LONG LIVE THE KILLER

Hell, if there's anything worth celebrating, it sure isn't a clock hitting midnight. It's the end of the year and I suggest we all get over it. There is one thing tonight that is worth celebrating, Jerry Lee Lewis is still alive. He is, in fact, playing tonight in Memphis, possibly as I'm typing this. The Killer is 83, and he's given us more good music than we deserve. He's wrecked cars, fought audiences, been in and out of hospitals and rehab, and buried a few wives. He's always walked the walk, never hid from the real Jerry Lee, always told the truth and taken his lumps. The dude is an open book. An open book that shows no immediate signs of ending.

An awful lot of gushing I know. I just finished reading his sorta autobiography, Jerry Lee Lewis, His Own Story by Rick Bragg. It's a biography written from one on one interviews, the Killer's story not necessarily in his own words, but with enough semi-recent quotes and killerisms written into the text to make it seem like you're sitting in the same room. Bragg does a bang up job, and any blanks that I've had even after reading a couple other biographies of the Killer, along with multiple books about Sun Records, are duly filled. With this book the job is complete, at least up to 2014 when it was published. It makes no excuses for Jerry Lee Lewis, nor does he himself. He is exactly what he is, and always has been. Long live the Killer.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On mp3 at Otsotm (?)
Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire mp3 at Bousculade (?)
Jerry Lee Lewis - Lovin' Up a Storm On mp3 at ATumblr
Jerry Lee Lewis - Wild One mp3 at ATumblr
Oddballs:
Jerry Lee Lewis - Jerry's Boogie mp3 at The Cosimo Code Earliest recording, age 16, 1952
Jerry Lee Lewis - Don't Stay Away (Till Love Grows Cold) mp3 at The Cosimo Code  Ditto above.
The Hawk - In the Mood mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People Throwaway instrumental released under a pseudonym.