Big Boys

Album: Chuck (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • This scorching romp is the lead single from Chuck Berry's first new album since 1979. The late rock and roll legend had been working on the record since 1991.
  • The song tells the story of a little boy who wants to "party like the big boys do." It kicks off with a classic Berry guitar riff, before the King of Rock and Roll trades vocals with Nathaniel Rateliff. The track ends with a solo by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

    Chuck Berry's son Charles Berry Jr., who contributed some guitar work to the record, told ABC Radio that Tom took his father's guitar part and "then interpreted what [he] did and put his own spin on it. And it [was] beautiful."
  • The accompanying music clip was Chuck Berry's first-ever music video. The posthumous visual was directed by Matt Bizer and Curtis Wayne Millar and shot in Jasper, Georgia. It features a high-energy dance sequence at a high school sock hop. A young boy shows up and steals the show with his dance routine.

    "Chuck Berry tunes are a good time and they tell stories that everyone can relate with, so we wanted to stay true to that," Bizer and Millard told NPR Music. "When we where shooting the video, Chuck Berry was still with us and during post-production we found out he had passed on. We did not know how to really process it all. In a way, I think we are still processing the entire experience."

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