Jerry Lee Lewis has died at the age of 87, of “natural causes & rdquor; according to the statement from his representative. He has died Jerry Lee Lewis, the ‘Killer, and it is as if he had died a mythological being, the incredible wild man from Louisiana, almost bordering on the state of Mississippi, there is Ferriday, his birth town. With his death, a fundamental lineage of contemporary culture is extinguished, little valued however today, a long time ago, several generations have succeeded each other since then and who cares what happened in the 1950s: the dynasty of the original ‘rockers’ is extinguished. There is no longer one of those guys who set the world on fire. Jerry Lee Lewis was the last, at least of the greats.
Jerry Lee’s music questions the official story of rock and roll, that according to which the genre of miscegenation between black music and white music was born (miscegenation made by whites, yes). In the same way that with Little Richard by flag it can be argued that the whole racket came from rhythm and blues, with Jerry Lee’s music it can be argued that it came from country. Does not matter.
poor but with piano
The fact is that his parents were poor, but they had a piano at home. With which Jerry Lee was soon revealed as a prodigy, with a sense of entertainment as well. He left the path of the Bible behind and after not a few lurches stood at the age of 21 at the Sun Records studios in Memphis, Elvis Presley’s shuttle. From then on everything went smoothly: the singles ‘Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on’ and, above all, ‘Great balls of fire’ were bombs.
The derailment was also quick. He married Myra Gale Brown, her 13 year old cousin, and insisted that I accompany him on his first UK tour. The British press put on their boots as soon as the couple landed. The ‘tour’ was canceled and Jerry Lee became a stinker From having a cache of 10,000 dollars, the bolo went on to accept 250 for acting in any gambling den. It would have been the grave of many. Not from the ‘Killer’.
sympathetic public
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The pianist and singer was reborn as a country artist. Neither was anything very different from what he had propelled to success on the back of the first wave of rock and roll, less crazy if anything, and for an understanding public with the slips caused by love and the bottle. His discography of the 1960s and 1970s is endless and it’s no joke. In fact, there are those who prefer it to his bombastic initial stage.
It is not clear if a story that was neither painted for the original Jerry Lee is true or silly, was never denied or confirmed by the musician, give wings to the legend. Paramount Theater in New York, 1958. The ‘Killer’ ends his performance by setting the piano on fire and on his way to the dressing room he says to the next artist in the show, none other than chuck berry: “Get over this, black.” The pragmatic Berry never bothered to give his version of himself, to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, perhaps because no one offered him money to speak out.