One thing Chuck Berry is incredibly underrated for is the amazing quality of his lyrics. And the lyrics for You Never Can Tell is a perfect example of that. Yeah the music is great but You Never Can Tell not only captures Cajun Americana it is also a time capsule of how many young couples first started out in the 50's and 60's. Just like my wife and I did about 45 years ago. Check them out for yourself.



"You Never Can Tell"

It was a teenage wedding,
and the old folks wished them well
You could see that Pierre
did truly love the mademoiselle
And now the young monsieur
and madame have rung the chapel bell,
"C'est la vie", say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell

They furnished off an apartment
with a two room Roebuck sale
The coolerator was crammed
with TV dinners and ginger ale,
But when Pierre found work,
the little money comin' worked out well
"C'est la vie", say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell

They had a hi-fi phono, boy, did they let it blast
Seven hundred little records,
all rock, rhythm and jazz
But when the sun went down,
the rapid tempo of the music fell
"C'est la vie", say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell

They bought a souped-up jitney,
'twas a cherry red '53,
They drove it down New Orleans
to celebrate their anniversary
It was there that Pierre was married
to the lovely mademoiselle
"C'est la vie", say the old folks,
it goes to show you never can tell

 

I saw on another thread where some phony PR hack tried to insinuate that Chuck Berry's rise to fame indicates the US wasn't as racist as people claim.

What sickening non-fucking bullshit. Chuck Berry was one of the people who invented Rock and Roll which at the time was commonly referred to as "ni%%er music. And Berry had to struggle long and hard to overcome racism while white rock and roll artists skyrocketed to fame on Berry's back.

So Chuck Berry managed to claw his way into fame despite the wide spread racism that tried to hold him back.

But Berry never let that stop him nor embitter him. In fact when the federal government and local police forces were trying to outlaw rock and roll and stomp it out before it corruped white youth Berry was one of the headliners at a concert being put on by rock and roll DJ Alan Freed. And just as Berry was getting ready to take the stage the po9lice showed up and confiscated all the money in the box office.

And Berry's manager rushed up to him and said; "Hey Chuck don't go on. We ain't getting paid for this. The cops just grabbed all the money out of the box office.,"

And Berry's response was; "Rock and Roll has given me a lot. So I can sure give a little back to rock and roll."

And then Chuck Berry walked out on that stage and performed what many still contend was the performance of his lifetime up until that time.

 

Chuck was surely one of the greats. He managed to scandalize an entire generation of parents with this one ............

 

Damned, the older I get, the more great ones we seem to lose. It sucks when you begin to realize that you are getting closer to the finish line yourself. Nah I'm only 70 so I still got some miles in the tank to go.

 

And I call myself a Chuck Berry fan. And yet I never even recognized the two drug references
Chuck slipped in here during the days when the corporate censors were supposed to be all over this.

See if you can spot them.