I was surfing the radio and Memphis came on, the Chuck Berry song being performed by Johnny Rivers.

Memphis had that Chuck Berry rock and roll sound that was so special.

But it was the lyrics that point out just how much of a unique artist Berry was.

It starts out sounding like a missed phone call between Chuck and his woman of the day.

But then we hear that his wife “tore them apart” and you realize something else is going on.

Naturally Chuck would be blaming the partner for the split. All the while he is throwing in detail, the home of the southside, high above the ridge, just a half mile from the Mississippi Bridge.

And finally we get to the heart of the matter, it is his child trying to reach him and he her.

Marie is only six years old.

Nobody but nobody was writing those lyrics in the beginning of rock and roll. He wrote Memphis in 1958. It was all love and teenage romance.

By all accounts Berry was not a very good person.

But for whatever lightning strike there was, his creative genius was undeniable.