Jerry Lee Lewis
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Jerry Lee Lewis: Live At the Star Club (Bear Family)
Review by Tom Graves, Rock & Roll Disc, November 1989
WHAT IS IT about Jerry Lee Lewis that so fascinates us and makes us love a character so inherently unlovable? He only had a handful ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages audio, 9 November 1978
After 20 minutes of what-he's-up-to pablum, the Killer gets down to business: the sinfulness of rock'n'roll; how he's surely going to hell; drink, drugs and women (including cousin/ex-wife Myra). Then, after talking about his musical heroes, it's back to religion... jaw-dropping stuff.
ile format: mp3; file size: 86mb, interview length: 1h 29' 34" sound quality: ****
List of articles in the library
'Dig My Killer Hair?' — Asked Jerry Lee Lewis
Interview by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 12 May 1962
THE TIME BOMB WITH THE FOUR YEAR OLD FUSE ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: No Sneering — This Mr. Lewis Is Simply Great!
Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 12 May 1962
FOUR YEARS ago, Jerry Lee Lewis was booted out of this country with an extraordinary display of righteous nastiness. ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Rockin' Split Personality
Profile by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 9 March 1963
SHY JERRY LEE LEWIS GOES WILD... ON STAGE ...
Beaty Welcome for Jerry Lee Lewis
Report by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 3 May 1963
JERRY LEE LEWIS looks like getting a wild welcome when he arrives to start his British tour at Birmingham Town Hall on May 6. At ...
Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Vincent, Heinz: Town Hall, Birmingham
Live Review by uncredited writer, New Musical Express, 10 May 1963
Two 'houses' shouted 'We want Jerry'! ...
It's Shakespeare and All That Rock for Jerry
Interview by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 29 October 1966
CAN YOU imagine Jerry Lee Lewis swinging his way through a musical version of Shakespeare's play Othello? You can't? Then get ready for a shock ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Marimba, Middlesbrough
Live Review by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 5 November 1966
HE'S 31 AND, off stage just what you would imagine a Southern gentleman to be. But on stage, you'd better watch out because Jerry Lee ...
NME Reporters Cover the Weekend's Major Event — the Eighth National Jazz and Blues Festival
Live Review by Keith Altham, Richard Green, New Musical Express, 17 August 1968
STARS, SUNSHINE and a SHAMBLES ...
8th National Jazz & Blues Festival: Lazy Sunbury Afternoon...
Live Review by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 17 August 1968
PLAGUED BY DISASTER AND COUNTLESS SETBACKS, THE SUNBURY FESTIVAL PRESENTED SOME OF THE BEST MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT EVER SEEN. RM WAS THERE. ...
Country, Cabaret, and Rock — It's The New Look Jerry Lee Lewis
Interview by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 17 August 1968
THE MAN who rivals Little Richard as rock and roll's King of Excitement arrived back in London last week for a fleeting visit. Jerry Lee ...
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 17 August 1968
Music triumphs, despite rain, accidents and the rockers ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: What a Fave Rave in Othello!
Interview by Alan Walsh, Melody Maker, 8 March 1969
JERRY LEE LEWIS, one of the legenary rock names of the past decade, is true to his image. ...
Sun Records: Country Meets Rock
Retrospective by Guy Stevens, International Times, 23 May 1969
An occasional series which looks into pop music and its antecedents is the latest plot to swell our readership figures, thereby making the fuzz look ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Schaefer Music Festival, Central Park, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 3 July 1969
Jerry Lee Lewis Mixes Rock Styles In Schaefer Concert ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Sings The Country Music Hall Of Fame Hits Vol. 1 and 2 (Mercury)
Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 11 October 1969
Jerry Lee's good examples ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Start of It All
Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 1970
I PLAYED 'Great Balls Of Fire' to some college students last week. And while it played, and while they listened, I closed my eyes and ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Live At The International, Las Vegas; Charlie Rich: Boss Man
Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 18 February 1970
BOTH PIANO-PLAYING singers who started out singing rock and roll with Sam Phillips in Memphis and who have since moved into country and western, Jerry ...
U.S. News: Edwin Starr, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby Sherman, Led Zeppelin
Report by Ian Dove, Record Mirror, 3 October 1970
EDWIN STARR was back in New York after his 16th trip to England and with the news that 'War', a Motown mover by the Norman ...
Review by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 30 October 1970
"'SINFUL MUSIC,' the townsfolk in Memphis said it was. Which never bothered me, I guess." Elvis Presley, interviewed in 1957. In the early 1950s, the ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Town Hall, Auckland NZ
Live Review by Tom McWilliams, Playdate, December 1970
"NEVER LET it be said that Jerry Lee didn't do his part o' the show..." ...
Review by Greg Shaw, Rolling Stone, 9 December 1971
IT'S A WELL-KEPT SECRET, but this album tossed off with ten others in a recent release by the Shelby Singleton Corp., is one of the ...
Retrospective by Bill Millar, Record Mirror, 11 March 1972
ON 22nd MAY 1958, an immigration officer manning the desk for TWA flights from New York to London Airport North scratched his head, sighed, picked ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On
Review by Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
THERE'S NOT TOO MANY of those greasy rockers still hanging around from their '50s heydaze good for much more than playing 50 tank towns a ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Rocks On
Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972
YOU CAN TELL this one is special from the beginning. The strings come in, but all of a sudden, there's an insistent, pounding drum driving ...
Keep On Rockin': Interview with film director D. A. Pennebaker
Report and Interview by John Pidgeon, New Musical Express, 30 September 1972
KEEP ON ROCKIN' is in town, and so is the rock film revolutionary who created this celluloid spectacle of Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: "You laughing at me, boy?"
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 20 January 1973
GOSFIELD STREET, LONDON, W1: Advision Studios is where Yes create their music and put it on record. ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: London Sessions (Mercury).
Review by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 10 March 1973
IN SOME ways, it hardly matters what this record sounds like. It's the idea that counts. If everything works out more or less to plan, ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Session Men
Report and Interview by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, May 1973
"WHAT HAPPENS when some of today's great pop stars put a session together in London with a rock 'n' roll legend?" asks the ad for ...
Profile by Gene Guerrero, The Great Speckled Bird, 21 May 1973
JERRY LEE Lewis is a self-made phenomenon. Remember a couple of years ago when he made it back on television after years of virtual obscurity? ...
Review by Michael Gray, Let It Rock, July 1973
WHEN YOU HEAR of an album a fortnight or so before getting hold of it, and pepper the intermediate couple of weeks with anticipation, you ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Killer Staggers On
Report by John Morthland, Creem, March 1974
THE MAN from Mercury is nervous, very nervous. You can see it easily enough as he paces around Steve Cropper's TMI Studios in Memphis. Up ...
Jerry Lee Lewis/The Darts: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 5 March 1977
"WANKER" "RUBBISH", "R o c k 'n' ROLLL!!!!!" screamed the frustrated bopper just behind my right eardrum. He wasn't the only one. A distinct rumble ...
Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 7 May 1977
NOT CONTENT with unearthing far more previously unissued recordings from the Sun vaults than those that were released during the label's prime time, and recycling ...
Loud Covenants: Jerry Lee Lewis, God's Garbage Man
Book Excerpt by Nick Tosches, Creem, March 1978
[The following is excerpted from the book, COUNTRY: The Biggest Music In America by Nick Tosches, published by Stein & Day Publishers.] ...
Jerry Lee Lewis (1978) [transcript]
Transcript of audio interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 9 November 1978
This is a transcript of Cliff's audio interview with Jerry. Hear the interview here ...
Jerry Lee Lewis, Duane Eddy: Live in Margate
Live Review by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 18 November 1978
WHEN A promoter carts a journalist and photographer off to the opening night of a European tour he obviously wants to get a suitably rave ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Meet The Killer
Interview by Cliff White, New Musical Express, 25 November 1978
Women, liquor, the devil and me – JERRY LEE tells CLIFF WHITE a torrid tale ...
Retrospective and Interview by Robert Palmer, Memphis, December 1978
BACK IN THE MID-'50s, the Sun Records studio at 706 Union Avenue was the epicenter of a sudden, wrenching shift in world consciousness. Tremors had ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Jerry Lee Lewis (Elektra)
Review by Nick Tosches, Creem, July 1979
JERRY LEE'S STILL ROCKIN' HIS LIFE AWAY ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: The Gospel According to Jerry Lee
Interview by Nick Tosches, Country Music, October 1979
DRESSED LIKE A side-street gambler from the days when chrome was chrome, Jerry Lee Lewis sits in the dressing-room of the Palomino Club, holding loosely ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Killer's Gospel
Interview by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 16 February 1980
Jerry Lee Lewis closes his current British tour in London at the Rainbow tonight. Mick Brown reports ...
How The Devil's Music Possessed Jerry Lee Lewis
Retrospective by Nick Tosches, The History of Rock, 1981
THERE HAVE been only two figures of mythic dimension in the history of rock'n'roll. First and foremost was Elvis Presley, the guileless star-god who rendered ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Ritz, New York NY
Live Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, May 1981
WHILE EACH new generation of upstarts spout the notion that rock is just for kids, it's easy to find aging veterans who hang in there ...
Essay by Dave Marsh, Musician, June 1981
WE USUALLY think of Elvis Presley simply stepping into Sun Studios in Memphis, in answer to Sam Phillips' call, and walking out a few days ...
Special Feature by Nick Tosches, Penthouse, March 1982
IT WAS 3 O'CLOCK in the morning and the master bedroom of Graceland was still. Elvis Presley lay in his blue cotton pajamas dreaming. ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: A comeback story
Profile and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 27 July 1982
"Jerry Lee Lewis is a sinner, lost an' undone, without God or His Son" — Jerry Lee Lewis as quoted by Nick Tosches in his ...
Report and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Country Music, January 1984
Legendary stars, legendary producers, legendary backup singers and a pretty hefty studio band all got together for Chips Moman's new Memphis album. The veteran producer ...
Profile by Joe Sasfy, Washington City Paper, 6 April 1984
THE "ANYONE can do it" amateurism that underlies the punk moment (circa 1976-1977) resulted in some of rock's most profound and explosive primitives. But an ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: No Sinner Like An Old 'Un
Interview by Jim Sullivan, New Musical Express, 14 September 1985
Not for JERRY LEE LEWIS the cosy trail from rocker to rocking chair. Last year a rollercoaster life and career hit a new low when ...
Report and Interview by Joe Sasfy, Musician, February 1986
Nashville's Hottest Producer, Chips Moman Returns to the Birthplace of Rock ...
Killer Takes All: Jerry Lee Lewis Keeps On
Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, Creem, January 1987
"I THOUGHT [tonight's show] was the best damn show you ever seen in your whole life," Jerry Lee Lewis says to me, after a Boston ...
X, Jerry Lee Lewis, fIREHOSE: Universal Ampitheatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, April 1988
"WE GOT THE BULLS BY THE HORN..." ...
Perkins, Presley et al: The Complete Million Dollar Session
Review by Bill Holdship, Creem, June 1988
TOTALLY UNEXPECTED, totally out of the blue, and just when you'd almost given up on hearing anything this exciting again... ...
Man on Fire: Going to Hell with Jerry Lee Lewis and Dennis Quaid
Special Feature by Nick Kent, The Face, May 1989
HE WAS trying to be courteous but you could tell almost at once that being courteous wasn't really part of his nature. "Wahl, ah looks ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Goodness Gracious
Interview by Gavin Martin, Spin, June 1989
If Elvis was rock's first celebrity, Jerry Lee Lewis, born in hellfire, was its first S.O.B. On the eve of Great Balls of Fire, a ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, December 1989
Ten fingers, 88 keys, 569 days – the rise and fall of Jerry Lee Lewis. ...
Who The Hell Does Jerry Lee Lewis Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, February 1990
The Killer is at large again, the firebrand ivory-thumper with the legendarily short fuse. And 30 years of bankruptcy, busts, mayhem-making and messy divorce have ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Killer: The Mercury Years
Review by Nick Tosches, Spin, March 1990
I'M SITTING there in Dennis Quaid's house, this white thing on La Sombra, last spring, a few months before that stiff Great Balls of Fire ...
Once-cool songs now politically incorrect
Comment by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 9 January 1992
IT'S TIME TO re-evaluate that good ol' time rock 'n' roll. Or, as you may discover, not so good ol' time rock 'n' roll. ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Young Blood (Sire) ***½
Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 13 July 1995
JERRY LEE LEWIS has had enough stomach trouble, gunplay and marriages to kill a man twice, but at 59 he still pounds the piano like ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: New Daisy Theater, Memphis
Live Review by Robert Gordon, MOJO, December 1996
JERRY LEE LEWIS turned 61 and his seventh wife, Kerrie, threw him a party on Beale Street in his adopted hometown of Memphis. But Beale ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Hot Tin Roof, Martha's Vineyard
Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 26 May 1997
WEST TISBURY – If you'd made a bet that Jerry Lee Lewis would make it through his entire life without playing the Hot Tin Roof ...
Guide by Fred Dellar, MOJO, May 2002
A PERFORMER who personifies rock'n'roll, Louisiana's Jerry Lee is 'The Killer' – the wildman of the piano and the provider of a zillion headlines. ...
Natural Born Killer: Jerry Lee Lewis
Profile by Robert Gordon, Playboy, February 2005
IT'S A DECEMBER NIGHT and despite the chill, Jerry Lee Lewis wears flip flops, green and blue plaid pajama bottoms, and a loose nylon jacket ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: PBS-TV Special
Review by John Broven, Now Dig This, November 2006
JERRY LEE LEWIS came to New York on September 28 and 29, 2006, with typical flourish and élan to film live performances for a PBS-TV ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Last Wild Man Of Rock 'N Roll Standing
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 4 February 2007
The six wives, the shootings, the arrests, the addictions – Jerry Lee Lewis was the original wild man of rock'n'roll. And at 71, he still ...
Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, September 2008
"THIS IS OUR twenty-third Farm Aid," said John Mellencamp, "and when we started this thing, we were naïve enough that we thought we'd have this ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: A Ride In A Limo With The Killer
Interview by Jim Sullivan, JimSullivanInk.com, September 2013
N.B. This interview is taken from a 1985 story originally printed in the Boston Globe and later syndicated in other US papers, as well as ...
Book Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 26 February 2016
SAM PHILLIPS, the man behind Sun Records was easily one of the most important figures in the history of American popular music. ...
Jerry Lee Lewis: Lights, Camera, Action!
Retrospective by David Burke, Vintage Rock, 2019
THE YEAR WAS 1957, when Jerry Lee Lewis' parents finally caught up with much of America and bought a TV set. According to Rick Bragg, ...
The 30 best live concert albums of all time
Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020
LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...
Peter Guralnick Gets Lost in Profiles of Musical Giants
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 3 December 2020
PETER GURALNICK didn't set out to be a music journalist. The occupation didn't really exist at the time when a combination of luck and bluster ...
see also Jimmy Swaggart
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