Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry

Performance on American Bandstand with Dick Clark

1)      One man band (lip sync?)

2)      Culture: is he black? All-white audience looking and acting very “white” (Hitler Youth moves)—1950s still a time of segregation—Chuck and Rock-n-roll becomes agents of change—black man performing for young white girls?

3)      Chuck and Dick relationship?  Who’s in charge?  Dick  (weird dynamics) – let students see Dick with different interactions (try not to prejudice students to what they’re seeing)

4)      Performance style—black?  What’s allowed and what’s not?  We never see a full duck-walk

Lyrics of “Johnny B. Goode”

1)      First step: gloss text, ambiguities, etc.—understand surface level; What do we know about Johnny: humble beginnings—poor—rural—Southern? (transcend the Blues)—piney woods (not living on a plantation—escaped the past—new era—child of the woods—the natural man—race is not explicit at all (might not have made Dick Clark if it had been?)—want students to come up with questions?

2)      What does name tell us? Johnny B. Goode? Ambiguous—polysemy (good at playing or good person?—why would it make a difference?)  Rock-n-roll ethos—romantic (beauty is truth, truth beauty) to be is to do (to play is to be)  Chuck Berry becomes/acts out Johnny B. Goode in the performance (African-American tradition)

3)      Gunny sack—takes guitar everywhere—part of him/identity—how he transforms the ordinary into something extraordinary—Johnny B. Goode (artist) transformational—changes the world around him—transforms train-rhythm into his beat; how are we witnessing a cultural change (old world—cabin/new world-train (possibility—migrate, but also to define yourself=in the third stanza—he’s able to put his name in “lights”—Johnny’s ability to transform is everyone’s ability to transform—art as empowerment—you don’t have to be limited by circumstances, you can take your unique talent –play guitar like ringing a bell—into a unique identity—name in lights))

Coming up with questions and then not answering the questions yourself are two keys to teaching.

Why was this a top forty hit?

Is it more about music or lyrics?

What qualifies as “good” literature?  How do we judge this song as a work of lit.?

What is the effect of lyrics in their own music?  To use something that they’re  not used to—and then transfer to something they’re more comfortable with—

Summarized—analyzed—synthesized--evaluated