^ Nice, appropriate selection, Ribbons! I didn't know that song.
I was about eleven when I picked up this single in a second-hand shop, and as children do with a song they like, just played it over and over and over again. I loved the guitar and the mysterious-sounding place name: Memphis Tennessee.
Decades later, I use the song in my English language classes: two bars in, students start nodding their heads and tapping their feet. The rhythm is still infectious, and I've come to realize just how good the lyrics are. In just 16 lines CB tells a complete story, squeezing in some extra, but evocative details on the way (the phone boy, the Mississippi Bridge) and giving us a surprise twist as well. It's such a short song but there's no repetitive chorus; in terms of lyrics, CB has used his 2:19 minutes to the max. That's genius!
R.I.P. Chuck Berry
