Chuck Berry — Nadine
Album: The Great 28Avg rating:
Your rating:
Total ratings: 1054
Length: 2:29
Plays (last 30 days): 0
share
tweet
As I got on a city bus and found a vacant seat,
I thought I saw my future bride walkin?up the street,
I shouted to the driver "hey conductor, you must slow down.
I think I see her please let me off this bus"
Nadine, honey is that you?
Oh, Nadine. Honey, is that you?
Seems like every time I see you darling you got something else to do.
(Alternate verse: Seems like every time I catch up with you, you're up to
something new)
I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back
And started walkin toward a coffee colored Cadillac
I was pushin through the crowd to get to where she's at
And I was campaign shouting like a southern diplomat.
Downtown searching for her, looking all around,
Saw her getting in a yellow cab heading up town.
I caught a loaded taxi, paid up everybody's tab.
With a twenty-dollar bill, told him "catch that yellow cab."
She moves around like a wayward summer breeze,
Go, driver, go, go, catch her pretty please.
Moving through the traffic like a mounted cavalier
Leaning out the taxi window trying to make her hear.
I thought I saw my future bride walkin?up the street,
I shouted to the driver "hey conductor, you must slow down.
I think I see her please let me off this bus"
Nadine, honey is that you?
Oh, Nadine. Honey, is that you?
Seems like every time I see you darling you got something else to do.
(Alternate verse: Seems like every time I catch up with you, you're up to
something new)
I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back
And started walkin toward a coffee colored Cadillac
I was pushin through the crowd to get to where she's at
And I was campaign shouting like a southern diplomat.
Downtown searching for her, looking all around,
Saw her getting in a yellow cab heading up town.
I caught a loaded taxi, paid up everybody's tab.
With a twenty-dollar bill, told him "catch that yellow cab."
She moves around like a wayward summer breeze,
Go, driver, go, go, catch her pretty please.
Moving through the traffic like a mounted cavalier
Leaning out the taxi window trying to make her hear.
Comments (86)add comment
Huh. This is one of the songs that Stephen referenced in The Stand, and I'm finally hearing it for the first time. Nice. (He also named one of the main characters Nadine.)
Absolutely GREAT guitar sound!
Saw in concert Norman, OK. early 70's. So high I rolled out of my seat and into lap of most beautiful blond, she wrapped her arms around me to stop my roll so naturally I did the same . Looking into her eyes it was love at first sight. Then looking to the left was her date a muscly O.U. football player and the love affair
came to an end much too soon!
came to an end much too soon!
Some very nice bass work!
Rather than "Father of Rock 'n' Roll", it should be "King of Rock 'n' Roll". Tony Jory, London & Somerset, England.it
Meanwhile...I'm still thinking.
junebaby65 wrote:
Chuck was known for travelling from city to city and using hired musicians as his backing band. Chuck never gave the guys a setlist, though. You had to be on your toes. Bruce Springsteen and band once worked with Chuck and he asked Mr. Berry what songs were going to be played that night, Chuck replied, "We're going to play some Chuck Berry songs."
Oh yah!!
Chuck was known for travelling from city to city and using hired musicians as his backing band. Chuck never gave the guys a setlist, though. You had to be on your toes. Bruce Springsteen and band once worked with Chuck and he asked Mr. Berry what songs were going to be played that night, Chuck replied, "We're going to play some Chuck Berry songs."
Oh yah!!
"campaign shouting like a southern diplomat" to rhyme with "where she's at" - brilliant
I wish just once that Bill would segue into this right after.
I suddenly remembered Nadine from the Twin Peaks :)
sid1950 wrote:
Chuck was known for travelling from city to city and using hired musicians as his backing band. Chuck never gave the guys a setlist, though. You had to be on your toes. Bruce Springsteen and band once worked with Chuck and he asked Mr. Berry what songs were going to be played that night, Chuck replied, "We're going to play some Chuck Berry songs."
Some time in 1970 or 1971 Berry did a session for BBC TV. I was a very junior trainee engineer in the studio, and got the job of setting up the colour monitors in the studio while he was rehearsing. Monitors in those days were not just analogue, they had valves (vacuum tubes) and were very finicky. I got to spend an hour while the ran through numbers and got the sound levels right. It was many years later that I found out his backing band were session musicians from London, and had only met him the day before! The still did a great job and it was a privelidge to listen in. A master!
Chuck was known for travelling from city to city and using hired musicians as his backing band. Chuck never gave the guys a setlist, though. You had to be on your toes. Bruce Springsteen and band once worked with Chuck and he asked Mr. Berry what songs were going to be played that night, Chuck replied, "We're going to play some Chuck Berry songs."
Some time in 1970 or 1971 Berry did a session for BBC TV. I was a very junior trainee engineer in the studio, and got the job of setting up the colour monitors in the studio while he was rehearsing. Monitors in those days were not just analogue, they had valves (vacuum tubes) and were very finicky. I got to spend an hour while the ran through numbers and got the sound levels right. It was many years later that I found out his backing band were session musicians from London, and had only met him the day before! The still did a great job and it was a privelidge to listen in. A master!
cc_rider wrote:
Carl Perkins being one of them.
unclehud wrote:
King = Elvis. Nuff said.
Nothing against Elvis, but he stood on the shoulders of giants.
King = Elvis. Nuff said.
Nothing against Elvis, but he stood on the shoulders of giants.
Carl Perkins being one of them.
My wife and I recently enjoyed some Chuck Berry UTube videos to commemorate his passing, and really enjoyed some of his performances of "Ding-a-ling" - especially the one in London. I'm telling you those prim and proper English teens and 20 year olds sure were NOT ready to start singing about the penis so openly. It's really funny and amazing how the black music made it's way, slowly in places, to the rest of the world; watching that video from the late 50s/early 60s was such a treat!
RIP Chuck Berry!
Well, he made it to 90.
That's pretty amazing for a rock star.
That's pretty amazing for a rock star.
Brian May of Queen makes a nod to Chuck Berry in a song he penned,"Now I'm Here" at the end of the song with the words go go go Little Queenie. Mr. Berry influenced many future guitarists.
Best song for ever
..... this is outstanding stkman wrote:
I'm pretty sure that this is the song that, if you play the 45 at 33, you have the music bed of Get It On, by T. Rex.
edit: Little Queenie is the song I'm thinking of.
Love Chuck but not his best recording of Nadine, not his fault its the record companies, unfortunately there's a bunch of sub par recordings of great songs out there especially compilations, I have this on 78 and it sounds great, yes some of us ol farts still have turntables that play 78's
I'm pretty sure that this is the song that, if you play the 45 at 33, you have the music bed of Get It On, by T. Rex.
edit: Little Queenie is the song I'm thinking of.
Saw him back in the early to mid eighties at the old Buffalo Memorial Stadium (the old Rockpile) after a Bisons game. Don't really remember the ball game, do remember Chuck gave a hell of show. Everybody was dancing.
I saw him at the Whiskey in 1968, thought he was an 'old guy,' and the he is still out on the road 45 years later. Big time wow for this guy. Nobody better in Rock than Chuck. Nobody.
stkman wrote:
I was thinking the sound wasn't as deep as I'd remembered... seems someone else had the same thought.... but still a great song.
Love Chuck but not his best recording of Nadine, not his fault its the record companies, unfortunately there's a bunch of sub par recordings of great songs out there especially compilations, I have this on 78 and it sounds great, yes some of us ol farts still have turntables that play 78's I said before how great he was in person, opened for the Stones and blew them away
I was thinking the sound wasn't as deep as I'd remembered... seems someone else had the same thought.... but still a great song.
YLazarus wrote:
Everybody in my church loves this song...
Yes, not bad!
Everybody in my church loves this song...
Yes, not bad!
Everybody in my church loves this song...
Elvis has always been popular with people who punctuate their categorical opinions with "Nuff said".
sirdroseph wrote:
King = Elvis. Nuff said.
sirdroseph wrote:
The King of Rock and Roll!
King = Elvis. Nuff said.
FANTASTICCCCC!
OMG; I've never heard this song before. It's amazing.
unclehud wrote:
King = Elvis. Nuff said. Nothing against Elvis, but he stood on the shoulders of giants.
King = Elvis. Nuff said.
sirdroseph wrote:
King = Elvis. Nuff said.
The King of Rock and Roll!
King = Elvis. Nuff said.
okay here's a reasonable proposal...
just like the Auto-10 for all Beatles songs...
Auto-10 all Chuck Berry songs...
just like the Auto-10 for all Beatles songs...
Auto-10 all Chuck Berry songs...
10
The King of Rock and Roll!
ihategrapejuice wrote:
You know which came first, right? BTW, Dylan took the vocal pattern of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" from Chuck's "Too Much Monkey Business." He's admitted it openly.
The long wandering lyrics remind me of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", in a nice way.
You know which came first, right? BTW, Dylan took the vocal pattern of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" from Chuck's "Too Much Monkey Business." He's admitted it openly.
Classic! Yeah!
"campaign shoutin' like a southern diplomat...." love it
Funny thing is, I totally get the rockingness of Chuck Berry, but I struggle to hear it in Buddy Holly. What is up with that?
"MR. ROCK & ROLL is 83 years old and has been rocking and rolling for the past sixty years, the greatest rockandroller of all time delighting fans for over half a century. Thank you Chuck!" buscapleitosNo1
i saw him about five yeasr ago here in Holland.
still brilliant, funny, great r'n'r!
god bless Chuck Berry
still brilliant, funny, great r'n'r!
god bless Chuck Berry
The long wandering lyrics remind me of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", in a nice way.
Take a big legged woaman to satify my SOUL.
You can say all you want about ol' Chuck. But there aren't very many people in the world (especially guitar players) who Keith Richards takes his hat off to. Chuck is one.
Deceptively simple as it is, he was the first one to synthesize the sound. That's why we call him the Father of Rock and Roll.
Deceptively simple as it is, he was the first one to synthesize the sound. That's why we call him the Father of Rock and Roll.
Love Chuck but not his best recording of Nadine, not his fault its the record companies, unfortunately there's a bunch of sub par recordings of great songs out there especially compilations, I have this on 78 and it sounds great, yes some of us ol farts still have turntables that play 78's I said before how great he was in person, opened for the Stones and blew them away
1wolfy wrote:
Priceless!
Kick-Ass old school
Priceless!
can't keep my feet still!!! worth an 8
Ulises wrote:
North, South, East or West, whatever historical period you look at, there have always been people capable of thinking, relating, and listening across ethnic borders (which under close inspection are usually much blurrier than one would suspect). As for white folks listening to and enjoying black folks' music, that goes way back before Chuck Berry, although he undoubtedly did a lot to help blur the border.
Spoken like a pendejo who has never lived in the South.
North, South, East or West, whatever historical period you look at, there have always been people capable of thinking, relating, and listening across ethnic borders (which under close inspection are usually much blurrier than one would suspect). As for white folks listening to and enjoying black folks' music, that goes way back before Chuck Berry, although he undoubtedly did a lot to help blur the border.
Well, probably a first, but my daughter's middle name came from this song and my guitar is named Nadine as well... guess that sounds goofy but had to add the post
This song--as much as any-really illustrates what a clever and deceptively simple lyricist Chuck was. Plus it's got a fat-ol' groove that gets ya ta shakin'!
Otomi wrote:
Anybody could listen to anything! It was just a matter of putting your ears (and the rest of your head) in the right place!
Spoken like a pendejo who has never lived in the South.
"This is that ideal mix, that golden ratio of blues, country, pop, and jazz, that unique and utterly irresistible blend of sounds and attitudes and feelings."
Amen brothers and sisters!! 
old_shep wrote:
One of the first black artists that us white kids could listen to back then...
Anybody could listen to anything! It was just a matter of putting your ears (and the rest of your head) in the right place!
What is rock `n' roll? This is. These songs are the blueprint- "Maybelline," "You Can't Catch Me," "Around And Around," "Johnny B. Goode-" this is the essence. This is that ideal mix, that golden ratio of blues, country, pop, and jazz, that unique and utterly irresistible blend of sounds and attitudes and feelings. This is the sound that created the last fifty years, that gave birth to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and the Who and Black Sabbath and the Clash and the Sex Pistols and Nirvana and Sonic Youth and every other group of people in which a guitar or a drum set was involved. This single, brilliant disc is a distillation of Chuck Berry's unique genius, of the power and irresistible drive of his music. This is it. That's really all there is to it. Buy it, live it, love it. You won't be sorry.
Hmm, says it all really...
:roll: What a moron I am. I only gave it an 8. WTF.
10.
Yeah, Wolf-Man Jack and Del Rio, Texas.... this site has the best variety of music doesn't it.... ( as I listen to "Low Rider"...
Misterfixit wrote:
...still sponsored in part by the FEMA of Katrina fame.
Yeah, that'll work out a LOT better!
j/k. Thanks for the FYI. I think that stuff is pretty interesting. But I'm an enginerd, so YMMV.
c.
We had 93 KFJ and KRLABPenni wrote:
I had the same sort of experience in 1966 as a 21 year old Airman First Class driving across Texas on my way to California in the middle of the night...or, more accurately, in the wee small hours of the morning. It was ALL one could get out there, at that time. Thank GOD for those ol' high-power AM stations!
One of the first black artists that us white kids could listen to back then...
Kick-Ass old school
Thanks for that interesting sidebar, Misterfixit.
BPenni wrote:
I had the same sort of experience in 1966 as a 21 year old Airman First Class driving across Texas on my way to California in the middle of the night...or, more accurately, in the wee small hours of the morning. It was ALL one could get out there, at that time. Thank GOD for those ol' high-power AM stations!
Thanks for the memories of how music sounded in cars back then. The crappy little radio with the chrome knobs and one piece-of-shit speaker in the middle of the dash. Ah, those were the days
brighthue wrote:
It's not a reference to the corporate monster known as Clear Channel. Some AM radio stations were revolutionary, as everything was relatively new and there were no rigid formats. Hit radio included anything that was popular or new and exciting and, after dark, many low-power stations went off the air to make way for the big power-houses like WBZ, WLS, etc. hence the term "clear channel."
FYI:
The original Clear Channel radio stations were placed in the AM radio spectrum by fiat of the FCC. They were the "CONELRAD" stations which were to remain on the air during Atomic War. There were two CONELRAD "channels" to which you would be told to tune your radio (If you have an older model AM only radio you can see the tiny upward-pointing delta symbol on the dial). The other Clear Channel stations were on AM radio channels which had no "competition" from other stations. Thus, you could be in Nashville and tune in radio station KGB in San Diego. Which I did frequently. Or you could be in San Diego and tune in WSM in Nashville, again something I did frequently.
AM and FM radio stations are "channelized", meaning that they are given frequency allocation which allow them to have a certain pattern for transmission and power. Indeed, some stations have to share a channel, which is why you still occasionally will hear "daylight" and "nighttime" stations. Because of the changes in radio wave propagation, daytime stations have to sign off the air when the propagation conditions of daytime (short range) are replaced by the nighttime propagation (long range).
The old Clear Channel CONELRAD stations were all equipped with emergency bomb shelters, generators, food and water and a set of teletype machines which sent test messages every 24 hours. In one monumental SNAFU/FUBAR, the old Office of Civil Defense sent out the wrong tape loop (Tape loops were pre-punched teletype tape which contained a message that was repeated over and over again). Instead of "this is a test" or words to that effect, the master operator sent out a tape which began with the phrase "HATEFULNESS, HATEFULNESS, HATEFULNESS". Which signaled that the following message was an actual alert of incoming atomic bombers and ICBMs from the Evil Empire.
Significantly more than half of the stations which had the CONELRAD equipment failed to actually shut down or do anything about the message; but some stations did, causing a bit of panic in places like Chicago, where almost within seconds of each other, the big voices of radio went over to a pre-recorded transcription disk (old style, 16-2/3's rpm mono on a single side 12" disk). The government did a pretty good job of covering that up like a cat ina sand box, but there are existing taped station logs which have been preserved by the National Archives so you can hear the whole thing from start to finish.
After that, the government put someone else in change of the tapes.
The emergency network still exists and those "survivability" stations are still sponsored in part by the FEMA of Katrina fame.
meloman wrote:
As a 16 year old kid in 1964, this is the music I'd listen to on AM radio in a little town in western NY state at night, when I could pick up those stations from "far away," like WABC, WBZ, WLS...those were the days when a wider world existed in these wonderful sounds that came in the night.
I had the same sort of experience in 1966 as a 21 year old Airman First Class driving across Texas on my way to California in the middle of the night...or, more accurately, in the wee small hours of the morning. It was ALL one could get out there, at that time. Thank GOD for those ol' high-power AM stations!
I saw Mr. Berry in the '80s at the Paramount here in Austin. He tore the roof off the place!
One of the original Rock 'n Rollers. Maybe THE original. He still sounds hot and fresh after all this time.
c.
hippiechick wrote:
Get the hint buddy...she's just not that into you!
HA! Chuck's not known for giving up...
c.
Ahhhhhhh yeaahhhhhhh!
vandal wrote:
I'll never forget the Stephen King reference to this song in his book, "The Stand. " Chilling.
So cold her hair turned white.
Art_Carnage wrote:
The real king of rock 'n' roll.
Yep!
Shesdifferent wrote:
Thank goodness you've been saved!
It's not a reference to the corporate monster known as Clear Channel. Some AM radio stations were revolutionary, as everything was relatively new and there were no rigid formats. Hit radio included anything that was popular or new and exciting and, after dark, many low-power stations went off the air to make way for the big power-houses like WBZ, WLS, etc. hence the term "clear channel."
n4ku wrote:
I remember those nights listening to clear channel stations from everywhere.
Thank goodness you've been saved!
I'm not worthy. Neither are you. Nobody is, just Chuck.
meloman wrote:
As a 16 year old kid in 1964, this is the music I'd listen to on AM radio in a little town in western NY state at night, when I could pick up those stations from "far away," like WABC, WBZ, WLS...those were the days when a wider world existed in these wonderful sounds that came in the night.
I'm a bit younger, but not by much.
I remember those nights listening to clear channel stations from everywhere.
I saw her from the corner when she turned and doubled back, and started walking toward a coffee colored cadillac.
I'll never forget the Stephen King reference to this song in his book, "The Stand." Chilling.
Get the hint buddy...she's just not that into you!
I bought this on 45 single. Great to hear it again after all this time. I give an 8 cos Berry has a few others that are even better. Anyone going to upload more?
Edit: No I'm giving it 9 right now.
The real king of rock 'n' roll.
As a 16 year old kid in 1964, this is the music I'd listen to on AM radio in a little town in western NY state at night, when I could pick up those stations from "far away," like WABC, WBZ, WLS...those were the days when a wider world existed in these wonderful sounds that came in the night.
Nadine, i dont mean to be too forward, but Chuck isnt the guy for you 
Wow. I've always thought Chuck Berry was the Ur artist of rock. There's something deeply wiggle-inducing about most of hits that few artists can emulate.
This is like crazy music.
Right on!
Yeah, Nadine, Twist Twist...oh! There goes my back. 
Absolutely GREAT guitar sound!
Yes!