S/D Jerry Lee Lewis

wow, Live At the Star Club absolutely smokes! The drumming on "Good Golly Miss Molly"! I don't know if this is one of those "fake crowd" live albums but the crowd seems pretty nuts, and who wouldn't be: I imagine JLL was physically all over the place. In fact I think his vocals are the weakest part of the album, but he was such a physical performer that I reckon it was hard to sing. And I gather that part of his appeal is a kind of cool intensity, so that singing too wildly would give too much away.

Huh, I think his singing's great on that album.
BTW Jerry Rocks on the Bear Family label, a single disc covering 1957-1977, is awesome. It's got by far the best-sounding versions of his early Sun stuff.

The singing is great, but a lot cooler than the white heat of the rest of the performance, and so (for what I'm getting out of the record on first listen) less good than the rest.

wow, Live At the Star Club absolutely smokes!

Yeah, it does indeedy. There's another 2-on-1 live album from Bear Family called "Greatest Live Shows On Earth" which doesn't even come close to "Star Club".

I still need a 2 or 3CD condensation of his Sun stuff. One disc isn't enough and the mondo Bear Family box is too much.

Star Club is off the hook, it's true. It's not a fake live album, is it? That would kinda break my heart! Or not, it would still be awesome.

by the way, there are oodles and oodles of unreleased tapes of JLL (I'm not talkin' Bear Family, neither, Killer) from the mid-seventies on. There's a few hours of Jerry Lee asolo at the piano when he got that Godawful Sire record for Andy Paley which are wildly impromptu, musically exquisite and funny as hell.

anybody have any of these? ysi?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FA7XZAPZL._SS400_.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evUNYDXfnHo

76 today. I love playing this clip for my class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yRdDnrB5kM

I forgot to tell my story, though, about how his marriage derailed his career. "There were just three problems..."

We had this one around the house when I was a kid, still one of my favorites:

http://991.com/newGallery/Jerry-Lee-Lewis-The-Greatest-Live-373286.jpg

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/482391_549044151802491_351044905_n.jpg

I ended up quite happy with "Jerry Lee Rocks" from Bear Family, a single disc collection of his rockingest tunes. Their ...Rocks series is awesome in general, got about 8 or 9 so far.

Charly's "Sun Essentials" is a fantastic, affordable box set covering that period. 4 Discs, 120+ songs, quality annotation. Biggest quibbles are the omission of "Sail Away" (duet w/Charlie Rich) and the thematic programming (splitting individual discs half Rock/half Country or traditional) is kinda "eh?" at times, an idea better on paper than in execution.

Egads, Amazon has that set for http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Essentials-Jerry-Lee-Lewis/dp/B000H8SEAS/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363750310&sr=1-1&keywords=jerry+lee+lewis+sun+essentials7.55, although it appears to be the reissue w/downsized packaging. I got my Dad the earlier longbook squarebound version for Father's Day ages ago.

I meant http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Essentials-Jerry-Lee-Lewis/dp/B000H8SEAS/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1363750310&sr=1-1&keywords=jerry+lee+lewis+sun+essentials7.55

good deal. that live comp from last year is pretty rad, some good bonus stuff on the vegas disc.

Saw this on fb: A postcard from '65 showing him in the kind of place he was getting booked into at the time:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/431996_203737946441906_1825785831_n.jpg

haha, holy shit

haviin fun w/the killer on tv 1976

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pMerbObbcQ

Really love the slinky version of Rambling Rose I have by him. Sounds like it should be used as an ideal model for the song. But I bet most people are used to the falsetto sung MC5 one.

Also love the use of guitar on his material, remember thinking it sounded about a decade early when I was first listening to it, but don't have recording dates for the material I have.

Saw this on fb: A postcard from '65 showing him in the kind of place he was getting booked into at the time:

OTOH, tell me you would not love to see a show at tarry town

i assume everybody has heard that long theological conversation between JLL and sam phillips that's on the bear family box set?

I'm still trying to wrap my head around that photo. Is the band stationed down the hill because the club is too tiny? It's definitely narrow, but who knows how far it goes back? Or is the band just too loud for the diners? (xpost)

it's an outdoor thing. terry town was an amusement park in southern tennessee. kind of fair grounds type of thing.

also JLL is a fine-looking man. check him out at about 11:10 in that video posted above

one show i saw with jerry lee he had trouble getting his foot on the keyboard. god bless him for keeping on.

i assume everybody has heard that long theological conversation between JLL and sam phillips that's on the bear family box set?

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, May 29, 2013 1:12 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Stanley Booth used a transcript of this dialogue as the epigraph for the chapter chronicling Altamont in The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones.

And yes, i would have loved to have seen Jerry Lee at Terry Town (w/ a taco plate at La Casa Restaurant afterwards too).

oh yeah, he's probably a murderer too...

http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2012/12/19/bgs-the-strange-and-mysterious-death-of-mrs-jerry-lee-lewis/

(he is defo a serial abuser)

was so tempted to get a ticket for his london show next month, but then i saw that prices were over £200! what is he like these days?

Jesus, he must be like a hundred years old at this point.

crazy 18-disc bear family jerry lee sun sessions box forthcoming:

Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Records The Collected Works 'What the hell else do you need?' 18-CD box (28 x 28 x 6 cm) with 2 cloth-bound books (add. 300 pages) in large-format clothbound slipcase, 623 individual titles. Total playing time approximately 23 hours and 30 minutes. • So now. Finally. The only truly complete compilation of all recordings of Jerry Lee Lewis for Sun Records! • Almost 60 years ago this story began in Sun Studio. It has taken years to gather each received record and any ever recorded version. • All previous issues have now become obsolete! • In this box puts years of work with meticulous compare and elaborate search for the original tapes! • 18 brimful CDs, 616 individual titles ... including more than 100 never heard before versions! • All mono versions! All stereo versions! All overdubs made ​​by Sun! • Two large bound books: one with a discography and commentaries, the other with pictures, many of which are first shown!

Read more at: https://www.bear-family.de/detail/index/sArticle/518284

i saw him maybe eight years ago; his band played for forty minutes, he came out and did three songs and then left. they were a solid three songs though. he got his foot up on the piano!
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/08/jerry-lee-lewis-interview-heaven-hell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGmyHivWyN8&sns=tw

89 and still performing live:

http://www.villages-news.com/villagers-thrilled-at-chance-to-see-comic-legend-jerry-lewis-at-the-sharon/

85 today

Damn, he’s getting younger!

That prior link was about JERRY LEWIS (now dead).

p much the same haircut his whole life

That prior link was about JERRY LEWIS (now dead).

I saw Jerry Lee Lewis at Riot Fest in 2018. My favorite moment as we waited for him was when one fan yelled out "we want JERRY LEWIS!" and someone next to us responded (with a hint of irritation and no humor) "HE DIED TWO YEARS AGO."

lmao

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jerry-lee-lewis-dead-obituary-1234616945/

Not someone who will ever rest in peace, IMO. Good remembrance here:
https://variety.com/2022/music/news/jerry-lee-lewis-dead-singer-great-balls-of-fire-1235415340/

Still recall the first time I heard him in the 80s on a cable feature (with Fats Domino, I believe). I was utterly transfixed by how aggressively he played the piano. I can hardly imagine what that must've been like in the 1950's.

The Dennis Quaid movie was an abomination.

See you on the other side, Killer.

Go play "Live At The Star Club" really loudly!! RIP Jerry, almost certainly not wearing a halo but his art will live for quite some time.

Amazing that he and Little Richard outlived all their supposedly less xtremo peers. Some more fave sets:
Jerry Lee Lewis & Linda Gail Lewis: Together
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nHbofHlcJ-OkdSuFPW0OOBN3eUaDroZtI
The (Complete) London Sessions (not seeing one link for the whole thing, but looks like all or most tracks are on youtube)
Rock & Roll Time
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_keIMZyXcZ0EvpiB9_bwVseM1gnfl_b4r0
That's from 2014, might be his last all-new album. Better title: Country Piano Boogie TimeNote that here he covers a version (birdistheword indicates that there are several) of Dylan's "Stepchild," real good Think there's a wild live JLL performance of that somewhere on the 'Tube, not seeing it just now.

He also covered this Dylan:
"Rita May"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfsQIVgf3Yg

Could have sworn I've also seen a cover of "To Be Alone With You," which always sounded like it was written with him in mind, of course.

Go play "Live At The Star Club" really loudly!!

So that's it: everyone on Mount Rushmore (whether 5, 6, or 7 faces) dead. My favourite is "Lewis Boogie," second "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"--never really cared for "Great Balls of Fire."

No members of the inaugural 1986 Rock Hall of Fame left; Smokey Robinson the only one left from 1987.

I heard "Great Balls of Fire" so many times in so many (usually innocuous) contexts when I was a kid that it seemed like background music for a while. I love it now and I grew to appreciate it immensely when I tried playing it at home. That's when I realized how much was put into it - like you really have to pound the shit out of the piano and at warp speed, to the point where it's almost chaotic. But on top of that, Jerry Lee's singing seems to be in a different gear. There's a lot of passion underneath, but he phrasing is so smooth and completely in control, letting just enough to bubble up to the surface when needed. It's a pretty amazing performance.

*but his phrasing

I should also emphasize, you can't just play the song, you have to try replicating the performance that's on the record to really appreciate what Lewis is doing.

xxxp Another Place, Another Time, She Still Comes Around and She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye are great albums. The two CD All Killer No Filler! anthology from Rhino also does a very good job of exploring his career with fine liner notes by Jimmy Guterman. (Guterman originally tried to do a triple CD set, but he was told to cut it down.) FWIW, if you remove the Sun tracks and the live Star Club cuts from the aforementioned LP, what's left of All Killer No Filler! squeezes into one 79 minute CD and makes a fine post-Sun compilation.

you should hear his version of john cage's 4'33", wow

_The Greatest Live Show on Earth_ from 1964 is not quite as wild as Star Club but well worth hearing

For those who haven't already read it, the long 1984 Rolling Stone article about the death of Shawn Stevens Lewis is important for understanding how fucked up and evil JLL was and how his milieu enabled his worst behavior: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-strange-and-mysterious-death-of-mrs-jerry-lee-lewis-179980🕸/🕸

thanks

rollingstone.com doesn't paywall me and I don't have a subscription, not sure what's up with that

A little bit of me wants to say that Lewis's country stuff is great and worth listening to

But a big bit of me has to say I don't feel like praising this monster just cos he's dead

Yeah, I hear you. Talk about having to separate the art from the artist. I knew some of this but it sure puts it all in stark terms: https://www.vulture.com/2022/10/jerry-lee-lewis-obituary-1935-2022.html

Never in the history of art!

That Vulture article is really well-written, thanks for the link. (It’s helpful that it summarizes the core details of the Rolling Stone piece… I tried reading that a few days ago, but it’s incredibly long.)

Yes, same.

Still trying to locate the Jo Carol Pierce song about him.

Just sent some messages to some of my regexes in Texas.

thanks

rollingstone.com doesn't paywall me and I don't have a subscription, not sure what's up with that

I think Bob Mehr's remembrance probably nails it - he saw Lewis perform many times but only met him once when Lewis was already about 80 and stuck in bed thanks to a back ailment. From that interview alone, Lewis came off as the "purest artist and most frightening person" Mehr had ever encountered.

I'm not sure if it's the nature of culture or just an instinctive fallacy to engage in an artist's work mostly as a reflection of their character, but I've always been wary of that, whether it ends up in some kind of hero worship or unforgiving demonization. There's a great line by Jimmy Stewart's character in Anatomy of a Murder where he says "I've had to learn that people aren't just good or just bad - people are many things," and that's especially true for artists since they tend to be more complex and interesting than your average person, which is probably why they end up dedicating their lives to creative work.

Lewis was always scary, and he's not a guy I'd hesitate to find guilty if I was on the jury for one of his many offenses. But he's a fascinating guy - that's not a quality that hinges on upstanding character - and a lot of his most compelling work probably comes out of that. Here's a guy who knows he's got a gift for rock n' roll and delivers on it even though he truly believes it's the devil's music and could very well damn him for eternity. Meanwhile, his best country records are probably the ones where he convincingly portrays a shit who knows his demons and believes he's too weak to escape them despite the damage it's doing to himself, his marriage/relationship, etc. It's terrible we can find those things in his personal life, but I don't think those are great records for voyeuristic value. They bring to mind the things Rainer Werner Fassbinder used to say about great movies, particularly Douglas Sirk's work, and how they make you ask "what’s really going on with me and my life?" and how they leave you with a better understanding of what the world's like and what it's doing to you.

"I've had to learn that people aren't just good or just bad - people are many things"

At the end of Joe Posnanski's chapter on Tris Speaker in The Baseball 100, he quotes Buck O'Neil: "People aren't one thing."

WIthout Jerry how would we have had that magical scene in Top Gun

We mark the life of Lewis, who died Oct. 28, by listening to archival interviews with his sister, pianist/singer Linda Gail Lewis, and with Myra Lewis Williams, who married Jerry Lee when she was 13.

How country music allowed Jerry Lee Lewis to vary his wild-man persona
November 8, 20222:06 PM ET
Heard on Fresh Air
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KEN TUCKER