Berry was a rarity of his time: a full-blown singer/song-writer, equally gifted as a performer and as a composer of rock material. (p. 31)

Chuck Berry … was the best of the early rock-and-roll songwriters. He is a primitive songpoet, but a songpoet nonetheless. At a time when rock-and-roll lyrics were notably inane, Berry was composing songs that expressed in loud and clear terms the dilemma of being young and alive in the America of the '50s. His songs are filled with references to school and budding sexuality and to automobiles, the prime obsession of much of the teen-age audience. Each of his tunes featured a strong rock sound which stood out clearly among its imitations.

Perhaps the best of the Berry songs, "Maybellene," is about cars and cops. It expresses both an affection for speed and an arrogance toward authority, and its music is low-down, nasty and...