Tim McFarlin, a legal method and communication fellow who recently concluded his service at the law school, previously wrote about the role of piano player Johnnie Johnson in crafting some of Berry's biggest hits.
A recent edition of The Buckley Report on WGHP Fox8 featured commentary from Tim McFarlin, a legal method and communication fellow for two years at the Elon University School of Law.
The segment by reporter Bob Buckley looked at the recent death of rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Chuck Berry, and how longtime piano player Johnnie Johnson may have played a role in writing some of Berry’s biggest hits. McFarlin has extensively explored a legal dispute between Johnson and Berry preceding Berry’s death in which Johnson claimed he had co-written nearly every song Berry put out in the 1950s and 60s, including such hits as “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Back in the U.S.A.” and “Nadine.”
McFarlin previously wrote about the case and its implications for copywright law for The Conversation, with the article later published by outlets including the Associated Press, Live Science and Lee Enterprises newspapers.
The 2002 lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but McFarlin told Buckley that it continues to draw interest from both legal and cultural standpoints. “The music they generated has been so influential in ways both seen and unseen with the Beatles, the Stones, Bob Dylan,” says McFarlin. “Because of how these cultural touchstones and things that swept across the world in this rock and roll revolution – whose ripples are still being felt, today – let’s dig deeper to understand what brought this to being.”
View the complete segment here.