Listening

Guide 7-2_7b.

Sweet Little Sixteen as recorded by Chuck Berry (1958)

Features:
Uneven beat subdivisions are used throughout the recording.

The drums keep a strong backbeat.

The instruments break for a voice solo in the second and seventh periods and the
bars that lead into them.

After the guitar solo in the introduction, Berry's guitar maintains a riff pattern
through most of the recording.

The fifth period is instrumental and features a boogie-woogie style piano solo that is
decorated by long and elaborate glissandos.

Tempo:
The tempo is about 176 beats per minute, with four beats per bar.

Form:
The recording begins with a two-bar guitar introduction that ends with vocal
pickups leading into the first period of the form.

After the introduction, the song is made up of a series of eight sixteen-bar periods,
each of which is based on antecedent and consequent phrases that use the same
chord progression, but have different melodic lines, the second of which sounds
more conclusive than the first.

The first period begins on the word "Boston", and ends with "sweet little sixteen."

Lyrics:
The song is about a sixteen-year-old girl's desire to talk her parents into letting her
go out to "rock and roll." The lyrics mention a variety of cities where one could find
good rock music.