Jerry Lee Lewis, who died final week, lived a lifetime of controversy
Picture by Rick Diamond/Getty Photos
He known as himself “the final man standing,” a reference to the rock ‘n’ roll icons of which he was among the many most notable. Jerry Lee Lewis died final week at age 87. He was the final in a line of rock greats whose information I performed as a 16-year-old disc jockey at a small radio station in Rockville, Md.
Lewis, often known as “Killer,” was preceded in demise by Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Johnny Money. There may be a traditional image of the 4 of them taken at Solar Studio in Memphis in December 1956. They had been dubbed “The Million Greenback Quartet.”
Lewis was controversial, to place it mildly. After he married his 13-year-old cousin (whereas he was nonetheless married to another person), radio stations refused to play his information, and private appearances had been canceled. To the extent he was capable of overcome what was then universally considered a scandal and ethical failure, it was the facility of his music that eased his comeback.
Whereas his finest recognized songs are “Nice Balls of Hearth,” “Breathless” and “Entire Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” (a not so refined attraction to a lady to interact in intimate exercise with him), Lewis had a high-quality nation voice and even recorded gospel songs, although his life and life-style had been about as reverse Gospel’s message because the habits of one other cousin, TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart. Swaggart had confessed to an unspecified sin following publication of a narrative in Penthouse journal that claimed he had cavorted with a New Orleans prostitute, which he denied.
Lewis’ different cousin, Mickey Gilley, was far much less controversial, sticking with nation and western music and establishing a well-known restaurant — Gilley’s — in Pasadena, Texas. Gilley’s featured a mechanical bull patrons might journey. The bull appeared within the movie “City Cowboy,” starring John Travolta.
Like Elvis, Lewis was a power of nature. I noticed him carry out dwell as soon as close to the tip of his profession (Little Richard and Chuck Berry had been additionally on this system). Whereas he was phoning it in by then, sometimes the previous boogie-woogie fashion got here by means of.
I additionally recall seeing him on “Dick Clark’s Saturday Evening” TV present on the Little Theatre in New York. Lewis wished to carry out “Nice Balls of Hearth” with tubes on each side of the stage that will shoot fireplace into the air. The fireplace marshal was known as in to approve the units, which some thought posed a danger to the previous and possibly extremely flammable theater. The stunt was authorized, however firefighters stood by. Anybody who noticed Lewis carry out together with what appeared like flame throwers will always remember it.
There’s a video on YouTube that includes Lewis with Ray Charles and Fat Domino, backed up by Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wooden. It runs seven and a half minutes, and I defy anybody to take a seat nonetheless whereas watching it.
Lewis was one of many many white performers who performed what some known as again then “negro music.” As with Elvis, many dad and mom additionally labeled it “the satan’s music” however later principally got here to just accept it. Little Richard stated white youngsters stored Pat Boone information on the highest of their dressers however hid his music and that of different black performers within the drawers so their dad and mom wouldn’t see them.
Jerry Lee Lewis had a method distinctive to himself. I’m placing on a few of his information (now on CDs, although I nonetheless have a number of 45s leftover from that radio station) and recall what it was like as an adolescent to have been left “breathless-uh.”
Cal Thomas’ newest e-book is “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers and the Way forward for the US.”
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