Chuck BerryChuck Berry died on March 18, 2017. What do you know about the man and musician?

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Chuck Berry was 80 years old.Chuck Berry’s classic “Johnny B. Goode” was recorded in 1967.

NASA included “Johnny B. Goode” in a package containing an assortment of all things that define this planet.

Say whether you think these statements are true or false and then listen to the first part of the programme and check your ideas:

Listen to the next part of the programme and make notes on the story behind the single Maybellene.

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Before listening to Berry’s most famous song, complete the lyrics below. Then listen and 2

Do you like Chuck Berry’s music?b

listening

1 What does Andy Mackay say is amazing about “Johnny B. Goode”?2 What does Andy Mackay believe Berry created the blueprint for?

3 What did Berry’s career epitomize?4 Why was he sent to prison?5 Who were his two idols and which aspects of their music did he emulate?

Listen to the next part of the programme and answer these questions:2

1 What does Joe Edwards say is striking about Berry’s music?2 What made the success of Maybellene unusual?3 What did pianist Johnnie Johnson say

caused consternation on some road trips?4 Which idea did Berry never buy into?5 When was Berry inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Listen to the next part of the programme and answer these questions:2

NASA decided that Berry’s music defines this planet. What music do you think defines firstly your country then your planet?

b

Deep down Louisiana ___________ to New OrleansWay back up in the _______ among the evergreensThere stood a log cabin made of earth and ________Where lived a country boy _________ Johnny B. GoodeWho never ever learned to

read or ___________ so wellBut he could ____ the guitar just like a ringing a bell

Chorus

He used to ___________ his guitar in a gunny sackGo sit beneath the tree by the railroad ___________Oh, the engineers would see him sitting in the shadeStrumming with the rhythm that the ____________ madePeople passing by they would __________ and sayOh my that little country boy could play

Chorus

His mother told him someday you will be a ____And you will be the leader of a big old ___________Many people coming from miles aroundTo _________ you play your music when the sun go downMaybe someday your name will be in ______________Saying Johnny B. Goode tonight

Chorus

check your ideas.

mid-intermediate+ (B2+)week of 27.03.17student pages 1

Transcript

Chuck BerryTeacher’s notes 1/2

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LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: We begin this hour with the death of a legend. The man known as the father of rock and roll died on Saturday. Chuck Berry is credited as the inventor of America’s cultural soundtrack. He was found in his home in Missouri. He was 90 years old. Allison Keyes has this remembrance.ALLISON KEYES, BYLINE: If extraterrestrials ever come across the Voyager space probe launched in 1977 as a postcard of Earth’s civilization, one of the things they’ll hear is this.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JOHNNY B. GOODE”)

KEYES: Chuck Berry’s classic “Johnny B. Goode” was recorded in 1957 and is possibly the definitive rock-and roll song of all time.-(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “JOHNNY B. GOODE”)CHUCK BERRY: (Singing) Deep down in Louisiana, close to New Orleans, way back up in the woods among the evergreens, there stood a log cabin made...KEYES: Berry’s music is so enmeshed in America’s soundtrack that NASA decided that it must be included in a package containing an assortment of all things that define this planet.

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2 ANDY MACKAY: The amazing thing about “Johnny B. Goode” to me is that it sounds like a folk song.KEYES: In 2008, producer Andy Mackay produced a four-CD boxed set of Chuck Berry’s music.MACKAY: Sounds like a song that came out of the generations - just honed over generations, not written by an individual. And yet it is written by an individual.KEYES: Mackay believes Berry’s ability to meld country, blues and R&B created the blueprint for what became rock and roll.MACKAY: Essentially, he made the map. Buddy Holly maybe made the map for a band. Chuck Berry made the - he created the format, though, for rock and roll from the lyric content to the guitar riffs to the rhythms.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SWEET LITTLE 16”)BERRY: (Singing) All the cats want to dance with sweet little 16.MACKAY: He was the architect. That’s the term

that some people use.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SWEET LITTLE 16”)BERRY: (Singing) Little 16 - she’s got the grown-up blues, tight dresses and lipstick.KEYES: Charles Edward Berry grew up in St. Louis, and his career epitomized the bad-boy image that rock-and-roll artists have tried to cop ever since. But Berry was the real thing. He spent time in reform school for robbery at 18. He went to prison for income tax evasion, as well as for transporting a minor across state lines for, quote, “immoral purposes.” But it is his music that set America’s pulse racing. The influences that shaped Berry’s musical style also illustrate the dichotomy of the man. He emulated the smooth vocals of his idol Nat King Cole and admired the gritty blues of another idol, Muddy Waters. Berry told NPR in 2000 that he met Waters after catching the blues man’s show in 1955 - Chicago.

3 (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)BERRY: When he was over, I went up to him. I asked him for his autograph and told him that I played guitar. How do you get in touch with the record company? So he said, why don’t you go see Leonard Chess over on 47th?KEYES: Chess liked the song on Berry’s audition tape that was similar to an old country tune called “Ida Red,” but had Berry rework it because he felt the name was too rural-sounding. His late pianist, Johnnie Johnson, drove to Chicago with Berry and told NPR in a 1999 interview what happened next.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)JOHNNIE JOHNSON: That was a problem. So nobody could think of a name, so we looked up under the window seal and there was a mascara box on there with Maybelline written on it. And Leonard Chess said, why don’t we name the darn thing “Maybellene”?KEYES: Berry heard the song on the radio when it was released in August 1955.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)BERRY: Passing by a tailor shop that I got my high school graduation coat made at, and I got -

listening

4 KEYES: Berry continued to perform almost to the end at a St. Louis club called Blueberry Hill. Owner Joe Edwards says what’s striking about Berry’s music is the way the words stayed close to the beat, but still sounded like real speech.JOE EDWARDS: What he did with the English language and how he worked the words and the detail that he put into the songs - I mean, if you listen to the verses in a Chuck Berry song, they keep changing, and they keep telling the story.KEYES: “Maybellene” went to number five on the Billboard chart in 1955, making Berry the rare black artist back then who successfully crossed over to the mostly white pop charts. Berry has said he deliberately made his diction and his words harder and whiter. Pianist Johnnie Johnson recalled that this caused consternation on some road trips.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)JOHNSON: When we would walk out on the stage, there’d be a lot of ohs and ahs and whatever because he was a black man playing hillbilly music.KEYES: Berry continued with a string of hits, including “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man,” “Roll Over, Beethoven” and “Rock And Roll Music,” but he never bought into the idea that he himself invented the genre.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)BERRY: If you did start something, how can you say that anybody else had anything to do with it. If you started it, you know, you’re the - you’re the - is that why they say the father of rock? Boy, they have no idea how wrong they are.KEYES: In 1986, Berry led the first class to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

5 Deep down Louisiana close to New OrleansWay back up in the woods among the evergreensThere stood a log cabin made of earth and woodWhere lived a country boy named Johnny B. GoodeWho never ever learned to read or write so wellBut he could play the guitar just like a ringing a bell

ChorusGo goGo Johnny goGoGo Johnny goGoGo Johnny goGoGo Johnny goGoJohnny B. Goode

He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sackGo sit beneath the tree by the railroad trackOh, the engineers would see him sitting in the shadeStrumming with the rhythm that the drivers madePeople passing by they would stop and sayOh my that little country boy could play

Chorus

His mother told him someday you will be a manAnd you will be the leader of a big old bandMany people coming from miles aroundTo hear you play your music when the sun go downMaybe someday your name will be in lightsSaying Johnny B. Goode tonight

Chorus

mid-intermediate+ (B2+)week of 27.03.17

Chuck BerryTeacher’s notes 2/2

listening

passed by the shop until the song played out, you know. I didn’t want anybody to see me listening, you know, to it, but it was “Maybellene” I was listening to. And when it played out, you know, that

was my last walk past the door of the place. And I flew home - you know, I was about 20 blocks from home - and told everybody. I heard it. I heard it. I heard it.