“But you know it’s strange, the same music that they kicked me out of school for is the same kind of music they play in their churches today. The difference is, I know I am playing for the devil and they don’t.”
- Jerry Lee Lewis
I saw Jerry Lee Lewis in Vancouver in early 1974. He was 39 at the time and completely destroyed a grand piano. In fact wires were shooting out from the sound board. He completely earned his name “The Killer.”
Undoubtedly the greatest rock piano player who ever lived Lewis spawned generation of great acts who copied his style to some extent: Billy Joel, Elton John. Born of a white trash genre nevertheless his parents mortgaged their meager farm to buy him a piano. He would spend hours practicing and would trade licks with his cousins, Mickey Gilley (later a country star) and Jimmy Swaggart (televangelist).
His style was aptly put forth in the movie Great Balls Of Fire. “Kid, you got the left hand of a Negro and the right hand like a machine gun!” Lewis would play a standard boogie-woogie with his left hand only after playing the third and fifth he would go back to the root giving a rolling bottom end to the attacking right hand.
Lewis’ first hit was a rocking rendition of Ray Price’s country hit Crazy Arms. He followed it with Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On, which sold 6 million records and Great Balls of Fire which sold almost as many. This was 1957 and in 1958 he released Breathless and High School Confidential which became the basis of a movie in which he took part.
His demise as a star began when he married his 13 year-old cousin and took her to England with him. But he kept touring ( dives and bowling alleys) until a new generation caught on and went on to become almost as big an icon as his friend Elvis. And before the credits began to roll on his movie came these words:
“Somewhere in America tonight Jerry Lee Lewis is rocking!”