TELEPHONE SONGS: Raymond Carver's Got Nothing On This Guy

Chuck Berry helped invent rock and roll, and nobody disputes this. If not for him, guitar solos as we know them might not exist. But Berry was also a gifted short story writer; songs like "The Promised Land" and "C'est La Vie (You Never Can Tell)" have a sharp narrative structure that translates well to the page.

My favorite is "Memphis." It covers the same ground as Jim Croce's "Operator" (and similarly titled songs by the Grateful Dead and the Band), but with a twist at the end. It's worth a read:

Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee
Help me find a party that tried to get in touch with me
She could not leave a number but I know who placed the call
'cause my uncle took a message and he wrote it on the wall

Help me, information, get in touch with my Marie
She's the only one who'd call me here from Memphis Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high upon a ridge
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi bridge

Last time I saw Marie she was wavin' me goodbye
With "hurry-home" drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye
But we were pulled apart because her mom did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee

Help me, information, more than that I cannot add
Only that I miss her and all the fun we had
Marie is only six years old, information please
Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee

The "girl" Chuck's trying to get in touch with, whose mama doesn't approve, is actually his daughter. It's an unusually clever twist for an early rock song, and it showed the genre's lyrical potential beyond "Wop-bop-a-loo-mop alop-bam-boom." Then Berry went and blew it all with "My Ding-A-Ling." I guess great artists are unpredictable by nature.

TODAY'S RECOMMENDATION: "Memphis" by Chuck Berry
AVAILABLE ON: The Great Twenty-Eight