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LETTER 04

GO, JOHNNY, GO

Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan to Chuck Berry

15 October 1986

Nine years after Voyager 1 and 2 left our planet, astronomer Carl Sagan and writer, director Ann Druyan wrote a letter to rock and roll legend Chuck Berry, whose sixtieth birthday was approaching. He was one of the artists selected to feature on the Voyager Golden Record, the twelve-inch gold-plated copper disc sent with the Voyager spacecraft, and containing sounds and images selected to show the diversity of life on Earth – the subject of Sagan’s letter to Alan Lomax (Letter 03).

THE LETTER

Dear Chuck Berry,

When they tell you your music will live forever, you can usually be sure they’re exaggerating. But Johnny B. Goode is on the Voyager interstellar records attached to NASA’s Voyager spacecraft—now two billion miles from Earth and bound for the stars. These records will last a billion years or more.

Happy 60th birthday, with our admiration for the music you have given to this world . . .

Go, Johnny, go.

Ann Druyan

Carl Sagan

Cornell University,

Ithaca, New York

On behalf of the Voyager Interstellar Record

Committee