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THE TWENTIETH CENTURY III: POPULAR MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES
man. He and his group were responsible for some of
the early hits of rock and roll, such as “Tutti Frutti,”
“Long Tall Sally,” “Rip It Up” (all 1956), and “Good
Golly, Miss Molly” (1958).
Chuck Berry was born Charles Edward Anderson
Berry in 1926 in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up
singing in the local Baptist church choir and learned
the guitar in high school. In 1955 he went to Chicago,
where Muddy Waters introduced him to the independent Chess record label, which was a pioneer in the
early recording of rock and roll. He began to tour regularly and had a string of hits between 1955 and 1959.
Berry appeared in a number of films aimed at the teen
audience, and he seemed poised for a long and successful career. However, in late 1959, he was arrested while
driving home from performing in Texas to Chicago; in
the car was an underage white girl. At the time, it was
against the law to “transport a minor” across state lines
(presumably for “immoral” purposes). Berry was tried
and imprisoned and not released until 1964. His career
momentum was shattered, and it never recovered,
although he has toured and made some recordings.
Chuck Berry played fast songs with an irresistible
beat. A list of his songs includes some of the early classics of rock and roll: “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Rock
and Roll Music,” and “Johnny B. Goode.” These songs
and many others of his were immensely influential on
’60s rockers like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
John Lennon once said, “If you tried to give rock and
roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’.”
Unlike most of the other famous rock stars of the
’50s, Berry wrote all his own music. His guitar playing
is inventive, rhythmically interesting, clean and hard.
His voice is laser-accurate, bluesy yet clear. His fancy
moves on stage were smooth and hypnotic. His songs
spoke directly to teens who were sitting in class but
ready to party: “All day long you’ve been wantin’ to
dance” (“School Day,” 1957).
Sweet Little Sixteen, she’s got the grown-up blues,
Tight dresses and lipstick, sportin’ high-heeled shoes.
Oh, but tomorrow mornin’, she’ll have to change her
trend,
And be Sweet Sixteen and back in class again.
(“Sweet Little Sixteen,” 1958).
LISTENING GUIDE
Chuck Berry
“Johnny B. Goode”
Words and music by Chuck Berry
“
Date of performance: 1957
Personnel: Chuck Berry, vocals and guitar;
Lafayette Leake, piano; Willie Dixon, bass;
Fred Below, drums
Duration: 2:36
J
ohnny B. Goode” is a 12-bar blues at medium-fast tempo, but the pervasive subdivision
of the beat (two notes for each beat), both in the instrumental playing and in the lyrics, makes for a
more hectic, driven feel. Both the guitar playing and the singing are amazingly accurate, especially
for what was surely an unedited take. But the high range of the voice and the almost shouted quality
of the singing provide a feeling of raw spontaneity. If one didn’t know that Chuck Berry was both
singing and playing the guitar, one could almost be persuaded that two performers were taking those
roles. The guitar playing is clean and clear and very prominent. Berry plays the guitar introduction
and several instrumental breaks and choruses, but he also plays short, lively, responsive phrases to
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his own singing, which adds to the excitement of the performance. The drummer plays a strong
backbeat (heavy on beats 2 and 4), which is what gives the prominent pulse and tension to rock and
roll. The pianist in the background cannot be clearly heard throughout, but when he lets loose in the
last few choruses, you can hear him pounding away on the changes in double time or running
emphatic glissandos (sliding his finger along many keys very quickly). The instrument has a truly
honky-tonk sound.
In “Johnny B. Goode,” the words come thick and fast. There is no repetition of the first line, and
two lines of verse are set to each four-measure segment of the music. The story thus hurries along in
breathless fashion. Two syllables of each word are sung to each beat, and the rushing words leave no
time for air or for fills.
Unlike the standard blues also, this song has a refrain. Each “narrative” chorus is followed by a
refrain chorus in which the only words are “Go, Johnny, go! Go!” and a final clinching “Johnny B.
Goode.”
In this performance, there are nine choruses which fall into the following pattern:
CD
TIME
LISTEN FOR
(60)
0:00
1. Intro + Instrumental chorus
2. Narrative chorus
3. Refrain chorus
4. Narrative chorus
5. Refrain chorus
6. Break + Instrumental chorus
7. Break + Instrumental chorus
8. Narrative chorus
9. Refrain chorus
0:17
0:34
0:51
1:08
1:26
1:43
2:00
2:18
Three of these choruses are narrative choruses, and each one is followed by the “Go” refrain.
The refrain choruses establish a haunting syncopated rhythm, one that is crucial to the rhythmic
profile of the whole song. I have tried to indicate this rhythm with my punctuation of the refrain:
“Go, Johnny, go! Go!” The first three accents fall on the beat—on beats 1, 2, and 3 of the four-in-abar rhythm. But the last accent, the last “Go!”, arrives across the beat. It comes after beat 4 and
before beat 1 of the next measure, giving a jump to the rhythm that is exciting and catchy.
Another early influence on rock and roll was country music. Before the term “rock and roll” was widely
used, the early sound of Elvis Presley and others was
known as “rockabilly” (“rock” + “hillbilly”). It combined the drive of rhythm and blues with the elements
of country and western, a style popular in the rural
South for its fiddle playing, guitar picking, and warm
vocal harmonies. Rockabilly stars who scored big hits
at this time were Jerry Lee Lewis (“Great Balls of Fire”
and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”), Johnny Cash
(“I Walk the Line”), and Carl Perkins (“Blue Suede
Shoes”). All these artists were white, poor, and from
the rural South. Another rockabilly star from this time
was the unlikely-looking Buddy Holly, skinny and
bespectacled. Buddy Holly was on the threshold of an
important career when he died in a plane crash at the
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MTV helped to create the extraordinary rebirth of
Michael Jackson. Jackson had a long history as a
singer. He appeared in the late 1960s at the age of ten
with his brothers in a group known as the Jackson 5
(later the Jacksons). Jackson’s biggest success came
during the 1980s, when his solo album Thriller
(1982) sold more than 40 million copies worldwide,
helped by a slick video.(See Listening Guide below.)
He was described as “the biggest thing since the Beatles” and as “the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis
Presley.”
Other singers whose careers were buoyed up on
the MTV wave include Whitney Houston and
Madonna. Both singers traded heavily on visual
appeal. Houston was a fashion model as well as a
singer, and her videos (and later her movies) pushed
her albums to instant success. Madonna
I am my own experiment.
(Madonna Louise Ciccone) adopted a MariI am my own work of art.
lyn Monroe image, and her dance training,
—Madonna
combined with an overt sexuality, made her
videos widely popular. Madonna’s “Material Girl”
seemed to catch the spirit of the money-making
eighties.(See Listening Guide on p. 463.) She later
Madonna.
traded even more heavily on her body by releasing
simultaneously a CD entitled Erotica and a book, Sex,
displaying herself in various nude poses.
LISTENING GUIDE
Date of recording: 1982
Michael Jackson
“Billie Jean”
Words and music by Michael Jackson
M
ichael Jackson’s album Thriller contains ten songs, nine of which reached the Top
Ten as singles! Perhaps the most typical of Jackson’s style is “Billie Jean.” The music is fast and
glossy, with a high, artificial, synthesized sound and a persistent disco beat. Jackson’s voice is high,
slick, and breathless. Toward the end, a little variety is introduced by means of some funky guitar
tracks. The “funk” sound is produced by plucking the strings on an electric bass guitar a little
harder than normal so that they slap against the fretboard.
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