Let It Rock

Album: Reelin' & Rockin' (1959)
Charted: 6 64
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  • In the heat of the day down in Mobile Alabama
    Working on the railroad with the steel driving hammer
    I gotta get some money to buy some brand new shoes
    Tryin' to find somebody to take away these blues
    "She don't love me" hear them singing in the sun
    Payday's coming and my work is all done

    Well, in the evening when the sun is sinking low
    All day I been waiting for the whistle to blow
    Sitting in a tee pee built right on the tracks
    Rolling them bones until the foreman comes back
    Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about
    We've got an off-schedule train comin' two miles out

    Everybody's scrambling, running around
    Picking up their money, tearing the tee pee down
    Foreman wants to panic, 'bout to go insane
    Trying to get the workers out the way of the train
    Engineer blows the whistle loud and long
    Can't stop the train, have to let it roll on Writer/s: Chuck Berry, E Anderson
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management, ENTERTAINMENT ONE U.S. LP
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 14

  • Query Tho from LondonBut hang on what happens in the song? Do they all get killed? The foreman is trying to get the workers out the way of the train and the next thing we know gotta let the train roll on. This song left me very uneasy as a kid and still does. Is it based on an actual incident??
  • Michael Val Hietter from Winder, GaCountry Singer Mel McDaniel recorded a cover of this song that he titled "Let it Roll" which included a chorus of sorts (just "let it roll" four times plus the last two lines of the preceding verse over the music of the verses).
  • Brian from Sunderland, EnglandGreat song but the best version I've heard is by the Animals on their live album at the Club A-Go-Go.
    Eric Burdons vocals are brilliant.
  • Rockman from BraintreeThis tune kills it not matter who does it, it seems. Love the pepped up Yardbirds version. Stones one is the best, 1971, Jagger's accentuated vowels.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn February 12th 1960, Chuck Berry was the headliner act* at the Apollo Theatre in the Harlem section of New York City...
    At the time his "Let It Rock" was at #81 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; ten days later on February 22nd it would peak at #64 {for 1 week} and it stayed on the chart for 6 weeks...
    The record's B-side, "Too Pooped to Pop", also made the Top 100, it reached #42 on the chart...
    Charles Edward Anderson Berry will celebrate his 90th birthday this coming October 18th {2016}...
    * Other acts on the bill were Little Anthony and the Imperials, Baby Washington and the Mello-Kings.
  • Ron from Los Angels, CaI think Bob Seger's version in Live Bullet is still the best. He made a studio version which is just as good as very as studio versions are concerned.
  • Gregory from Buena Vista, CoBasing my opinion on the 'Let It Rock' version from The Great Twenty-Eight CD, this is the immortal Chuck Berry at his composer/guitarist Best...give a listen, again, to Chuck's re-creating the train's warning air-horns, just after the line "...engineer's blowin' the whistle, loud and long, he can't stop the train, got to let it roll on...". Other excellent covers are the aformentioned Rolling Stones 'Rarities' version, and the Georgia Satellites' version from their CD of the same name. Absolute killer Rock'n'Roll at it's finest. ..All Hail Chuck Berry!
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyMy favorite Berry song; but not the original 1:47 version. In 1996 a live CD called "Blue Suede Shoes" was released by Newsound Ltd. featuring various artist. The 1st song on the CD was Chuck doing 'Let It Rock'; it was 4:51 in length; there was no piano just Chuck and his guitar, it is one amazing performance!!!
  • Chase from Interlachen, Hithis is a awsome song i agree
  • Adam from Yarmouth, MeOne other person who made a song with the same name but have nothing in common with this one is Bon Jovi.
  • Kevin from Reading , PaAmong the notables who recorded this but were not mentioned in the song fact is Jerry Garcia, who used it as the lead off track on his "Compliments" album from 1974. Jerry's version is good, but not as good as the Chuckster's -- but then whose would be? When it comes to this kind of rock and roll song, Berry invented it. In fact, the only instance I can think of in which he gets outdone on one of his own songs would be an amazing take on "Little Queenie" by the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis.
  • Bianca Sanchez from Alburquerque, Nmtotally. Amazin' voice
  • Joe from Perth, Australiathe first few lines are seriously kick ass
  • Bianca Sanchez from Alburquerque, NmWhat? Im the first one?
    HOW CAN U NOT LOVE THIS SONG CHUCK BERRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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