Flipping heck Jerry Lee Lewis has died

[rtbcIII]

People who date 13 year old girls are usually prosecuted sir, in most countries it's a federal crime. It appears though Jerry and Bill Wyman escaped this because of "Rock n Roll" status.

I'm aware of that, thanks. And I totally agree it should be, in case it worries you. By the way, as you mention "most countries", "federal crime" is an expression applying to the US and has no meaning in most countries.

Thanks to everyone who explained (better than I would do as English is not my first language) in detail how the 1950's are not the 2020's, and that values and way of thinking evolve with time, something that seems unfortunately hard to grasp for an increasing number of people, it seems.

Your English is just fine, sir. Thank you for your good sense.

[Lord Reith]

An imperfect human being? Yes. Egomaniacal? Certainly. Possessed of criminal tendencies? For sure. But also the greatest rock and roller of that time, or possibly any time. No one could rock like The Killer. An incredible heartfelt voice and a genius at the piano, too.

Remember that all rock and roll stars aside are basically arseholes who get up to nasty stuff. They're horrible, vain, lecherous and greedy. That is the nature of the business. Later on in life they may "put on a collar and a tie" as John said and profess to be saints, but the dirt is always there if you want to go look for it. Jerry at least never pretended to be anything else other than what he was. I agree it's pretty shocking by even 1960s standards that he married his 13 year old cousin, but that was not a crime or even that unusual in the time and place where he was brought up. As someone else pointed out, Elvis began courting Pricilla when she was 14 and one could argue that he was "grooming" her for sex. John Lennon seduced schoolgirl Jenny Kee during the Australian tour in 1964, and it's only because she said she didn't mind that he hasn't been hauled into the public court over it.

One of these days someone will dig up all the dirt on The Beatles tours... what will we all say then? Are we suddenly going to all stop being fans? A person is made up of flaws and attributes, and the more successful and famous they are then the more they are tested and the more likely it is that they will fall from grace. We need to remember that no one is perfect. "He who is without sin, cast the first stone."

[20YearsAgo]

Rock and Roll stars exist so that people can feel morally superior to them.

[zaval80]

I remember a big article in the Rolling Stone sometime in the '90s on Jerry Lee, the gist was, it's not for nothing he's got his nickname - the writer made a heavy accent on his 3rd or 4th wife perishing at suspicious circumstances. That magazine had always been a pillar of unbiased journalism. The other time I was reading one of their numerous pro-Kerry articles, the writer said the coal-to-gasoline process requires lots of cheap labor, and that's namely why it was relied upon in the Nazi Germany

[Lord Reith]

He got his nickname because he tried to strangle one of his high school teachers with his tie! Now that is something I would have like to have tried myself.

Obviously pathological, but normal, balanced people do not make interesting performers. It's the possessed, the dispossessed, the tortured and the damned who make great art.

[zaval80]

John Fenton, who was one of six "Young Turks" who duped Brian E. out of the most of US revenues for the Beatles paraphernalia, became a manager/producer, and one of his acts was Third World War whose leader Terry Stamp once sent his demo to Apple (and when TWW recorded an acetate of their first album, cut at the Apple Studios, Fenton liked to come to Apple, to play them the acetate and to deride them, what fools they had been to miss this major talent. There was a story in Classic Rock where the writer has made a heavy accent, most probably being told by Terry Stamp, on Lennon getting the idea of "Working Class Hero" because he asked Bobby Keys what were the things he recently worked on, and Keys told him about TWW and their song "Working Class Man", but who knows, I have no idea whether the 4-volume Apple book covers this time period in detail re: Apple involvement with Fenton and when the acetate was cut). In the middle of the '70s he also got involved with Golden Earring, the Dutch hit-makers. One day, John's wife had to run for her life, completely naked, for he was running after her with an axe in the street - John was having a schizo attack or whatever, and he was taken to the funny house. The next day, two cops came to investigate, "Aye, aye, not too good of you, Mr Fenton". John opened his eyes, grabbed both cops by their throats and started to strangle them. Later, he bragged he was the first man to get thrown out of the mental institution because they were not able to handle him. He's "Bramley" who is co-credited as the songwriter of TWW songs. When I've got the Jimmy McCulloch biog, I've learned the missing tidbit I was not aware of: Jimmy's brother was "Fred Smith" the drummer.

[Ziggy C]

I apologize for not yet having read the entries in this thread. So I may have duplicated some of the sentiments.

Jerry Lee Lewis was the last of the originals. They're all gone now.
Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard Penniman, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and now Jerry Lee Lewis.
They are all gone now. An era has truly come to an end. My favorite era to draw inspiration from. My favorite era to get lost in records that came out long before I was born. This is more than a sad day for me. This is nearly the final nail in the coffin that was my youth.

If you want to see some first class material from Jerry Lee in his prime (and Little Richard, for that matter,) seek out Don't Knock The Rock. There are some crusty versions of this UK concert from the early sixties on YouTube. Not to be confused with a US film of the same name, Don't Knock The Rock contains near complete sets from Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard from 1964. Also in the film are Gene Vincent and The Animals. And while Little Richard closes the show, The Shirelles can be seen dancing amongst the crowd.

Jerry Lee Lewis has the crowd eating out of his hand. Truly on fire. Great balls of it, in fact. And this is after he blew up his career by marrying his 2nd cousin, which was totally legal BTW. Except for the minor hangup that he was still married to his 2nd wife at the time. His own family didn't seem to have much of a problem with it. It was the rest of the world that pounced on him and roasted him alive. Was it weird? Yep. Was he a typical dude? Nope. Did he rock? Does the Pope shit in the woods? Hells, yeah!!

Rock and Roll Boogie Woogie piano is a lost art. The last one to successfully pull it off was Elton John. Sure there have been a number of keyboard players through the years that have impressed and even blown away the masses. But Jerry Lee's variety of ivory-tickling is gone now. Kicking away the bench. Banging the keys with the heel of his shoe. Climbing on top the piano and continuing to belt out the best rock I've heard in my life.

A legend is gone. They're all gone. Today's "music" doesn't hold a candle to him. Today's acts make my stomach convulse. Its a pity that there are so many misguided youth which think that the current garbage they're streaming has any connection whatsoever with music.

I'm thankful that Jerry Lee's influence can be heard in The Beatles.

[zaval80]

Today's acts make my stomach convulse. Its a pity that there are so many misguided youth which think that the current garbage they're streaming has any connection whatsoever with music.

140+ to 200+ dead in a stampede in Seoul just because somebody said a "pop idol" was seen in some bar.

[stereoman33]

so how far can we go here?

by just discussing music and not the horrible things that the songwriter did in his life?

[tdgrnwld]

I've always raved about "It'll Be Me", the B-side of "Whole Lot A Shaking' Going On".

Never heard that one before. Great song, great performance!