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"The Killer," Jerry Lee Lewis, Dies at 87

One of my all time favorite musicians. This dude blew the lid off the joint when he came out. So influential.
Yeah. Marrying his 13 year old cousin and having seven wives, with two of them being found dead under mysterious circumstances, was more than a black eye. But on stage he was a total original.

(Variety) Singer-pianist Jerry Lee Lewis, the hell-raising, larger-than-life rock ‘n’ roll pioneer and latter-day country star, has died, according to a rep, Zach Farnum. He was 87.

“Judith, his seventh wife, was by his side when he passed away at his home in Desoto County, Mississippi, south of Memphis,” Farnum’s statement said. “He told her, in his final days, that he welcomed the hereafter, and that he was not afraid.”

Lewis — an inaugural inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, a 2005 recipient of a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award and, at the age of 86, a 2022 inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame — was a powerhouse keyboardist, mercurial vocalist and rampaging, unpredictable showman who could master virtually any song, be it rock ‘n’ roll, country, R&B, gospel or pop.


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dancingtongue · 80-89, M
Sun Music's rock-a-billies are pretty much gone: Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and now Jerry Lee. My grandson did a great impression of Jerry Lee doing Great Balls of Fire at his piano recital when he was about 10, kicking back the piano bench, everything short of playing the piano with his boot heels. Some pretty good old videos on YouTube of their Sun Music days and later revivals on The Johnny Cash Show and other TV shows.
hunkalove · 61-69, M
@Ynotisay I was in that studio in 1978. It still had the vibe!
dancingtongue · 80-89, M
@Ynotisay Of classic country music as well.
Ynotisay · M
@hunkalove That must have been SO cool. I bet you could feel the vibe. That's a spot I'd like to check out. "If the walls could talk."
[media=https://youtu.be/F569_t2jCio]Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls Of Fire! (1957)
Ynotisay · M
@markansas What I've always been drawn to during that era of movies and music is the sub-context that was going on. You couldn't be overtly sexual so it would be buried a couple of levels down. "Great Balls of Fire." He wasn't just singing about fireballs. :)
@Ynotisay back then they more careful with the way they did it.. lots of good stuff.
Ynotisay · M
@markansas Yep. It was subtly subversive. I think it demanded way more skill than what we see today.
hunkalove · 61-69, M
I saw him in concert once. He was so drunk he could hardly talk.
BackyardShaman · 61-69, M
@hunkalove yep that’s him😂🤣👍
Quimliqer · 70-79, M
@hunkalove Went to a Roger Miller concert where they had to bring him a chair!!
Quimliqer · 70-79, M
RIP Jerry!! Your music started the movement!!
dubkebab · 56-60, M
He certainly blazed a trail.I like a fair amount of danger in my music and the man certainly had a knack for delivering that.His name came up several times when I was conversing with fellow Sun recording artist Sleepy LaBeef years ago after a show.He was one of the greats,bringing that mean ol' Pentecostal brimstone into the mission of putting wild gyrations into teenaged hips around the world.

[media=https://youtu.be/IK_qQm7DWVU]
Here's Henry Rollins sharing a few reminiscences ...I agree that that particular piano belongs in the Smithsonian collection.
BackyardShaman · 61-69, M
Wow, he was unique for sure. I saw him as a kid myself in the very early 1970s or late 60s in a smaller club. By then he was sort of not so popular, but still good. I remember him trying to introduce his band and getting confused, also throwing firecrackers 🧨 at the piano at the end of the show during Great Balls of Fire. I remember What Made Milwaukee Famous as being the 2nd song in the set. A true classic!!
Ynotisay · M
@BackyardShaman There's a great memory. Very cool that you saw him live. And throwing firecrackers makes perfect sense. :)
hunkalove · 61-69, M
@BackyardShaman He performed in a bar in my small hometown after his marriage scandal. He was transitioning to Country and I guess that was the best he could do at the time.
BackyardShaman · 61-69, M
@hunkalove same era you may have seen him on the same tour! The local country station played “What Made Milwaukee Famous (made a loser out of me) and “One Has My Heart the Other Has My Name” often back then.
SW-User
You haven't heard Chantilly Lace like this - - - -

[media=https://youtu.be/kLpHocRHwYk]
@SW-User he was the coolest
SW-User
@metaldog His epitaph.
dancingtongue · 80-89, M
@SW-User Sorry, but you cannot beat the Big Bopper's version.
dancingtongue · 80-89, M
Was just watchinga YouTube video of a performance of his at Knott's Berry Farm. He does "You Win Again", and at the end credits Hank Williams Sr. "Hank wrote it. Hank sang it. I got a Gold Record for it. In 1957; just yesterday. The other side wasn't bad either, so I'll play it for you too" and then launches into "Great Balls of Fire".
[media=https://youtu.be/NINa9SMLG9E]Jerry Lee Lewis I got a Woman.
Dino11 · M
And Jimmy Swaggart's Cousin
BarbossasHusband · 36-40, M
And only yesterday I was surprised he's still alive,thanks to the tmz article about falsely claiming he passed the day before 😲
he looks so old here
[media=https://youtu.be/zfeJq4Zos_c]Jesus, Hold My Hand | Jimmy Lee Swaggart and Jerry Lee Lewis
if there is a god i hope this is true .. for he deserves it
[media=https://youtu.be/_k3ZfveGynE]Jerry Lee Lewis - Boogie Woogie Country Man
he was just so Cool 💙[media=https://youtu.be/DrBIixJjv1Q]

 
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