Mayber, why can't you be true?

Oh, May believe, why can't you be true?

Oh, May believe, why can't you be true?

You didn't start doing the things you used to do.

Welcome to the New York Times

Popcast, your Duck Walk and Duck Face of Music News and Criticism.

I'm your host, John Caramonica. Why can't you be true? Oh, maybe be.

Johnny be good, that's true, but Johnny be redundant.

So you are not going to hear Chuck Berry's Johnny be good

at the beginning of this very special tribute episode to Chuck Berry, who died late last week at 90 years old.

We've just opened up with Maiboline, which is the first Chuck Berry single, which went to

Number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1955, which is many

years before I was born, to be totally frank.

Couple weeks, to celebrate the life of Chuck Berry I am joined by chief

pop music critic John Perellis.

Hey there?

We both wrote pieces about Chuck Berry in the past few days.

Chuck Berry did not lead an uncomplicated life or career.

There were a lot of pockmarks and roadbumps along the way.

So before we get to some of the modeled parts of the career, let's talk about the first four or five years.

Because you can say, almost I think without argument, that the Chuck Berry run from 1955 to 1960, 1961, is not just the foundation

of what we came to think about about rock and roll, but really is a foundation for kind of all of modern pop, if you really are going to extrapolate it out.

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