Jerry Lee Lewis

2022 - 10 - 29

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Manila Bulletin"

Pioneering rocker Jerry Lee Lewis dead at 87 (Manila Bulletin)

NEW YORK (AFP) – Jerry Lee Lewis, a scandal-generating kingpin of 1950s American rock and roll who played a pivotal role in shaping the genre's sound, ...

“It was just another song to me,” he told The New York Times in 2006. Lee’s personal life continued to prove concerning and stormy. Born on September 29, 1935, in Ferriday, Louisiana, Lewis took to the keys at age nine. “I knew it was bad, I knew it was wrong,” Lewis later told The Washington Post. “He was groundbreaking and exciting, and he pulverized the piano.” By the summer of 1958, Lewis — nicknamed “The Killer” — was rocketing to the top, with fans packing shows, money flowing in, and a third hit, “Breathless,” climbing the charts.

Jerry Lee Lewis: Listen to 10 Songs From a Rock 'n' Roll Pioneer (The New York Times)

From “Great Balls of Fire” to “Over the Rainbow,” whether the songs were brash or tearful, Jerry Lee Lewis was indomitable.

“I’m not quite as young as I used to be,” Lewis said when I Written by Charlie Rich, “Who Will the Next Fool Be” had been widely covered by soul singers before Lewis recorded it on his self-titled 1979 album, with a studio band that included Elvis Presley’s guitar mainstay, James Burton. “Old Jerry Lee should have been that kind of fool,” he yodels, after explaining that he’s incorrigible; years later, he’d sing it with Keith Richards. But even as he wallows in heartbreak, he still lets loose some yodels and splashy piano in the chorus. Hall wrote this song, talk-sung by a hard-drinking honky-tonk patron who’s driven to tears by a song: “Jerry Lee did all right until the music started,” Lewis sings, dropping his name into the song as he often did. And his music, even when he was making it within the Nashville country establishment in the 1960s and 1970s, chafed at confinement.

Jerry Lee Lewis, outrageous rock 'n' roll star, dies at 87 (The Manila Times)

JERRY Lee Lewis, the untamable rock 'n' roll pioneer whose outrageous talent, energy and ego collided on such definitive records as "Great Balls of Fire" ...

"But you know it's strange, the same music that they kicked me out of school for is the same kind of music they play in their churches today. He won a Grammy in 1987 as part of an interview album that was cited for best spoken word recording, and he received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2005. Lewis had only a handful of other pop hits, including "High School Confidential" and "Breathless," but they were enough to ensure his place as a rock 'n' roll architect. The Killer not only outlasted his contemporaries, but saw his life and music periodically reintroduced to younger fans, including the 1989 biopic "Great Balls of Fire," starring Dennis Quaid, and Ethan Coen's 2022 documentary "Trouble in Mind." The following year, "Whole Lotta Shakin'" was selected for the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, whose board praised the "propulsive boogie piano that was perfectly complemented by the drive of J.M. Told by company founder Sam Phillips to go learn some rock 'n roll, Lewis returned and soon hurried off "Whole Lotta Shakin'" in a single take. As a boy, he first learned to play guitar, but found the instrument too confining and longed for an instrument that only the rich people in his town could afford — a piano. But while Lewis toured in England, the press learned three damaging things: He was married to 13-year-old (possibly even 12-year-old) Myra Gale Brown, she was his cousin, and he was still married to his previous wife. Lewis briefly attended Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas, a fundamentalist Bible college, but was expelled, reportedly, for playing the "wrong" kind of music. His life changed when his father pulled up in his truck one day and presented him a dark-wood, upright piano. The last survivor of a generation of groundbreaking performers that included Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard, Lewis died at his Mississippi home, south of Memphis, Tennessee, representative Zach Farnum said in a release. "I probably would have rearranged my life a little bit different, but I never did hide anything from people," Lewis told the Wall Street Journal in 2014 when asked about the marriage.

Rock 'n' roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis dies at 87 (Rappler)

The hard rock musician known as 'The Killer' was one of the first performers to be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

Lewis’ string of hits was matched only by the tragedies in his life. He was determined to be a musician and made his way to Memphis. In his later years he settled down but biographer Rick Bragg recalled interviewing Lewis for his 2014 book Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Words. In 1957 he recorded two rollicking chart-topping hits for Sun – “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire,” which he had been reluctant to record because he considered it blasphemous – that helped define early rock ‘n’ roll. His career came to a halt during a 1958 tour of Britain. It turned out to be a brief stay, with Lewis reportedly being dismissed from the school for playing a boogie-woogie version of “My God Is Real” during an assembly. Lewis’ family attended the Assembly of God church and his mother ensured he was thoroughly informed about the evils of liquor, honky-tonks, and promiscuity. He absorbed a variety of musical influences, especially the Jimmie Rodgers records that belonged to his father, a farmer who went to prison for bootlegging. In his prime, he performed with daring, originality, and a lewd wild-man stage demeanor that thrilled his young fans as much as it agitated their parents. But a great son of a bitch.” The musician had been ill in recent years and suffered a stroke in 2019. His music was sometimes overshadowed by scandals – including his marriage to his 13-year-old cousin Myra in 1957.

Sir Elton John hails 'groundbreaking' Jerry Lee Lewis (Crow River Media)