In a recent critique of Back to the Future that I saw, a major complaint was that the movie implied a white man actually wrote Johnny B. Goode.  Now, let’ get a couple of things out of the way.  Yes, I am talking about a movie over 30 years old.  Yes, the critique I am referring to is a Cracked After Hours episode that, itself, is several years old now.  Yes, the movie has upsetting racist overtones throughout (the only way a black man could become mayor is if some white guy encouraged him to?).  Yes, given the creepy attempted rape and “we’re all pretty much ok with the rape” scene that took place moments before the supposed theft/invention of JBG, it seems like copyright issues my be the least disturbing thing in the movie.  But let’s set those things aside for another time.

All that aside, the criticism that Marty McFly wrote JBG is ridiculous.  In this universe, there is no way MM wrote this song.  In this universe, McFly didn’t write it and neither did Chuck Berry.  The song exists in perpetuity and the argument about who wrote the song becomes useless.  McFLy definitely did not write the song and it sort of looks like Berry didn’t write the song, either.  Chuck, that is, not Marvin.

But now that I think of it, maybe Marvin gets as much credit as anyone else.  In this universe, we’re basically told that art exists independent of artists or creators.  If neither Berry nor McFly wrote JBG, then JBG just existed and they both discovered it.  And if that’s the case, didn’t Marvin Berry play just as big a role in it’s discovery?

Which makes this movie way deeper than a guy who goes back in time to almost have sex with his mother and then watches her get sexually assaulted in front of him.  It’s a movie about art existing in the ether, just waiting for someone to pull it out of thin air.  Which is awesome, because it increases the likelihood that I could someday “create” a best selling novel.  All I need to do is have some cousin call me up and nudge me along.