33 Johnny B. Goode

CHUCK BERRY 1958

“Johnny B. Goode” was the first rock & roll hit about rock & roll stardom. The title character is Berry — “more or less,” as he told Rolling Stone in 1972. “The original words [were], of course, ‘That little colored boy could play.’ I changed it to ‘country boy’ — or else it wouldn’t get on the radio.” “Johnny B. Goode” is the supreme example of Berry’s poetry in motion. The rhythm section rolls with freight-train momentum, while Berry’s stabbing lick in the chorus sounds, as he put it, “like a-ringin’ a bell” — a perfect description of rock & roll’s clarion call.