Maybellene
When a young Chuck Berry drove from St. Louis to Chicago to audition for Leonard Chess, he expected to record straight blues. Instead, Chess was fascinated by Berry's upbeat, hillbilly-flavored adaptation of the country standard "Ida Red." During the May 1955 session, they renamed it "Maybellene." Berry cranked up his amplifier, laying down a heavily distorted, aggressive guitar solo over a relentless, swinging backbeat provided by Willie Dixon on bass. Berry's rapid-fire, brilliantly articulate lyrics about a hot rod car chase connected immediately with a newly emerging teenage demographic, essentially inventing the DNA of rock and roll.
The floating-verse lineage for this recording (who else recorded it, where the melody or lyric traveled, and how it was adapted) is still being mapped. This section will trace the song's DNA across the archive.
Contributions welcome at OlMrRead@ccblues.com.