Chuck Berry 1

CHUCK BERRY – “Johnny B. Goode”

Chuck Berry’s landmark hit “Johnny B. Goode” – which, like “Eager Boy” by The Lonesome Drifter, has a theme about someone with big dreams, come to think of it (“Maybe someday your name will be in lights / Sayin’ ‘Johnny B. Goode tonight!’”) – also has a hidden history. The first verse originally went: “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 colored boy named Johnny B. Goode / Who never, ever learned to learn to read or write so well / But he could play a guitar just like a-ringin’ a bell.” Chuck changed the lyric to “country boy” to ensure that the song could get a wider acceptance.

(May 2011)