No Particular Place to Go

Chuck Berry actually only served 18 months in jail in the early '60s, between February 1962 and October 1963, but his career was effectively derailed by the legal troubles that led up to his incarceration, dating back to the late '50s. By late 1963, Berry's music was serving as the basis for both the California surf music scene and the British rock scene that would soon engulf the U.S. Understandably, when he got to make his first records in two and a half years in early 1964, he went right back to having hits, placing five singles in the pop charts that year. The most successful of these was "No Particular Place to Go," a characteristic rocker that found the singer in a car with his girl by his side, once again reflecting on the joys of youth and driving. Berry's comic sense came out in the song's narrative, as the singer and his girl have their romantic plans foiled by a seat belt that won't open -- a typical metaphor from the lightly poetic songwriter. (And was it any accident that, late in the song, he referred to his car as a "calaboose" [i.e., a jail]?) Fronting a rhythm section, Berry played more guitar than usual, but "No Particular Place to Go" sounded a lot like his 1950s recordings, especially 1957's "School Days." At a time when the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Johnny Rivers were hitting the charts with his old songs, however, that only made "No Particular Place to Go" timely, and by July 1964, it was in the Top Ten -- Berry's first Top Ten hit in six years and his last one for eight. That same month, Jerry Lee Lewis covered it at a concert recorded for his The Greatest Live Show on Earth LP, released later in the year. But it has not earned as many cover versions as many of Berry's other songs; his followers seem to prefer his '50s work to the material he recorded in much the same style in the '60s. One exception is George Thorogood, who played "No Particular Place to Go" frequently in his shows and put it on his gold 1982 album Bad to the Bone.