Just Like Ringing a Bell
On ‘Johnny B. Goode’ as a story of exceptional talent
I think about Chuck Berry’s 1958 song ‘Johnny B. Goode’ a lot. Not the guitar playing or the awful scene from Back to the Future where the Michael J. Fox character writes the song. I think about the lyrics because they capture something crucial for me about exceptional talent and the ways we try to make sense of its existence.
This happens in part through one of my all-time favourite metaphors:
Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans
Way back up in the woods among the evergreens
There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood
Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode
Who never ever learned to read or write so well
But he could play a guitar just like a-ringin’ a bell
Just like ringing a bell. If there’s a better encapsulation of what mastery looks and feels like, I haven’t heard it. And, as the phrase hits our ears, we don’t just witness Johnny’s mastery from the outside. In the rightness of the rhyme coming together, that sense of lift-off from the guitar as we head into the chorus, the song delivers something of the pure delight that comes from having this kind of skill and being 100% in the pocket with it. For a moment, we get to share in the pleasure of being as good as Johnny.
