Thanks Gargoyle for an informative and interesting post. In its time, "Johnny B Goode" must have come over as a stunningly original piece of music. You can still say that it has often been copied but never bettered. It is one of the greatest songs ever to come out of rock and roll. It passes all the tests. It is exciting, witty, articulate and it's a good story. I think it is one of the likely candidates of rock and roll to evolve into a folk song - and I don't think there are many of those.