2 Johnny songs

Two Johnny Songs

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Since we have had no male-gender songs in our class based on class names, and since Hansel is a diminutive of Hans, in turn a variant of John, I think it's justified to include these two Johnny songs in our class name list.
    (For the record, "John" is one of the world's most famous names, with variants such as Hans, Hansel, Jean, Joan, Joann, Jack, Jan, Jeannie, Jane, Shane, Sean, Johnny, Johann, Giovanni, Juan, Gene, Ivan, Ian.)
    Both songs were written and charted by Chuck Berry, who, as much as anyone, has the right to be called "Father of Rock 'n' Roll." Both his lyrics and guitar licks almost defined the genre to the present day.
    His lyrics focused on teenage problems but in an adult and literate way. His images and metaphors are some of the most enduring, not only in Rock music, but in all 20th century music.
    Berry's guitar licks almost wrote the book for guitarists generations to come. Keith Richard of The Rolling Stones admitted he stole many of them, as can be heard not only in the Stones' covers of Chuck Berry songs (such as "Bye, Bye Johnny" below) but in the band's original songs as well.
    The first song here, "Johnny B. Goode," is hurtling through space indefinitely, since it was included in a cache of Western culture rocketed through the galaxies and designed to last, in case there's life on other planets, so the aliens can appreciate how earthlings live! Chuck Berry's classic certainly deserved to be with the other cultural artifacts on that space module.
    The song puns on the initial, "B" and the surname "Goode" (=Johnny BE good). The images are strong and the narrative style shows great economy, summing up the life of a teenage Rock star back in 1955.
    Nearly everyone who matters has covered this song, including Elvis Presley. It sounds as fresh and vibrant today as it surely did when it was first released on the famous Chess Records label, which specialized in Blues singers and hardcore Rock singers like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, whom the Obamas named their puppy (Bo) after.
    As The Everly Brothers, from Kentucky, defined Rock harmony several years later, so Chuck Berry defined the basic vocabulary of Rock, as this song represents. The song originally used the word "colored" instead of "country," but was changed to appeal to a wider audience (Berry, of course, is Black). Berry made the same change with another of his classics, "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," originally titled, "Brown-skinned Handsome Man":
Deep down 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 country boy named Johnny B. Goode
Who never ever learned to read or write so well
But he could play the guitar just like a ringing a bell

Go go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Johnny B. Goode

He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack
Go sit beneath the tree by the railroad track
Oh, the engineers would see him sitting in the shade
Strumming with the rhythm that the drivers made
People passing by they would stop and say
Oh my that little country boy could play

Go go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Go Johnny go
Go
Johnny B. Goode

His mother told him "Someday you will be a man,
And you will be the leader of a big old band.
Many people coming from miles around
To hear you play your music when the sun go down
Maybe someday your name will be in lights
Saying Johnny B. Goode tonight."

Go go
Go Johnny go
Go go go Johnny go
Go go go Johnny go
Go go go Johnny go
Go
Johnny B. Goode

BYE, BYE JOHNNY
Johnny B. Goode achieved an almost mythic status to youth of the 1950s, almost like a folk hero, and Berry was forced to write a followup song, "Bye, Bye Johnny," showing Johnny (like Elvis) going to Hollywood to make movies. Within a limited range, Berry could create countless melodies that nonetheless sound different from each other. This song is an example. Note again the vivid images and narrative economy (Berry could tell a short story within the compass of a three-minute song). Here he tells the life story of a mother guiding her son to success. Note the use of proper nouns, place names, and metaphors to make the writing more vivid ("Southern Trust" bank, Greyhound Bus, Golden West, Louisiana, Hollywood).

She drew out all her money out of the Southern Trust
And put her little boy aboard a Greyhound Bus
Leaving Louisiana for the Golden West
Down came the tears from her happiness
Her own little son name 'o Johnny B. Goode
Was gonna make some motion pictures out in Hollywood

Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye bye Johnny
Good bye Johnny B. Goode

She remembered taking money out from gathering crop
And buying Johnny's guitar at a broker shop
As long as he would play it by the railroad side
And wouldn't get in trouble he was satisfied
But never thought that there would come a day like this
When she would have to give her son a goodby kiss

Going
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye bye Johnny
Good bye Johnny B. Goode

She finally got the letter she was dreaming of
Johnny wrote and told her he had fell in love
As soon as he was married he would bring her back
And build a mansion for 'em by the railroad track
So every time they heard the locomotive roar
They'd be a' standin', a' wavin' by the kitchen door

Howling
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye, bye, bye, bye
Bye bye Johnny
Good bye Johnny B. Goode.

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