Have you ever stopped and listened to just how GREAT this song is?Chuck Berry - Brown-Eyed Handsome Man (buy album)
Arrested on charges of unemploymentThe Million Dollar Quartet took notice:
He was sittin' in the witness stand
The judge's wife called up the district attorney
She said free that brown-eyed man
If you want your job you better free that brown-eyed manFlying across the desert in a T.W.A.
I saw a woman walking 'cross the sand
She been walkin' thirty miles en route to Bombay
To meet a brown-eyed handsome man
Her destination was a brown-eyed handsome man
Way back in history 3,000 years
In fact, ever since the world began
There's been a whole lotta good women sheddin' tears
For a brown-eyed handsome man
It's a lot of trouble with a brown-eyed handsome man
Beautiful daughter couldn't make up her mind
Between a doctor and a lawyer man
Her mother told her darling go out and find yourself
A brown-eyed handsome man
Just like your daddy, he's a brown-eyed handsome manMilo Venus was a beautiful lass
She had the world in the palm of her hand
She lost both her arms in a wrestlin' match
To meet brown-eyed handsome man
She fought and won herself a brown-eyed handsome man
2-3 the count with nobody on
He hit a high fly into the stand
Rounding third he was headed for home
It was a brown-eyed handsome man
That won the game, it was a brown-eyed handsome man
7 comments:
This and "Too Much Monkey Business" are among the great moments in American poetry.
If Jerry Lee Lewis doesn't kill you, he will make you strong.
Chuck is the Bard of Rock and Roll!
Do you have the new Oxford American music issue with The Killer on the cover and a great Guralnick story inside? If not, whatcha waitin for, my man???
Chuck's genius never ceases to amaze. Even Dylan said his lyrics were his biggest inspiration. I may be making that up, but it has the ring of truth to it even if he never said it.
Had the fortune of seeing Chuck in a punk club around 1980. So many people crammed into the place that after the first of two sets the fire marshalls came in and made almost everyone leave! Except some of us refused to leave, and sure enough Chuck came back and did his thing, having just finished a prison term for income tax evasion. Sylvain Sylvain was the opening act and he came back and did like a 5:30 AM show, no lie, one of the great rock and roll nights/mornings of my lifetime.
Thanks for jogging those memories. Great site...
Bob on Chuck on Theme Time Radio, after playing No Money Down: "Interesting to note, Chuck told me his first musical appearances were in his high school, of all places, like many of us get started. Chuck's music always has that hidden thing about it, y'know, where the cause is always hidden but the effect is known. No Money Down. Chuck Berry. Always one jump ahead."
Yeah, this is my favorite Chuck Berry song. I have to confess though, that my favorite version is that of Fontella Bass.
Buddy Holly's version is great, even if it's a bit strange for a white man to sing an anthem to Black pride...
Marc
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