POETRY OF LYRICS THAT REVOLUTIONISED MUSIC

MAYBELLENE (1955)

Berry’s first single sounded like nothing that had ever come before. His lyrics lived out a teenager’s fast-car fantasy: As I was motorvatin’ over the hill I saw Maybellene in a Coupe de Ville Cadillac a-rollin’ on the open road Nothin’ will outrun my V8 Ford

BROWN-EYED HANDSOME MAN (1956)

Brown-Eyed Handsome Man — a daring commentary on race relations — took a more political tone than his usually carefree lyrics. Arrested on charges of unemployment He was sittin’ in the witness stand. The judge’s wife called up the district attorney. Said, ‘Free that brown-eyed man’

JOHNNY B. GOODE (1958)

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 Who never ever learned to read or write so well But he could play a guitar just like a ringing a bell

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (1959)

Memphis, Tennessee features some of Berry’s most tender lyrics. Berry pleads with a telephone operator to help him find a girl called Marie, explaining that they have been ‘pulled apart’ by her mother. It is not until the final verse that you discover the girl is his six-year-old daughter, whose mother fled home, taking Marie with her. Help me, information, more than that I cannot add Only that I miss her and all the fun we had But we were pulled apart because her mom did not agree And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee Last time I saw Marie she’s waving me goodbye With hurry home drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye Marie is only six years old, information please Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee

LITTLE QUEENIE (1959)

In his autobiography, Berry wrote that the song was a fair depiction of how he was as a teenager. It went on to become one of Berry’s most covered songs — by everyone from the Beatles and the Stones, to Bruce Springsteen and The Velvet Underground.

YOU NEVER CAN TELL (1964)

You Never Can Tell was written after Berry’s arrest for bringing a 14-year-old waitress across a state boundary. It was a teenage wedding and the old folks wished them well You could see that Pierre did truly love the mademoiselle And now the young monsieur and madame have rung the chapel bell ‘C’est la vie,’ say the old folks. It goes to show you never can tell

NADINE (1964)

The first single released after Berry served a 20-month prison term between 1961 and 1963 for the offence described above. In it, he spots a woman, and pursues her for the rest of the song. I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back And started walkin’ toward a coffee coloured Cadillac I was pushin’ through the crowd to get to where she’s at And I was campaign shouting like a southern diplomat