Who invented rock and roll, you ask? Well,
there are various candidates with passionate advocates, and Chuck Berry is certainly
one of them. His musical career extended from the early 1950's until just
before his death in 2017. He had many hits over the years, but three of them
have been enshrined among the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's list of "500
Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll": "Johnny B. Goode,"
"Maybellene" and "Rock and Roll Music." The two Voyager
spacecrafts, launched in 1977 and now deep in space beyond our solar system,
carry a "Golden Record" of many sounds of human culture. Berry's
"Johnny B. Goode" was the only rock and roll song
selected.
I've written a number of posts on this blog about songs related to Alabama [and more are in the pipeline!], including one about some of the songs related to Birmingham. "The Promised Land" by Berry would fit that group.
The song first appeared on Berry's 1964 album St. Louis to Liverpool. He used the melody to the folk song "Wabash Cannonball" to go with his lyrics, which you can read below. The singer is headed from Virginia to California when the Greyhound bus breaks down in Birmingham. Luckily he catches a "midnight flyer" train to New Orleans and continues his journey.
The song has been recorded by numerous other artists, including Elvis Presley, the Grateful Dead, Johnny Rivers, the Band, Meatloaf, Harry Dean Stanton, James Taylor and Jerry Lee Lewis. A version in French by the great Johnny Hallyday was released in 1975.
Many versions can be found on YouTube.
The Promised Land
written by Chuck Berry
I left my home in
Norfolk Virginia
California on my mind
I straddled that
Greyhound and
Rode him into Raleigh
and on across Caroline
We had motor trouble it turned into a struggle
Half way across Alabam
And that 'Hound broke
down and left us all stranded
In downtown Birmingham
Right away I bought me
a through train ticket
Riding across
Mississippi clean
And I was on that
midnight flyer out of Birmingham
Smoking into New
Orleans
Somebody help me get out of Louisiana
Just help me get to
Houston town
There are people there
who care a little about me
And they won't let a
poor boy down
Sure as you're born they bought me a silk suit
They put luggage in my
hands
And I woke up high
over Albuquerque
On a jet to the
promised land
We stopped at Charlotte we by passed Rock Hill
We never was a minute
late
We was ninety miles
out of Atlanta by sundown
Rolling out of Georgia
state
Working on a T-bone
steak
I had a party flying
over to the golden state
When the pilot told us
that in thirteen minutes
He would get us to the
terminal gate
Swing Low Chariot come down easy
Taxi to the terminal
door
Cut your engines and
cool you wings
And let me make it to
the telephone
Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia
Tidewater
4-10-0-9
Tell the folks back
home this is the promised land
Calling and the boy's
on the line
The Birmingham Greyhound station, built in 1950, as it
appeared in 2010
Source: BhamWiki
