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