Michael J. Fox Clears Up That BACK TO THE FUTURE Guitar and Music “Inconsistency”
For decades, fans of Back to the Future have obsessed over every detail of the film’s timeline, dissecting each paradox, theory, and, in this case, guitar.
Remember the Enchantment Under the Sea dance scene, when Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly rocks out to Johnny B. Goode in 1955? Well, the guitar he plays is a Gibson ES-345. The only problem is, that model didn’t exist yet.
In his new memoir, Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, Fox addresses what he calls “a temporal inconsistency that guitar aficionados and Back to the Future fans have pointed out again and again.
“Granted, this is noteworthy only for the thousands of Future heads who clock every detail in the movie and parse every quirk in the timeline continuum.”
So, was it an intentional Easter egg from the filmmakers? A cheeky nod to the film’s time-travel chaos? Nope. Fox sets the record straight, saying:
“But there’s no cinematic Easter egg intended here—the film’s art department simply picked the ES-345 because it evoked the iconic wine-red axe that Chuck Berry famously duckwalked across stages all over the world.”
The Back to the Future team didn’t bend time to grab a 1958 guitar for a 1955 dance, they just wanted Marty to look cool. The ES-345 was chosen because it resembled the kind of guitar Chuck Berry played, even though Berry’s go-to model was the ES-350T.
Of course, once you start digging into this scene, the timeline quirks keep coming. The film famously shows Marvin Berry calling his “cousin” Chuck to share Marty’s “new sound.”
Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode was recorded in late 1957 and released in 1958. It was reportedly written a couple of years early, and was most likely being written in 1955. So, Chuck had already come up with the song before the dance.
On top of that, Berry’s breakout hit “Maybellene” was recorded in May 1955 and released that June, long before Marty shredded on stage. While it doesn’t have that badass opening riff like “Johnny B. Goode,” it’s definitely the rock ‘n roll style Chuck Berry would become known for.
So, Berry had already discovered that “New Sound” before the Enchantment Under the Sea dance took place.