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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Back to the Future: The Real Johnny B. Goode Rocked Long Before Marty McFly

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Back to the Future is a classic comedy, one of the most popular films in motion picture history. Almost every laugh line lands with a perfectly executed punch. Every skateboard flip is a motion picture wonder. It’s one of those films which is broadly silly yet still has heart, and it’s a treasure of commercial cinema. But when Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly straps on a cherry red Gibson ES-345 he plunders the golden oldies right out of the fingers of the true original. Ignore the bit where “Marvin Berry” calls his cousin on the phone. Chuck Berry didn’t just write “Johnny B. Goode,” he was Johnny B. Goode.

The song about the country boy who could play guitar like ringing a bell could have referred to any number of musicians, from Buddy Holly to Bo Diddley or Ricky Nelson. But the singer-songwriting guitarist who penned the line was born at 2520 Goode Avenue, in St. Louis.

Berry had already made his concession to white commercialism by changing the line “that little colored boy could play” to “that little country boy.” Oh my. But then for years, the Father of Rock and Roll watched the self-styled King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, put his stamp on Berry’s signature. The royalties were sweet though for Berry, and the respect was mutual.

But the backhanded homage in the time-traveling 1985 comedy is really a cheap gag, and the joke is at the expense of Berry’s legacy.

“Long Distance information? Get Me Memphis, Tennesse”

“Chuck! Chuck, it’s Marvin, your cousin, Marvin Berry. You know that new sound you’re looking for?” the fictional bandleader yells into a pay phone at the 1955 Enchantment Under the Sea dance in Hill Valley, California. “Listen to this!”

We then hear the subtle sound of casual racial invalidation. Not only does the line denigrate Berry’s contribution to the architecture of rock and roll; it completely sidelines guitarist Carl Hogan who initiated the opening guitar phrasing on Louis Jordan’s 1946 pre-rock and roll song “Ain’t That Just Like a Woman.” Think, McFly. Think!

Michael J. Fox already has a perfectly winning comic ending to the now-iconic scene: when his fingers stretch back to the future, and he channels Eddie Van Halen on the guitar, even the kids at the 1950s dance think he should act his age. So why does director and co-screenwriter Robert Zemeckis feel the need to shit on Chuck Berry with such a disposable throw-away gag? It is even more insulting when you take into consideration who Berry had to sue over the course of his career for stealing his riffs.

Indicative of a long-standing music industry tradition, the two biggest names in white rock and roll, the Beatles and the Beach Boys, had to cough up to the pioneering artist after infringing on his copyrights. Berry sued to get his name on the Beach Boys’ hit “Surfin’ USA” while John Lennon agreed to cover two songs owned by Berry’s publisher in exchange for copping lines from “You Can’t Catch Me” for the song “Come Together.”

But Lennon still declared “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry,’” when he introduced him on The Mike Douglas Show in 1972. “In the 1950s, a whole generation worshipped his music, and when you see him today, past and present all come together, and the message is Hail, Hail Rock and Roll.’”

He Could Play a Guitar Just Like a-Ringin’ a Bell

Berry was the first-ever Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and in the same class as James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Presley. With songs like “Maybellene,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Little Queenie,” “Havana Moon,” “Wee Wee Hours,” “Rock and Roll Music,” and “Sweet Little 16,” Berry scored the soundtrack to the 1950s.

Berry didn’t invent rock and roll. Ike Turner is credited with that for his 1951 song, “Rocket 88.” Berry recorded his first hit “Maybellene” in 1955 at Chicago’s Chess Studios, the home of the blues. Berry sped up the blues to a country thump and let his fingers do to guitar strings what lips did to horns.

Berry made rock and roll fun, funny, and subtly rebellious. The teenager in “You Can’t Catch Me” is motorvating away from the cops. His “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” hit a home run with color coded racial pride. The artist who was glad, so glad, he was “living in the U.S.A.” (in the song “Back in the U.S.A.”) was barred from many of the things he found so wondrous in this country to sing about.

Almost Grown

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was born on Oct. 18, 1926. His St. Louis neighborhood, “The Ville,” was segregated. His great-grandparents were slaves. In 1944, Berry was arrested for driving along in an automobile he carjacked at gunpoint after robbing three stores in Kansas City. He did a three-year stint in reform school.

Berry began playing music professionally when he was in his mid-20s, sitting in with local bands like piano player Johnnie Johnson’s group, Sir John’s Trio. Blues icon Muddy Waters suggested Berry bring his songs to Chess Records where Howlin’ Wolf, the Moonglows, and Big Bill Broonzy were recording sides. Label owner Leonard Chess had a good feeling about the song “Ida Red.”

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Berry renamed the song “Maybellene” when he recorded it on May 21, 1955. It was Berry’s first nationwide hit. He was 28. Willie Dixon was on bass, Johnnie Johnson played piano, Jerome Green shook maracas, and Ebby Hardy beat the drums. Alan Freed and Russ Fratto didn’t do anything for the song, but their names are on the credits as co-songwriters. They effectively collected royalties for teaching Berry a valuable lesson.

Chuck Berry wrote all the songs on his first album, After School Session, which was released in May 1957. It was the same for his next two albums. Berry didn’t include any covers on his albums at all until his fourth album, Rockin’ at the Hops, released in July 1960. Berry starred in some of Alan Freed’s jukebox movies like Rock Rock Rock!, Mister Rock and Roll, and Go, Johnny, Go! He also appeared in Jazz on a Summer’s Day, a 1959 documentary about the Newport Jazz Festival.

“No Need to Be Complainin’, My Objections Overruled”

Berry was arrested in St. Louis, Missouri, in December 1959 for transporting Janice Norine Escalan, a 14-year-old hatcheck girl at Club Bandstand in Juarez, Mexico, across state lines for “immoral purposes.” He was charged under the Mann Act. Berry argued he was offering legitimate employment. An all-male, all-white jury found him guilty on March 11, 1960. Berry appealed, but the conviction was upheld at a 1961 trial. Berry was sentenced to three years. He served 18 months and was released from prison in 1964.

Berry’s career never quite took off again. He had some hits in 1964 and 1965, “Nadine,” “No Particular Place to Go,” “You Never Can Tell,” and “Promised Land.” He was one of the artists in the 1964 concert film The TAMI Show. Berry’s last number 1 hit, “My Ding-a-Ling,” was recorded live in London in 1972 for The London Chuck Berry Sessions album.

Berry never stopped playing live. He traveled with only his guitar and a briefcase for his money, and would grab local bar bands to back him when he hit town. Everyone knew Chuck Berry songs. Simple, three-chord pangs to teenage love, cars and safety belts. Bandleaders like Bruce Springsteen and Steve Miller eagerly lent their fingers and bands to the light traveling guitar player. Most groups were thrilled to get the chance to play for a legend when they weren’t harangued for bending a string too far on an intro. Not even Keith Richards got away with that, just watch the rehearsal portion of the 1987 documentary Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll.

The Rolling Stones’ guitarist had already been brought in as a surprise backing player for a 1972 Los Angeles show where he was kicked off the stage for setting his amp too loud. Berry would also give Richards a black eye for touching his guitar after a New York City show a decade later. Richards’ early guitar work is modeled on Berry’s style. The Stones covered “Carol,” “Around and Around” and “You Can’t Catch Me.” Richards inducted Berry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Back to the Future is really just a light, inoffensive, time-bending screwball comedy, and Berry has been the butt of far worse jokes. Spy magazine alleged Berry secretly filmed women in bathrooms. In January 1990, High Society claimed to be “the only magazine with the balls to show Chuck’s berries,” when it published photos of him posing nude with different women.

So when you read an article about Berry recalling the incident where the white kid played “Johnny B. Goode,” remember: it ran in The Onion. Chuck Berry could be accused of a lot of things, but he was an original.

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sounds10thapr1976-blog · 7 years

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Second page of news.

Page 3 SOUNDS April 10, 1976

WHO PUT THE BOOT IN

ALEX HARVEY AND LITTLE FEAT JOIN THEM ON SOCCER SUPERGIGS THE WHO, Alex Harvey, Little Feat: that is the phenomenal top line of the heaviest package to hit the road in Britain in years.

These three bands plus the Outlaws, making their UK debut, and Streetwalkers have been assembled by promoter Harvey Goldsmith to play three football grounds to a total of 115,000 people.

The venues and dates are: Charlton Athletic FC, The Valley, London SE7, May 31; Celtic FC, Celtic Park, Glasgow G21, June 5; Swansea City FC, Vetch Field, Swansea, June 12, all shows starting at 2.00 pm, gates open at 12 noon.

The working title for the whole enterprise is ‘Who Put The Boot In’ and it is the realisation of Pete Townshend’s dream of playing ‘rock for everyone’ which he first tried, not entirely to his satisfaction, with the one show at Charlton in May, ’74.

On a grand scale it’s ‘the Who and friends’ as they are all bands the Who rate highly.

All tickets cost £4 each and are available by POSTAL application immediately from GP Productions, PO Box 4TL, London W1A 4OL. Application should be marked London, Glasgow or Swansea to assist sorting and postal orders preferable to cheques, say the organisers.

Tickets are available by PERSONAL application only from the following locations from April 12: Virgin Records, Union Street, Swansea. Derick Records, Oxford Street, Swansea. Derick records, Station Road, Port Talbot. Appollo, Glasgow. Shuffles, Sauchniehall Street, Glasgow.

Harvey Goldsmith has arranged special trains to the gigs through British Rail as well as coaches and special arrangements with the local transport authorities.

An unusual feature designed to prevent rip-offs is that the catering will be completely controlled by the promoters rather than sub-contracted.

To get the elaborate staging and all the bands’ equipment on the road they will be using eight articulated 40-foot trucks. The operation will employ 2,000 people in security/clearance/turnstiles/crews.

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band have added a date to their British tour before the Who gigs. They will now play Edinburgh Odeon on Saturday May 29 as well as the previous night.

AISLES OF MILES JOHN MILES’S first headlining tour, forecast in Sounds last week, has now been fixed and will take in major venues in eight cities.

He is also being lined up for a Mike Mansfield TV special to be recorded in May for broadcast in July or August.

Tour dates are: Glasgow Apollo May 30, Newcastle City Hall 31, Manchester Palace Theatre June 1, Liverpool Empire 2, Birmingham Town Hall 3, Bristol Hippodrome 4, London Hammersmith Odeon 6, Southampton Gaumont 7.

BILLY AND WILLY IN COUNTRY DOUBLE BILLY SWAN and Willie Nelson are to double-head a single British gig during their European tour later this month.

The play the London New Victoria on April 23, tickets £2.50, £2 and £1.50 available from the box office now.

Nelson has just released in Britain the single that won him the US Grammy for ‘Best Country Male Vocal Performance’ last year titled ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain’. Reports of any other gigs in the UK for Nelson this time round should be ignored CBS say.

STONES: THREE MORE SHOWS A million people want to see ’em

THE ROLLING STONES are to play three extra nights at Earls Court but there is no way they could meet the demand for tickets to see them – which now amounts to a MILLION applications.

They will now play May 25, 26 and 27 which will put about 50,000 more seats into the ballot but there is no point in sending further applications as these will simply help to take up some of the sackfuls of letters already bound to be disappointed.

The last count was 86 bags of mail containing an estimated million applications with most asking for any number of tickets up to the limit of six.

NEW BLOOD FOR ROLLERS NEW BAY CITY ROLLER Ian Mitchell, a 17-year-old Irishman, said that he was “over the moon” at joining the band.

He replaces Alan Longmuir who originally decided to quit the Rollers last year when he admitted that he was 27, not 22 as their publicity claimed. The he was dissuaded by the fans’ response but now he has decided that the pressures of touring are too much for him.

Ian comes from Downpatrick, County Down, and Rollers’ manager Tam Paton said he was spotted when playing in Belfast with a group called the Young Stars.

NEW NEW SEEKERS THE NEW SEEKERS have reformed, though not with the original line-up, and already scheduled their first concerts.

They broke up more than a year ago and lead singer Lynn Paul began a solo career which she is continuing. Marty Kristian and Paul Leyton recorded with Danny Finn who they have now brought into the New Seekers line-up.

Original member Eve Graham has returned from a spell in Australia and they are joined by Kathie Ann Ray as replacement for Lynn.

Their first concert is on May 16 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and a full tour is planned for later that month.

DAVID GOES SPANISH DAEVID ALLEN, the former leader of Gong, may be playing in the UK during the summer with a Spanish five-piece string band called Euterpe. He is living in Majorca at the moment.

COWMAN LEAVES JOHN GREAVES, bassist with Henry Cow, has left the band to record solo and the band are currently rehearsing with a new member whose name will be announced next week.

Greaves will be recording in New York with Peter Blegvad who used to be in Slap Happy.

MOON HEIST MOON are offering a reward, no questions asked, for the return of their van, an Orange mixer, and a Hi-Watt amp stolen after their gig at Dingwalls at the weekend.

They are about to go into the studio to record for CBS for the first time and, though they are buying a new PA, they had hoped to use their old equipment either in part-exchange or as a monitoring set-up.

ELKIE: PERONTINITIS? ELKIE BROOKS has cancelled her gig scheduled for the New Victoria this Saturday because of a severe illness. She is now recovering from an emergency operation for perontonitis.

She is said to have been offered the lead role in a new musical by ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ composers Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber about the life of Eva Peron, the first wife of the late Argentinian dictator Juan Peron. She would not have to start work on it until June.

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Next time: page four

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