48. Jerry Lee Lewis - Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1965)



















Track Listing

1. Mean Woman Blues
2. High School Confidential
3. Money
4. Matchbox
5. What'd I Say
6. Great Balls Of Fire
7. Good Golly Miss Molly
8. Lewis Boogie
9. Your Cheatin' Heart
10. Hound Dog
11. Long Tall Sally
12. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On
13. Down The Line

Review

Jerry Lee, this man was on constant speed. In fact, if there is one big complaint to make about this album is that it is too relentless. It is so relentless that you can't even appreciate how fast it is after the first couple of tracks, because you get used to the sound. The only exception is Your Cheatin' Heart, the only ballad in the album. A refreshing breather in the non-stop speed-fest.

This also means that it is one of the most infectious live rock albums ever. Lewis plays the piano like no other, in an instantly recognisable style which is that of a speed addict. If that's what marrying your 13 year old cousin does to you... it's still wrong.

It is a wonderfull album to listen too though, and put some drinks down you and you'll be completely enraptured by it. Kind of like the religious feeling of gospel in full swing. Great, great stuff. Whatever one might say about Jerry Lee Lewis' personal life there is no denying that he was fucking talented. Although a song like High School Confidential might not make him any friends considering his personal life.

Still, as shock goes in rock, you can't get much better than this. You can buy this album from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Great Balls of Fire
2. Money
3. What'd I Say
4. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

He liked them young.

No relation to Jerry Lewis.

From Wiki:

Although he was always a heavy drinker, he increasingly became plagued by alcohol and drug problems after Myra divorced him in 1970. Tragedy struck when Lewis' 19-year-old son, Jerry Lee Lewis Jr., was killed in a road accident in 1973. During the 1960s, his second son, Steve Allen Lewis, had drowned in a swimming pool accident. He also has a daughter, Phoebe Lewis, who is a singer and musician. Lewis' own erratic behaviour during the 1970s led to his being hospitalized after nearly dying from a bleeding ulcer. Again addicted to drugs, Lewis checked himself into the Betty Ford Clinic.

While celebrating his 41st birthday in 1976, Lewis playfully pointed a gun at his bass player, Butch Owens, and thinking it was not loaded, pulled the trigger, shooting him in the chest. Owens miraculously survived. A few weeks later (November 23) he was involved in another gun-related arrest at Elvis Presley's Graceland residence. Lewis had been invited by Presley, but security was unaware of the visit. When questioned about why he was at the front gate, Lewis displayed a gun and jokingly told the guard he had come to kill Presley.