So... uh, Marty McFly and 'Johnny B Goode' (Back to the Future)

[Twisted Crow]

I am not really serious about this. I am mainly amused and humoring this thought I have been having while watching this known scene in Back to the Future, while looking at it with today's political lens. Since this has potential for controversy, I decided to post this here.

So, in BttF... Marty McFly (or 'Calvin Klein') from 1985 jams the Chuck Berry hit Johnny B Goode with Marvin Berry and his band at the school dance scene while in 1955. You can watch this scene here via YouTube.

Here is the main problem...

Johnny B Goode is '58 hit (if I remember right) and this is in 1955. Chuck hasn't performed this song, yet. This creates a funny paradox moment where Marvin picks up the phone and calls Chuck during the performance ("You know that new sound you've been looking for!? Well, listen to THIS!").

So this has some amusing, yet perhaps dark implications depending on how one chooses to look at it. Is Marty guilty of cultural appropriation? Or does this still technically mean that Chuck inspired himself?  ^-^ After all, 1985 Marty McFly wouldn't have known Johnny B Goode it wasn't for Chuck Berry in the 50s...

I just think this was meant to be a fun tongue-in-cheek moment in the movie and nothing more. But would it have the unfortunate outcome of being considered offensive today?

Maybe it might be another reason for Hollywood to not remake it. Which I would be more than fine with.  ;)

[Callie Del Noire]

I’d say that it took him three years to work out the parts he missed since he didn’t hear the whole song.

[Oniya]

Well, it is an example of the classic 'bootstrap' paradox (also famously provided in the first Terminator movie:  If the Terminator hadn't been sent back to kill John Connor's mother, John Connor wouldn't have sent back the man who would end up being his father.)

[Lexandria]

It does create a problem of implying that the accomplishment of a man of color was hinged upon the actions of a white man, and thus also impling he wouldn't have been successful without that white man, erasing his work and effort in the process.

I do prefer to believe that the phone made it very difficult to actually make out what the song sounded like and so Chuck Berry maybe picked up a bit of inspiration from himself (NOT Marty) but still would have done the work and gotten there on his own anyway.

[Giantmutantcrab]

Maybe I am missing the deeper parts of this analysis...

I just saw this as a wonderful homage in a great 80's sci-fi comedy to the pioneer of modern rock n' roll, Chuck Berry.

[Twisted Crow]

I am kinda in that ballpark, too... but it was interesting for me to think about as an unintended consequence. I didn't feel that BttF merits such a deep analysis, but my brain sometimes goes there.   ;D

I have similar considerations with movies Groundhog Day (another gem of a movie I love), though these thoughts dont drift quite in such a direction as this one.  :D

[Twisted Crow]

Movies like* Groundhog Day...

C'mon mobile-fu...  ::)

[stormwyrm]

Well, "Johnny B. Goode" had indeed been written in 1955, but was not released until 1958, but it was hardly the first song of its kind. The famous opening riff is also basically the same as that of the 1946 song "Ain't That Just Like a Woman (They'll Do It Every Time)" by Louis Jordan. Listen for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd3qXfF7hqE

And in the first place, by November 5, 1955, when Marty arrives in the past, Chuck Berry by July of that year had already released his first single "Maybellene", which already had the characteristic rock and roll sound, which had already been emerging in the years prior. Chuck Berry had already been making music of that kind at the time. As Lexandria says, he might have gotten the idea for using Louis Jordan's riff from hearing the rhythm over the phone from his cousin.

[CriminalMindsFan]

If they ever remake this, I believe it would turn out more like the CHiPs movie than say a Psycho remake.

[Regina Minx]

Years ago, Cracked made the observation that Marty McFly interacted with Black American history in two ways. The first is the aforementioned Chuck Berry thing in which, according to Dan, "Chuck Berry is an unapologetic thief." But we must also remember that the first person that Marty really talks to when he goes back to 1955 is the person who, in his timeline, is the Mayor and running for re-election; Goldie Wilson. Marty essentially walks up to him and says "You're going to be mayor!" And Goldie says "I like the sound of that!" Just an interesting aside.

[Twisted Crow]

‘Mayor Goldie Wilson! I like the sound of that!‘

Hehe. I love this movie.