See rock and roll being created in this morning’s CarTune from Chuck Berry, “Maybellene.”
Chuck Berry wrote his first hit single, “Maybellene,” in 1955, basing the tune on “Ida Red,” the old Bob Wills standard. Cars are the stars of his imaginative lyrics, which describe a street race between a Ford V8 and a cheating girlfriend in a Cadillac Coupe de Ville:
As I was motivatin’ over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a Coupe de Ville.
A Cadillac a-rollin’ on the open road,
Nothin’ will outrun my V8 ford.
The cadillac doin’ ’bout ninety-five,
She’s bumper to bumber rollin’ side by side.
In this live performance, taken from a European television program, we see Berry perfecting all the critical elements: the phrasing, the runaway guitar solo, the duck walk. This is the stuff that changed the lives of Keith Richards and John Lennon the moment they saw it. “The kids wanted the big beat, cars, and young love,” Leonard Chess would later say. “It was the trend and we jumped on it.”
“See rock and roll being created” hits the nail on the head. The expressions on the faces of the audience and the band are as if they’re watching aliens land.
I’ve never seen this version before. The guitar solo rips!! Before he got old and fed up, this cat could play.