MARVIN BERRY (Harry Waters), in Back to the Future I/II , was the leader, lead vocalist, and guitarist for the Marvin Berry and the Starlighters band. He had a cousin, Chuck Berry, also in the business.On November 12, 1955, Marvin Berry and the Starlighters had the gig to play for the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance at Hill Valley High School, Hill Valley, California. In the original or prime timeline, that gig was uneventful. A couple (George McFly, Lorraine Baines) kissed for the first time. That was all. Marvin probably never even noticed.In another timeline (that had four variations, none of which changed their role), a stranger came to the town in the same weekend they did. They encountered this stranger when they took a brief break from their playing and went out to Berry's car for a marijuana smoke. While they were doing this, three obvious kid gangsters bundled this stranger into the trunk of the car. Berry remembers that one sported the crew cut or skin cut of the military, one wore 3-D glasses though there was no 3-D movie to see, and one looked like nothing so much as a safety match, the way he wore his hair.When the trunk slammed shut, Lionel, who actually had the car registered in his name, got out of it and asked, What the [aitch-eeh-double-hockeysticks] are you doing to my car? Beat it, Spook! This doesn't concern you! said 3-D.Instantly the other members of the band got out of the car. First out was Marvin, who said, Who are you calling 'spook'? and followed it up with an insult to 3-D's private parts. (It's relevant at this point to mention that the Starlighters were black, and these punk gangsters were white.)3-D didn't sound so cocky anymore. Skinhead said, : L-l-listen guys,. I-I-I don't wanna mess with no reefer addicts... (Back in those days, those who didn't actually do marijuana thought reefers made you mad, as in insane. ) Match said nothing, but looked even more nervous than his buddies did.Marvin and his band chased them away, telling them to run home to their mothers.Suddenly the stranger started to pound on the trunk lid from the inside and yell for help. Marvin asked one of the band members for the key, and the stranger yelled that the keys were in the trunk with him! So Marvin and his crew got a pry bar to try to jimmy the trunk open. They got it open, all right, but Marvin sliced his hand, but good, doing it.The stranger handed back the keys, thanked them profusely for letting him out, and ran. A minute later he was back, breathlessly begging them to go back in and play the next number. But how could they? Marvin was injured and couldn't play, and without Marvin, the band wouldn't play. The stranger then told a weird and nonsense-sounding tale about how a certain couple wouldn't kiss if the band didn't play, and if that didn't happen, he, the stranger, was history. Marvin repeated: The dance is over, unless you know someone who can play the guitar. And the stranger volunteered!The stranger, and the band, went back inside, with Marvin wearing a bandage on his injured hand and wrist. They played and sang Earth Angel. Marvin could still sing, though he couldn't play. Unaccountably, the stranger started to weaken, and then--Marvin was never sure about this, but the stranger seemed to go transparent. It was right about the time some redhead on the dance floor cut in on someone who looked a little like an out-of-place nerd. But as soon as the nerd walked up to carrot-head and shoved him aside, the stranger perked up and went back to his playing, as if nothing had happened. So the band finished its number.And then the stranger, for an encore, led the band in an entirely different number. He said it was an oldie where I come from, but it was definitely not old. It was fast, and had an infectious beat to it. Marvin liked it so much, he excused himself and called his cousin Chuck: Chuck? Marvin! You know who this is, Marvin Berry, your cousin! Say, that new sound you said you were looking for? Well, LISTEN TO THIS! And he held the phone toward the stage.That number ended badly, when the stranger started crawling on the floor with his guitar and forcing it to make sounds like two mean cats fighting. He sheepishly said, Well, I guess you're not ready for that. But your kids are gonna love it. When Chuck Berry came out, some years later, with a song called Johnny B. Goode, Marvin wasn't surprised. He never knew, though, where the stranger had gotten that song, or how Chuck could have reproduced it exactly, though he had only heard part of it. For that matter, he never saw that stranger again.That is, until, thirty years later, a new band called Marty McFly and the Pinheads started to climb the charts with their smash hits from MCA Records. Marvin took one look and said, That's the guy! But Marty McFly firmly denied ever jamming with him for a 1955 gig. Not even when the two met at the annual banquet of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences--the Grammy Academy. Come to think of it, the idea of him jamming with Marty McFly back in the day was six kinds of ridiculous. After all, the guy he jammed with was young enough to be Marty McFly's son!Wasn't he? Show less «