Roll Over Beethoven: the new sound Chuck was looking for!

[luisam]

Roll Over Beethoven is a 1956 hit single written by Chuck Berry. According to Rolling Stone and Cub Koda of Allmusic, Berry wrote the song in response to his sister Lucy always using the family piano to play classical music when Berry wanted to play popular music. Today, Roll Over Beethoven is something of a curiosity; for many young listeners, the music of Berry and The Beatles is as far removed in time as the great classical composers. At its time of writing, however, the song neatly summarized the 'us and them' attitude of teenagers towards their parents' music.

 

It's really interesting the way Chuck Berry plays with the word "roll" all along the song, obviously to emphasize that it's all about rock and roll! So, first of all, let's remember the complete lyrics to understand what it is about and watch the video with Chuck Berry playing it.

Well gonna write a little letter
Gonna mail it to my local D.J.
It's a rockin' little record
I want my jockey to play
Roll over Beethoven
I gotta hear it again today

You know my temperature's risin'
And the jukebox's blowin' a fuse
My hearts beatin' rhythm
And my soul keeps singing the blues
Roll over Beethoven
And tell Tchaikovsky the news

I got a rockin' pneumonia
I need a shot of rhythm and blues
I think I got it off the writer
Sittin' down by the rhythm review
Roll over Beethoven
We're rockin' in two by two

Well if you fell you like it
Well get your lover and reel and rock it
Roll it over and move on up
Just jump around and reel and rock it
Roll it over
Roll over Beethoven
A rockin' in two by two, oh

Well early in the mornin'
I'm a givin' you the warnin'
Don't you step on my blue suede shoes
Hey little little
Gonna play my fiddle
Ain't got nothing to lost
Roll over Beethoven
And tell Tchaikovsky the news

You know she winks like a glow worm
Dance like a spinnin' top
She got a crazy partner
Oughta see 'em reel an rock
Long as she's got a dime
The music will never stop
Roll over Beethoven
Roll over Beethoven
Roll over Beethoven
Roll over Beethoven
Roll over Beethoven
And dig these rhythm and blues

 

 

 

The opening guitar riff is as thrilling as the starting gun of the Olympic 100-meter dash. As good as the starting bell’s ring with the cry: And they’re off, on Kentucky Derby Day. Staggeringly, Roll Over Beethoven is as thrilling half a century and more after the day it was born. It’s hard to imagine now the electric chills that went up the collective spine of its first listeners in the mid-1950s.

 

Why Berry selected Beethoven? Why the song's title is not Roll over Tchaikovsky, Chopin or Mozart or any other "classical"? Because it sounds cool "Roll o-VE-r Beetho-VE-n"! We should take note that Berry, pronounces Beethoven "incorrectly". In German the letter "v" is pronounced as "f" and the letter "w" sounds as the English "v". Remember Volkwagen: you should pronounce it "folksvagen".

 

By the way, I remember having read in a Spanish revue of this song, that an informal translation of “Roll Over Beethoven” might be “Chúpatela Chopin!” It’s not easy explain the subtlety of the meaning in English so for those who don’t speak Spanish, I won’t even try to translate it!

The first verse can be understood in two ways: he asks the DJ to play THIS record, Roll Over Beethoven; you also might read that the DJ should roll Beethoven's music and play some rock music.

Later, where he says "Roll over Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news". I disagree with the interpretation that it refers to how classical composers would roll over in their graves upon hearing that classical music had given way to rock and roll. Maybe implicitly he is using it as a double meaning, as said before, playing with the meaning of the word but as I understand, he just asking Beethoven to go over with Thsaikovsky and tell him  that rhythm & blues is the type of music people are reelin’ and rockin’ to. He keeps repeating "Roll over Beethoven" maybe meaning "step aside" or "Roll over for me"? Or perhaps the original line of thought was "rock and roll over Beethoven"? We should remember that by 1955 the expression “rock and roll” may have been too recently coined, it was still unclear as to what exactly the beast was, made up as it is, of so many influences and feeder genres. Rhythm & Blues was thought of as the set into which rock and roll fell as a subset. That would be changed by Berry’s effort. He’s the Thomas Edison of rock. He invented almost everything about rock and roll!

There is much more about  Roll over Beethoven than just another Chuck Berry song.  It is a "masterpiece" that helped to define rock and roll It was THE ROCK AND ROLL song which defined Chuck Berry! Without “Roll Over Beethoven” there is no Chuck Berry. Or at least no Chuck Berry standing tall and grinning in the rock and pop pantheon. And without Chuck Berry: No Beatles. No Rolling Stones. No Beach Boys. No Bruce Springsteen. Hell – no Rock and Roll, as we understand today what is rock and roll! In most of his later rock and roll hits, i.e. the opening guitar solo  of Johnny B. Goode, Berry's most famous hit, riff is similar to Roll  Over Beethoven and the sheet music for the two songs is very similar too; it’s a remake of Roll over Beethoven!

 

At this point, it's interesting to remember the scene from "Back to the Future": Marty McFly playing Johnny B. Goode and one of the musicians calling by phone: “Chuck! Chuck, it’s Marvin. Your cousin, Marvin Berry. You know that new sound you’re looking for? Well, listen to this!”

 

 

 

 

In addition to the classical composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the lyrics mention or allude to several popular artists: "Early in the Mornin'" is the title of a Louis Jordan song; "Blue Suede Shoes" refers to the Carl Perkins song; and "hey diddle diddle", from the nursery rhyme "The Cat and the Fiddle", is an indirect reference to Bo Diddley, who was an accomplished violin player. Although the lyrics mention rocking and rolling, the music that the classics are supposed to step aside for is referred to as rhythm and blues. The lyric "a shot of rhythm and blues" was appropriated as the title of a song recorded by Arthur Alexander and others.

 

The lyric about a "rhythm revue" refers to old-style R&B shows, in which numerous artists appeared on one bill in front of a big band.

 

Roll Over Beethoven is the most covered pure rock ’n’ roll song of all time but probably the cover with most influence was the one made by The Beatles; they were huge fans of Berry's music and between 1957 and 1966 they covered more songs written by him than by any other writer. "Roll Over Beethoven" was a favorite of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison even before they chose "The Beatles" as their name. The vast majority of The Beatles' Chuck Berry covers were sung by Lennon. Indeed, he sang Roll Over Beethoven until 1961, when George Harrison took over on lead. It remained in the group's set until the end of their US tour in September 1964. It became one of three vocal spots for Harrison on with The Beatles, the others being Devil In Her Heart and his own Don't Bother Me. The very first concert The Beatles gave in the U.S. in the Washington Coliseum starts off with George rocking this song. You would think that they would start off with one of their big hits sung by Paul or John but they gave it to George and "Roll Over Beethoven"!
 

 

 

Another great version was the one by Electric Light Orchestra's (ELO) elaborate eight-minute reworking of "Roll Over Beethoven", on the album ELO 2 in 1973, included an opening musical quote from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and clever interpolations of material from the symphony's first movement into Berry's song. This became one of ELO's signature songs and was used to close all of their concerts. "Roll Over Beethoven" was the second single released by the band, in January 1973, and became their second consecutive top ten hit in the UK. An edited version of the track from ELO 2 was a #42 hit in the United States.
 

 

 

We should mention in this resume the song "You Got Nothin’ on Me", by The Golliwogs, the group that would become Creedence Clearwater Revival. Having begun in 1959 under the name The Blue Velvets, it was active as The Golliwogs between 1964 and 1967 .

 

This song was composed by John and Tom Fogerty, who sang it in duet. It was recorded in April 1965 and appeared published in July of the same year but received no public attention. Actually, none of The Golliwogs' singles broke out nationally. Just listen it: sounds TOO similar to "Roll over, Beethoven" and even tells that rock and roll was here to replace classical music! Couldn’t find any record of a demand by Chuck Berry against Fogerty for ripping his hit.
 

 

In November of 2000, Berry’s former pianist Johnnie Johnson filed suit against him alleging that he co-wrote over 50 songs with Berry, including “Roll Over Beethoven.”  The suit was thrown out of court because too much time had gone by since the writing of these songs.  Although uncredited, the truth of the matter might be that the song is in actuality a Berry/Johnson collaboration.