything about Havana Moon

More clever mixing of early rock and the American cultural weave: "Sweet Little Rock n Roller"'s appropriation of "Casey at the Bat" to turn some sweaty teen sensation into that most American star of all, the baseball star:

"Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt."

versus

"Ten thousand eyes were watchin' him leave the floor
Five thousand tongues were screamin', 'More, more!'
And about fifteen hundred waitin' outside the door."

"everything about Almost Grown, esp. the background vocals"

Yes! I was going to bring this up earlier - "RA TACK A TACK A TACK AH!"

(fwiw for me polls are mostly a chance to talk about something, with a little competition thrown in. and they tend to generate more new discussion than just reviving an old thread.)

they left off "You Never Can Tell"?!

the version of Maybellene on 'Golden Hits' (late 60's 'compilation' which is really Chuck redoing his hits in what some deem a wan fashion) is super, doesn't seem tweaked too much at first but he flattens some of the verbal inflections in the chorus to nice effect and then the groove on the verses gets locked in hypnotically tight while he's rattling off his shit, all of a sudden it's a new song damn near. the only version for me now.

-- tremendoid, Monday, August 4, 2008 6:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

i picked this up years ago for a dollar and probabaly listened to it once. But my interest is officially piqued re: Maybellene. I'm going to oull it out tonight.

no, Que, it is self-evident that this poll is asking your favorite of chuck berry's great twenty-eight, the ridiculousness of there being a single greatest hit being obvious to some of us

yeah that's what i said dude

why don't you tell us some of your favorite moments instead of being a dick

already did, bro, and i'm not the one who's being a dick, dick

hey man, i was just asking for a list of your favorite chuck berry moments. all i see on this thread is you talking about phish (lol) and the difficulties of picking brown eyed handsome man v. roll over beethoven. but to each his own

boys take it outside

thanks to this thread I have been compulsively singing "Havana Moon" for 24 hours. This is a great song.

yeah i didn't understand Havana Moon hate above thread

yeah I was hating on "Havana Moon" upthread because when I put on this record like during a workout (TMI I know) this song is a serious energy level dropper. But otherwise it's just good goofy fun.

hey man, why don't you cut out your tiresome and disingenuous irl/personal shit on like half the threads i post substantively on and go get me some legislative history because that's what you're "for," lol (see what being a dick looks like?)

havana moon is a good song but not much of a 'chuck berry song'

go get me some legislative history

need a client matter # as well as a public law number first, thx.

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20070819/voyagerrecord540_270x270.jpg

"Send more Chuck Berry"

Hahaha, thought that was a gold record at first! Had to right-click to properly identify it.

Another good thing about "Havana Moon": it inspired Richard Berry to write "Louie Louie".

aliens otm

unless you are the most obtuse dude on the planet

QED

no offense gabs I just couldn't resist

It also brings up the important and perhaps hithertoo never asked question:

Is Chuck Berry twee?

Memphis, possibly?

That is the one I voted for btw.

my density has brought me to you, j0hn

I always thought he said "Marlowe's Venus," as in Philip or Christopher.

Of which song there's a great version of on the Million Dollar Quartet record, where they sing a verse, stop for a second, remember another one and start right back up again.

"She fought and won herself"

Que OTM on "Beautiful Delilah." One of my fave intros in the history of music.

And even more xpost, "I Wanna Be Your Driver" was cut in 1965 Liverpool.

Or London, right?

I voted for Sweet Little Sixteen, sums up that whole rock-and-roll-it's-the-brand-new-craze thing. And that piano trill on "oh mommy mommmy, I beg of you" slays me.

It occurred to me listening to it last night that the thing that makes "Memphis" so great is that he doesn't try to make the twist really play like a twist. Compare to the similar ending of "Save All Your Kisses For Me" by Brotherhood of Man, where it's all winking and grinning... Chuck understands that the story is more sad, not less for the fact that Marie is only six years old - she probably really misses this guy and doesn't understand why he can't come home. Actually, we can be pretty sure that's the case - we know she's trying to get in touch with Chuck, 'cause his uncle (what a great detail) took her message.

Also love how he begins as professionally as he can on the phone with the operator ("Help me find the party that tried to get in touch with me") but gradually reveals the still-raw emotions of the situation ("We were pulled apart because her mom did not agree / tore apart our happy home in Memphis, Tennessee.").

finally bought The Definitive Collection yesterday (these + a few more) and listened to it twice - much as I love all the rest, it's still CAMPAIGN SHOUTIN' LIKE A SOUTHERN DIPLOMAT

Are there any good covers of "Nadine"?

I always assumed the line about the 'Southern Diplomat' was a way of avoiding saying 'Southern Democrat' = just like 'country boy' as opposed to 'colored boy'- amirite? or is there a better explanation? because why would the south need diplomats? and why would diplomats shout?

I always loved the Southern Diplomat, but in the last couple years I've totally come around to the same reading as you, sonofstan - it's VERY easy to make it be Southern Demmycrat, and it works a lot better. Not sure why he would have bothered with the substitution - even in the 50s, surely it would have been pretty innocuous to associate southern politicians with "campaign shoutin'"?

it just reads like a more evocative version of politician to me (that fits in with the meter/rhyme/whatever it's called, I don't know poetry or lyrics from my ass)

Or he deliberately messes up the expression to sound more like the usual CB protagonist - regular, hard working, put upon guy - would sound in the heat of the chase? stumbling over big words, mangling cliches?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Memphis" is a fantastic song, even though his recording of it isn't terribly spectacular. So, not that one...

-- Myonga Vön Bontee, Tuesday, 5 August 2008 14:37 (2 days ago) Link

Explain, please. I love the recording -- slow, soft, steady blues, no Johnny B. guitar solos necessary. Also, Doctor Casino OTM.