Chuck Berry Discography, Part 1 (1955)

"Maybellene" / "Wee Wee Hours" (July 1955)

"Maybellene" is obviously one of the most historically important singles ever released in America, as it was instrumental in beginning the entire "rock ‘n’ roll movement" of the mid-1950s. As we all know, Chuck Berry was one of the chief architects of that movement - perhaps ultimately the most important innovator, practitioner and establisher of that particular genre of music, which has gone on to have such a long, complex and profound influence on our culture. "Maybellene" was Chuck Berry’s first record. So we begin with "Maybellene."


But first a little background. In 1953, Chuck Berry (then 27) was playing guitar and singing with pianist Jimmy Johnson’s trio at a nightclub in his native St. Louis. Though the group played primarily the blues and ballads of the day that the (mostly) black patrons enjoyed, Berry had already developed a deep interest in, and fondness for, white country music. Under Berry’s prodding, the group began to pepper their sets with country tunes, which the audience found at first amusing, and gradually, entertaining and fun. Berry was basically a blues-based guitarist who was influenced by the playing and showmanship of T-Bone Walker, he was also familiar with quite a few traditional country licks. Soon, he would display a knack for putting on a show himself when he played solos, hopping around on one foot or crouching down and playing while performing what would be his later-famous "duck walk."

As for his instrument, Berry played an amplified Gibson electric/acoustic archtop, which could produce both a ringing as well as a muddy, distorted tone, and he combined various techniques and sounds that he had picked up from both blues and country players, creating a kind of unique hybrid of styles that was uniquely his own. Whether he developed his mature style of playing as a conscious pattern or whether he adopted a more intuitive, syncretic approach is unknown, but it would soon become the basic template for what would eventually be known as the "rock ‘n’ roll guitar style." During this time, of course, no such genre existed.

As for his voice, it was light and expressive, and he patterned his singing - even the blues - after Nat "King" Cole. All through his career, Berry would be known for his crisp articulation along with his smooth, vibrato-less voice. He also featured a sly, winking sense of humor in his delivery.

Berry’s exuberant, fun performances, along with his blend of country tunes with a lighter-voiced version of Muddy Waters-type blues drove Johnson’s band to a much greater degree of local popularity, and they eventually began drawing groups of some of St. Louis’ wealthy white population, who found Berry’s flashy style and his hybrid of genres both amusing and entertaining.

The Chicago blues of Muddy Waters and other artists recording for that city’s Chess Records was finding great popularity in St. Louis during this period, as it was with black urban audiences all around the country. A year before turning 30, Chuck Berry made the decision to travel north, along with Johnson, in the hopes of making some records of their own. Once they arrived, Berry made contact with Muddy Waters himself, who suggested that he go and audition for Leonard Chess, one of the founders of the label. Naturally, Berry assumed that Chess would be more interested in blues material, and he had prepared his own smokey-blues composition "Wee Wee Hours" to play for him. Surprisingly, Chess was more interested in another song - a country tune called "Ida Red" that Berry had adapted from a 1938 recording by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.

I find it an interesting irony of history that at about the same period of time that producer Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee was hoping to make a success of a young Elvis Presley - a white boy who could convincingly sing black blues and r&b - that another producer in Chicago would conceive that it would be profitable if he had a black man who could sing country music. Such is the very lively interplay between the vital, living forces of various musical traditions at work especially in the southwestern United States that would soon merge into the vitally explosive emergence of what was soon to be called "rock ‘n’ roll."

In this interpretation, the "rock ‘n’ roll" phenomena can be seen as a liberating cultural movement that fused cultural elements that had developed side-by-side for generations into an exciting new hybrid that broke down barriers and prejudices from both directions, opening up a whole new range for self-expression in an almost unlimited realm of a new kind of creativity. Just how powerful and explosive this emerging combustion could be would soon be seen in the wild crowds, concerts and dances of the young generation’s unprecedented celebratory enthusiasm for the new form. What’s even more surprising (and amazing) is the continued excitement being generated by this new form some 60 years after its initial birth. Still, it is impossible to gauge what kind of effect this musical/cultural awakening would have spawned had it not been for a handful of tremendously talented individuals like Elvis and Chuck Berry to kick it into high gear.

Listening to Bob Wills’ "Ida Red" today, we can almost imagine what Chuck Berry’s version might have sounded like. The first thing that is noticeable is the song’s prominent backbeat, with its stresses on the 2 and 4 beats, a syncopation that will become the very essence of the rock ‘n’ roll sound. Berry would most likely have taken it at a faster tempo, and we can imagine his guitar chiming loudly on the pulse while his clear voice sang out the phrases over the top.

Actually, we do not have to imagine too much because we can simply listen to "Maybellene," for that is what "Ida Red" became. Although Berry had changed the lyrics and renamed the song "Ida May", Chess felt the song would be "too rural" to become a hit. Once again, we do not know how or when the song morphed into the car-chase scenario that it ultimately became, but what is unquestionable is that Berry’s fast-and-funny lyrics, combined with his heated delivery is what made the song a smash success among teenagers across the country. What was probably bigger, still, however, was the essence of the beat, which Chess accentuated by adding a loud drum and percussion to help push the performance across. Somehow, however, it was the combination of all these elements, pushed seemingly to the limit by Chuck Berry’s hurry-up-and-stop manic singing and the extraordinary sound of his ringing distorted electric guitar, particularly on the wild, 2-verse solo that suggested a vehicle careening out of control that made it a smash.

According to popular legend, the woman’s name in the song’s title was simply named after a discarded box of eye shadow someone found in the studio. Supposedly Phil Chess suggested changing an "i" to an "e" so he wouldn’t get sued. They laid down the track, and there you go. The date was May 21, 1955.

No one had ever heard anything quite like it before - the sound was totally new! And yet, when broken down and analyzed, the song was built out of all the multifarious elements of both black and white folk and popular musics that had been percolating around the southern part of the country for years. Chuck Berry and Leonard Chess simply pushed all of these elements to an extreme that was irresistibly combined into a streamrolling wild ride the likes of which had never been experienced in such an exciting manner to that very moment.

Actually, looking back, it probably seemed to most people, including (or perhaps especially) the professionals in the music business, that "Maybellene" was a one-shot novelty wonder, the likes of which would not be seen again. But still, the record had incredible drive, reaching the No. 5 spot on the pop chart, No. 1 on the R&B scale, and even had significant play on country stations across the nation. The song cut across all racial and genre barriers, but it definitely hit hardest with one key demographic: teenagers. Kids loved it and couldn’t get enough of it. It was hilarious and hurried, wild and out of control like their own young wild lifestyles (or fantasies). By the prosperous mid-’50s, lots of American kids had (or wanted) cars, and the fast, mobile lifestyle full of speed, fun and sex was where it was at. "Maybellene" hit them squarely where they lived - or wanted to live.

Just imagine you’re a teenager out for a cruise in the summer of 1955. You’ve got the radio blaring, but all you’ve ever heard come out of it were pop crooners, country wailers or maybe some occasional upbeat r&b boogie. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, bam! "Maybellene" comes over the speaker. I bet you hit that accelerator!

Yes, it’s difficult today. But just listen to "Maybellene" and imagine you’d never heard rock music or Chuck Berry ever before. "Rock ‘n’ roll" wasn’t even a term! It was just this wild, crazy song. Imagine you’re with your friends out on a Saturday night. I’ll bet if you couldn’t pick it up again immediately on the radio, you’d head for the nearest jukebox and start pouring in nickels, dancing like crazy, singing along, and vying with your friends to be the first to dissect and be able to regurgitate all the lyrics. Well, that’s exactly what happened.

At least one pro in the business thought there would be more where this came from, and sometime, somehow, New York disc jockey Alan Freed wound up with his name on the label as a co-writer. A little under-the-table money helped spin platters, and soon with Freed’s (and others’) "help," rock ‘n’ roll soon had a name, a station and a culture all it’s own.

Still, nothing might have happened without this song. I mean, listen to it. Take a look at these lyrics:

" Maybellene, why can’t you be true
Oh Maybellene , why can’t you be true
You’ve started back doin’ the things you used to do

As I was motivatin’ over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a Coup de Ville
A Cadillac arollin’ on the open road
Nothin’ will outrun my V8 Ford
The Cadillac doin’ about ninety-five
She’s bumper to bumper, rollin’ side by side

Maybellene

The Cadillac pulled up ahead of the Ford
The Ford got hot and wouldn’t do no more
It then got cloudy and started to rain
I tooted my horn for a passin’ lane
The rainwater blowin’ all under my hood
I know that I was doin’ my motor good

Maybellene

[Solo guitar]

Maybellene

The motor cooled down the heat went down
And that’s when I heard that highway sound
The Cadillac asittin’ like a ton of lead
A hundred and ten half a mile ahead
The Cadillac lookin’ like it’s sittin’ still

And I caught Maybellene at the top of the hill

Maybellene

[Solo guitar]

　

Maybe not many people realized it yet, but Chuck Berry was a poet. Look at the first line of the first verse. What he actually sings on the record is "As I was a-motorvatin’ over the hill . . ." "Motor-vatin’!" Brilliant! If he had only come up with this one line, the song would be a classic. But every line is absolutely bursting with hilarious and outrageous detail. Go ahead, play "Maybellene" and try to sing along with it. Then maybe you’ll get just some little idea of what it was like riding in entire car of kids going down the highway, all trying to snatch them up out of the air.

The song is a wild and crazy tongue-twister and God only knows what actually happens when he gets there. The chorus is a welcome respite, and the playful bend on the second "Maybellene" shows a wicked wink in the eye. Imagine the screams during the guitar solos, the utter disappointment every time it came to an end and the ride was over.The song was sheer dynamite. But how could anybody have guessed that Chuck Berry could be so versatile and clever to write dozens of these crazy classics, each with its own unique setting and tone?

Well, it would take a while to find out.

As for the B-side, Chuck’s quiet, late-night blues "Wee Wee Hour" made it to the Number 10 spot on the R&B chart itself, but it was probably fueled by the success of "Maybellene". Berry would continue writing and recording straight blues, primarily for his albums and to perform in concerts, but they wouldn’t be on the singles. Chuck Berry was no Muddy Waters. And "Maybellene" sold over a million copies before the year ended. Both Berry and Chess knew where the action was.

Still, "Wee Wee Hours" is nice, although somewhat pedestrian. Berry croons the blues softly in his Nat "King" Cole voice and bends the strings of his guitar nicely, but it’s mainly his partner, pianist Jimmy Johnson who gets the spotlight (and the solo). "Wee Wee Hours" has a nice mood, though, and it’s a good contrast to "Maybellene," showing that this wild man had another, softer side. It’s a good B-side.

 

"Thirty Days" / "Together (We’ll Always Be" (September 1955)
Berry spent the summer touring the country, exciting the growing crowds with his wild guitar theatrics and promoting his record. He did not return to Chess to record any new material until September. The unprecedented success of "Maybellene" prompted the Chess brothers to prepare Chuck’s follow-up single, "Thirty Days", in an attempt to replicate the triumph. He also recorded another "slow" B-side.

 "Thirty Days" is very similar in sound and structure to "Maybellene," so perhaps Chess thought they could strike lightning twice. Unfortunately, though it is a fun and funny song, it did not capture the popular teenage imagination the way his "car-chase" song had, plus it was arguably more "black" in tone, both from Berry’s down-home inflection on the vocals as well as the gospel-sounding "call-and-response" of the chorus. The song did well on the R&B chart, making the No. 5 spot, but this time it failed to dent the pop chart.

Despite its similarity to "Maybellene," "Thirty Days" is a funny, enjoyable romp in which the singer uses all the methods of very vivid imagination to get his woman back home again in the specified time of the title. I don’t know how or why the number of days was chosen, but the number definitely has a legal aura about it (a 30-day notice, 30 days in jail, etc.). The outrageous threats of the narrator contain many promises of legal reprisals (including a visit to the U.N.), that once again puts the song delightfully over the top.

Interestingly, the singer only begins to threaten legal actions after voodoo magic fails:

I’m gonna give you thirty days to get back home
I done called up the gypsy woman on the telephone
She gonna send out a world wide hoodoo
that’ll be the very thing that’ll suit you
I’m gonna see that you be back home in thirty days

Oh thirty days (thirty days!)
Oh thirty days (thirty days!)
Baby, I’m gonna see that you be back home in thirty days
Well, she gonna send out a world-wide hoodoo
that’ll be the very thing that’ll suit you
I’m gonna see that you be back home in thirty days.

I done talked to the judge in private early this morning
And he took me to the sheriff’s office to sign a warrant
Gonna put a cross (?) charge again ya (against ya)
That’ll be the very thing that’ll send ya
I’m gonna see that you be back home in thirty days

Oh thirty days (thirty days)
Oh thirty days (thirty days)
Baby I’m gonna see that you be back home in thirty days
Gonna put a cross (?) charge again ya
that’ll be the very thing that’ll send ya
I’m gonna see that you be back home in thirty days

If I don’t get no satisfaction from the judge
I’m gonna take it to the FBI as a personal grudge (?)
If they don’t give me no consolation
I’m gonna take it to the United Nations
I’m gonna see that you be back home in thirty days
Oh Thirty Days! (thirty days)
Oh Thirty Days! (thirty days)
Babe I’m gonna see that you be back home in thirty days
You don’t give me no consolation
I’m gonna take it to the United Nations
I’m gonna see that you be back home in Thirty Days!

I’ve seen variations of these lyrics that were definitely wrong, and in my best opinion, this is what I think is actually being said. I hear the term "cross charge" very well (much better than often-seen "false charge"), but the utilization of this obscure financial term is confusing. I think that it is possibly a term that Berry had heard but either didn’t quite know the meaning or he did know the meaning, but assumed the narrator of the song would not. (All of this threats are hollow here, anyway, which is what makes the song comic.) People were not yet aware just what a clever wordsmith Berry was at this point, but they should definitely know by now. I certainly don’t put such intentional obfuscation past him. As for the "personal grudge," that’s what it sounds like to me, although I’ve seen it transcribed as "to press my grudge." Not only does it sound more correct to me, but "personal grudge" as a legal term sounds funnier.

Berry’s guitar shows even more flamboyancy here than it did on "Maybellene," both on the fancy country lick that begins and ends the song and on the two-verse solo. Chuck takes a radically different strategy on both parts of the solo. On the first half, he continually repeats a two-part chord change as if to emphasize his determination before winding it down with a blue note to end on several angry chords to suggest that he means business. On the second half of the solo, he quickly double-strums a fast melodic pattern on the bottom two strings, much in the style of some Mexican guitar music, as if to express his growing impatience. Both are imaginative, hilarious and quite perfectly in context.

One other thing I’d like to note about the song is in the penultimate couplet, "You don’t give me no consolation/I’m gonna take it to the United Nations," Chuck’s voice spits out the words like bullets, all at the same pitch, a device that he would use on many of his guitar lines (including the opening of "Johnny B. Goode".

The B-side, "Together (We’ll Always Be)" is not a blues, but it is a soft rock ‘n’ roll ballad with a bluesy, late-night feel. The song utilizes the faithful "Blue Moon" changes: the I-vi-IV-V chord pattern that would provide the backbone for literally thousands of doo-wop songs throughout the 1950s. Chuck sings plaintively in his Nat "King Cole style again, and once more, Jimmy Johnson is featured in a number of bluesy piano runs, though he does not take a solo. Berry’s guitar sound features deep chords with a tremolo effect. On the second bridge, he sounds as if he is about to take a solo, but winds up singing it again. All in all, this is a pleasant, but quite unremarkable track.

　

 

 
Berry was back in the studio on December 20, this time for a full session. He laid down three new compositions, as well as two instrumental tracks. Chess immediately released his third and final single of the year.

"No Money Down" / "Downbound Train"
(December 1955)

For his next A-side, Chuck turned to subject of cars again. "No Money Down" is a sped-up blues comedy song that allowed Berry to stretch his witty imagination again. It’s the story of a man ordering his dream car, Chuck filling in all the outrageous details he could think of in between rhythm starts and stops. The result was a hilarious mini-masterpiece:

As I was motivatin’ back in town
I saw a Cadillac sign sayin’ ‘No Money Down’
So I eased on my brakes and I pulled in the drive
Gunned my motor twice then I walked inside
Dealer came to me said "Trade in you Ford
And I’ll put you in a car that’ll eat up the road
Just tell me what you want and then sign that line
And I’ll have it brought down to you in a hour’s time"

I’m gonna get me a car
And I’ll be headed on down the road
Then I won’t have to worry
About that broken down, ragged Ford

Well Mister I want a yellow convertible four door De Ville
With a Continental spare and a wide chrome wheel
I want power steering and power brakes
I want a powerful motor with a jet off-take
I want air condition, I want automatic heat
And I want a full Murphy bed in my back seat
I want short-wave radio, I want TV and a phone
You know I gotta talk to my baby when I’m ridin’ alone

Yes I’m gonna get that car
And I’m gonna head on down the road
Yeah, then I won’t have to worry
About that broken down, ragged Ford

I want four carburetors and two straight exhausts
I’m burnin’ aviation fuel no matter what the cost
I want railroad air horns and a military spark
And I want a five year guarantee on everything I got
I want ten dollar deductible I want twenty dollar notes
I want thirty thousand liability" that’s all she wrote

I got me a car
And I’m headed on down the road
No money down I don’t have to worry
About that broken down, ragged Ford

 

 

Berry’s cheeky delivery and the built-in joke of building his car up to the ridiculous extreme was enough to send the record up to the No. 8 spot on the R&B chart. Instead of doing another slow song, this time the B-side, "Down Bound Train" was another "novelty" number that showed Berry displaying his knack for verbal dexterity and extended narratives. In this strange and silly song, a drunkard dreams that he is on a train to hell:

A stranger lying on a bar room floor
Had drank so much he could drink no more
So he fell asleep with a troubled brain
To dream that he rode on that downbound train

The engine with blood was sweaty and damp
And brilliantly lit with a brimstone lamp
And imps for fuel was shoveling bones
While the furnace rang with a thousand groans

The boiler was filled with lager beer
The devil himself was the engineer
The passengers were most a motley crew
Some were foreigners and others he knew
Rich men in broadcloth, beggars in rags
Handsome young ladies and wicked old hags

As the train rushed on at a terrible pace
Sulphuric fumes scorched their hands and face
Wider and wider the country grew
Faster and faster the engine flew
Louder and louder the thunder crashed
Brighter and brighter the lighting flashed
Hotter and hotter the air became
Till their clothes were burned with each quivering refrain
Then out of the din there came a yell
Ha ha said the devil we’re nearing home
Oh how the passengers shrieked with pain
They begged old Satan to stop that train

The stranger awoke with an anguished cry
His clothes wet with sweat and his hair standing high
He fell on his knees on the bar room floor
And prayed a prayer like never before
And the prayers and vows were not in vain
For he never rode that downbound train

Using his guitar and the rhythm section to mimic the speeding sound of a locomotive, Berry kept the song on only one chord, rendering it somewhat monotonous, despite its cartoonish lyrics. Only a short guitar solo breaks the sameness of this oddity, which has a distinct country feel despite Berry’s weird-sounding, heavily reverbed vocals.

"Downbound Train" was probably too much of a gimmick, and it failed to find an audience. But Berry and Chess were correct in their instincts to match two upbeat tracks on one disc instead of continuing to follow the fast/slow formula of the first two records. This strategy would begin to pay off, beginning in the new year.

　

Play it yourself!

 

 



 

 

Coming Soon: Part 2 (1956)



- petey