Oh, the engineer would see him sittin' in the shade, strummin' with the rhythm that the drivers made, the people passing by they would stop and say...I'm (twelve days--bollocks!) late again....
My introduction to this week's tune came from my father, who was a big fan of this week's artist and of this week's song. An assist can go to the Faces, whose greatest hits album (that I picked up at the thrift shop where I worked for--you guessed it!--a dollar) featured a killer version of it that was in the form of a jam session and reminded me just how good the song was....
I wrote about Chuck Berry in Vol. CCLXXIV (and how the fuck did I manage to wait 274 posts before featuring a tune of his?), and in looking back on my bio paragraph, it was pretty damn good (if I do say so myself...). And as Berry is still doing the duck walk at the Great Rock and Roll Concert in the Sky, I'm going to leave it at that....
"Memphis, Tennessee" was released as a single only in 1959. For some odd ass reason, it was not released here in the States (big mistake, huge!) but was released in the U.K. where it reached #6 (so many cool kids in the U.K.!). Never fear--Berry collected oodles of cash in the U.S. from two cover versions, an instrumental by Lonnie Mack that hit #5 in 1963, and a release in 1964 by Johnny Rivers which peaked at #2.
Fun Fact: The Beatles (he puts a link for the three people in the world who haven't heard of the Beatles...) recorded five versions of "Memphis, Tennessee." Interestingly enough, the first time they performed it was for an audition at Decca Records on January 1, 1962...an audition which they failed. How'd you like to have that on your resume--"Turned down the Beatles and cost Decca Records literally billions". Not gonna open a lot of doors, I'd guess....
Chuck Berry pretty much did it all on this single--he wrote it, sang it, and played all of the instruments (electric guitar and electric bass as well as the guitar overdubs) except the drums. While listening to it as I did my half-assed research, I was really struck by how much the song is driven by Berry's electric guitar--his picking just illuminates every verse. In an oddity, the song doesn't have a chorus--it's the story of a man trying to get a telephone operator (ask your grandparents, kids) to help him get in touch with his Marie. There's a very sweet twist (of the O. Henry variety) at the end which I won't spoil. Berry's vocals capture all the love and heartache he feels for Marie who might as well be a million miles away in Memphis, Tennessee. Though it's a relatively simple song from a long time ago, the song was very much ahead of its time both lyrically and vocally and was much of an influence on songwriters who like to spin a story in their songs. In a nutshell, a great song from a great artist making the most of his great talents.
Lyric Sheet: "Long distance information give me Memphis, Tennessee/Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me/She could not leave her number but I know who placed the call/Because my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
