CHUCK BERRY - YOU CAN'T CATCH ME

YOU CAN'T CATCH ME

CHUCK BERRY

SONGWRITER: CHUCK BERRY

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: ROCK, ROCK, ROCK

LABEL: CHESS RECORDS

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 1956

 

        Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926–March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.

         Born into a middle-class black family in St. Louis, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformatory, where he was held from 1944 to 1947. After his release, Berry settled into married life and worked at an automobile assembly plant. By early 1953, influenced by the guitar riffs and showmanship techniques of the blues musician T-Bone Walker, Berry began performing with the Johnnie Johnson Trio. His break came when he traveled to Chicago in May 1955 and met Muddy Waters, who suggested he contact Leonard Chess, of Chess Records. With Chess, he recorded "Maybellene"—Berry's adaptation of the country song "Ida Red"—which sold over a million copies, reaching number one on Billboard magazine's rhythm and blues chart.

        By the end of the 1950s, Berry was an established star, with several hit records and film appearances and a lucrative touring career. He had also established his own St. Louis nightclub, Berry's Club Bandstand. He was sentenced to three years in prison in January 1962 for offenses under the Mann Act—he had transported a 14-year-old girl across state lines for the purpose of having sexual intercourse. After his release in 1963, Berry had several more successful songs, including "No Particular Place to Go", "You Never Can Tell", and "Nadine". However, these did not achieve the same success or lasting impact of his 1950s songs, and by the 1970s he was more in demand as a nostalgia performer, playing his past material with local backup bands of variable quality. In 1972 he reached a new level of achievement when a rendition of "My Ding-a-Ling" became his only record to top the charts. His insistence on being paid in cash led in 1979 to a four-month jail sentence and community service, for tax evasion.

       Berry was among the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on its opening in 1986; he was cited for having "laid the groundwork for not only a rock and roll sound but a rock and roll stance." Berry is included in several of Rolling Stone magazine's "greatest of all time" lists; he was ranked fifth on its 2004 and 2011 lists of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll includes three of Berry's: "Johnny B. Goode", "Maybellene", and "Rock and Roll Music". Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" is the only rock-and-roll song included on the Voyager Golden Record

       Rock, Rock, Rock! is a 1956 musical drama film conceived, co-written and co-produced by Milton Subotsky and directed by Will Price. The film is an early jukebox musical featuring performances by established rock and roll singers of the era, including Chuck Berry, LaVern Baker, Teddy Randazzo, the Moonglows, the Flamingos, and the Teenagers with Frankie Lymon as lead singer. Later West Side Story cast member David Winters is also featured. Famed disc jockey Alan Freed made an appearance as himself.

         The movie has a fairly simple plot: teenage girl Dori Graham (played by then 13-year-old Tuesday Weld, with a credited Connie Francis dubbed in as Dori's singing voice) can't persuade her dad to buy her a strapless gown and has to get the money together herself in time for the prom. Jack Collins plays the frustrated dad.

    Valerie Harper made her debut in a brief appearance as an extra seated at the center table during the performance of "Ever Since I Can Remember" by Cirino and the Bowties and can be seen after the performance of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. This was also Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' film debut.

          Almost every member of the cast was signed to a record label at the time, which was credited along with each star. In 1984, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. The film's numerous musical numbers may have been copyrighted separately, however.

I bought a brand-new air-mobile

It was custom-made, it was a Flight De Ville

With a powerful motor and some hideaway wings

Push in on the button and you will hear her sing

 

Now you can't catch me, baby you can't catch me

'Cause if you get too close

You know I'm gone like a cool breeze

 

New Jersey Turnpike in the wee, wee hours

I was rolling slowly 'cause of drizzling showers

Here come a flat-top, he was moving up with me

Then come waving goodbye in a little old souped-up jitney

I put my foot in my tank and I began to roll

Moaning siren, it was a state patrol

So I let out my wings and then I blew my horn

Bye-bye New Jersey, I've become airborne

 

Now you can't catch me, baby you can't catch me

'Cause if you get too close

You know I'm gone like a cool breeze

 

Flying with my baby last Saturday night

Wasn't a gray cloud floatin' in sight

Big full moon shining up above

Cuddle up honey, be my love

Sweetest little thing I ever seen

 

I'm gon' name you Maybellene

Flying on the beam, set on flight control

Radio tuned to rock and roll

Two, three hours done passed us by

Altitude dropped to 505

Fuel consumption, way too fast

Let's get on home before we run out of gas

 

Now you can't catch me, no baby, you can't catch me

'Cause if you get too close

You know I'm gone like a cool breeze.