The Current

Great Music Lives Here ®
Listener-Supported Music
Donate Now
Discover Music

Hear Chuck Berry's Posthumous Single, 'Big Boys'

CHUCK will be Chuck Berry's first album in 38 years.
CHUCK will be Chuck Berry's first album in 38 years.Dualtone Records

by Andrew Flanagan

March 22, 2017

Less than a week after Chuck Berry's death at the age of 90, his family announced details Wednesday about the rock and roll pioneer's first album in 38 years -- and gave us a taste of what it will sound like.

"Big Boys," the lead single to CHUCK (due out June 16 on Dualtone), begins and ends with a look in the rearview mirror. The song opens with one of the most recognizable guitar licks in history, the one made famous on "Johnny B. Goode" (which, as you may have heard, has left our solar system). And it closes with Berry looking back at his teenage years: "I was looking for joy / But I'm a little bitty boy." It's the same thematic territory he successfully plumbed throughout his career... so why stop now?