Monday 11 June 2012

Hotrod music

It's hard to imagine now the impact that Chuck Berry's first single must have had when it came out in the summer of 1955. All I know is, it rattled my cage when I first heard it, aged about 13 in the late '70s, and 57 years after its release it still does it for me today. Great guitar sound and Berry's brilliant poetical lyrics, as typed out below (my version, many people hear them differently). MP

Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
Oh Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
You just started doin’ the things you used to do

As I was motorvatin’ over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a Coupe de Ville
Cadillac a-rollin’ on the open road
Nothin’ outrun my V8 Ford
The Cadillac doin’ about ninety-five
We was bumper to bumper, rollin’ side to side

Maybellene...

The Cadillac pulled up to hundred and four
My Ford got a-hot and wouldn’t do no more
It done got cloudy and started to rain
I tooted my horn for the passin’ lane
Rainwater blowin’ all under my hood
I knew that was doin’ my motor good

Maybellene...

The motor cooled down, the heat went down
That’s when I heard that highway sound
Cadillac sittin’ like a ton of lead
A hundred and ten, a half a mile ahead
Cadillac lookin’ like it’s sittin’ still
And I caught Maybellene at the top of the hill

Maybellene...

3 comments:

WhitelinePsycho said...

Survivor.

shrew said...

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's maybelline...

Garrett302 said...

Everyone since was only pretending.