Jerry Lee Lewis - The Locust Years and...And The Return To The Promised Land (1994) [8CD Box, Bear Family BCD 15783 HI]

A characteristically humongous (8-CD) box set from the wonderful obsessive-compulsives at Bear Family, documenting the Killer's '60s tenure at Smash Records. Lewis made consistently good music during this period, but the combination of his personal scandals and the British Invasion made him a pariah to radio programmers until mid-decade, when he returned to his country roots. Highlights of the set include the entirety of a Texas live show, with Lewis and his crack band rendering various early rock standards at dangerously high (i.e., proto punk) speed, some excellent duets with his (then) wife Linda Gail, and gorgeous renditions of standards like Willie Nelson's "Funny How Time Slips Away" and Merle Haggard's "Lonesome Fugitive." Lewis fans with deep pockets should grab this one immediately…

Jerry Lee Lewis:

Born: September 29, 1935, Ferriday, LA
Active: '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s, ';0s
Genres: Rock
Instrument: Vocals, Piano
Representative Albums: "Original Sun Singles '56-'60", "Live at the Star Club, Hamburg", "All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology"
Representative Songs: "Great Balls of Fire", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "High School Confidential"

Is there an early rock & roller who has a crazier reputation than the Killer, Jerry Lee Lewis? His exploits as a piano-thumping, egocentric wild man with an unquenchable thirst for living have become the fodder for numerous biographies, film documentaries, and a full-length Hollywood movie. Certainly few other artists came to the party with more ego and talent than he and lived to tell the tale. And certainly even fewer could successfully channel that energy into their music and prosper doing it as well as Jerry Lee. When he broke on the national scene in 1957 with his classic "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," he was every parents' worst nightmare perfectly realized: a long, blonde-haired Southerner who played the piano and sang with uncontrolled fury and abandon, while simultaneously reveling in his own sexuality. He was rock & roll's first great wild man and also rock & roll's first great eclectic. Ignoring all manner of musical boundaries is something that has not only allowed his music to have wide variety, but to survive the fads and fashions as well. Whether singing a melancholy country ballad, a lowdown blues, or a blazing rocker, Lewis' wholesale commitment to the moment brings forth performances that are totally grounded in his personality and all singularly of one piece. Like the recordings of Hank Williams, Louis Armstrong, and few others, Jerry Lee's early recorded work is one of the most amazing collections of American music in existence.

He was born to Elmo and Mamie Lewis on September 29, 1935. Though the family was dirt poor, there was enough money to be had to purchase a third-hand upright piano for the family's country shack in Ferriday, LA. Sharing piano lessons with his two cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Lee Swaggart, a ten-year old Jerry Lee Lewis showed remarkable aptitude toward the instrument. A visit from piano-playing older cousin Carl McVoy unlocked the secrets to the boogie-woogie styles he was hearing on the radio and across the tracks at Haney's Big House, owned by his uncle, Lee Calhoun, and catering to blacks exclusively. Lewis mixed that up with gospel and country and started coming up with his own style. He even mixed genres in the way he syncopated his rhythms on the piano; his left hand generally played a rock-solid boogie pattern while his right played the high keys with much flamboyant filigree and showiness, equal parts gospel fervor and Liberace showmanship. By the time he was 14, by all family accounts, he was as good as he was ever going to get. Lewis was already ready for prime time.

But his mother Mamie had other plans for the young family prodigy. Not wanting to squander Jerry Lee's gifts on the sordid world of show business, she enrolled him in a bible college in Waxahatchie, TX, secure in the knowledge that her son would now be exclusively singing his songs to the Lord. But legend has it that the Killer tore into a boogie-woogie rendition of "My God Is Real" at a church assembly that sent him packing the same night. The split personality of Lewis, torn between the sacred and the profane (rock & roll music), is something that has eaten away at him most of his adult life, causing untold aberrant personality changes over the years with no clear-cut answers to the problem. What is certain is that by the time a 21-year-old Jerry Lee showed up in Memphis on the doorstep of the Sun studios, he had been thrown out of bible college; been a complete failure as a sewing-machine salesman; been turned down by most Nashville-based record companies and the Louisiana Hayride; been married twice; in jail once; and burned with the passion that he truly was the next big thing.

Sam Phillips was on vacation when he arrived, but his assistant Jack Clement put Roland Janes on guitar and J.M. Van Eaton on drums behind Lewis, whose fluid left hand made a bass player superfluous. This little unit would become the core of Lewis' recording band for almost the entire seven years he recorded at Sun. The first single, a hopped-up rendition of Ralph Mooney's "Crazy Arms," sold in respectable enough quantities that Phillips kept bringing Lewis back in for more sessions, astounded by his prodigious memory for old songs and his penchant for rocking them up. A few days after his first single was released, Jerry Lee was in the Sun studios earning some Christmas money, playing backup piano on a Carl Perkins session that yielded the classics "Matchbox" and "Your True Love." At the tail-end of the recording, Elvis Presley showed up, Clement turned on the tape machine, and the impromptu Million Dollar Quartet jam session ensued, with Perkins, Presley, and Lewis all having the time of their lives.

With the release of his first single, the road beckoned and it was here that Lewis' lasting stage persona was developed. Discouraged because he couldn't dance around the stage strumming a guitar like Carl Perkins, he stood up in mid-song, kicked back the piano stool and, as Perkins has so saliently pointed out, "a new Jerry Lee Lewis was born." This newfound stage confidence was not lost on Sam Phillips. While he loved the music of Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, he saw neither artist as a true contender to Elvis' throne; with Lewis he thought he had a real shot. For the first time in his very parsimonious life, Sam Phillips threw every dime of promotional capital he had into Lewis' next single, and the gamble paid off a million times over. "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" went to number one on the country and the R&B charts, and was only held out of the top spot on the pop charts by Debbie Reynolds' "Tammy." Suddenly, Lewis was the hottest, newest, most exciting rock & roller out there. His television appearances and stage shows were legendary for their manic energy, and his competitive nature to outdo anyone else on the bill led to the story about how he once set his piano on fire at set's end to make it impossible for Chuck Berry to follow his act. Nobody messed with the Killer.

Jerry Lee's follow-up to "Shakin'" was another defining moment for his career, as well as for rock & roll. "Great Balls of Fire" featured only piano and drums, but sounded huge with Phillips' production behind it. It got him into a rock & roll movie (Jamboree) and his fame was spreading to such a degree that Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins left Sun to go to Columbia Records. His next single, "Breathless," had a promotional tie-in with Dick Clark's Saturday night Bandstand show, making it three hits in a row for the newcomer.

But Lewis was sowing the seeds of his own destruction in record time. He sneaked off and married his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown, the daughter of his bass-playing uncle, J.W. Brown. With the Killer insisting that she accompany him on a debut tour of England, the British press got wind of the marriage and proceeded to crucify him in the press. The tour was canceled and Lewis arrived back in the U.S. to find his career in absolute disarray. His records were banned nationwide by radio stations and his booking price went from $10,000 a night to $250 in any honky tonk that would still have him. Undeterred, he kept right on doing what he had been doing, head unbowed and determined to make it back to the bigs, Jerry Lee Lewis style. It took him almost a dozen years to pull it off, but finally, with a sympathetic producer and a new record company willing to exact a truce with country disc jockeys, the Killer found a new groove, cutting one hit after another for Smash Records throughout the late '60s into the '70s. Still playing rock & roll on-stage whenever the mood struck him (which was often) while keeping all his releases pure country struck a creative bargain that suited Lewis well into the mid-'70s.

But while his career was soaring again, his personal life was falling apart. The next decade-and-a-half saw several marriages fall apart (starting with his 13-year-long union with Myra), the deaths of his parents and oldest son, battles with the I.R.S., and bouts with alcohol and pills that frequently left him hospitalized. Suddenly, the Ferriday Fireball was nearing middle age and the raging fire seemed to be burned out.

But the mid-'80s saw another jump start to his career. A movie entitled Great Balls of Fire was about to be made of his life and Lewis was called in to sing the songs for the soundtrack. Showing everyone who was the real Killer, Lewis sounded energetic enough to make you believe it was 1957 all over again with the pilot light of inspiration still burning bright. He also got a boost back to major-label land with a one-song appearance on the soundtrack for Dick Tracy. In 2006, Lewis released Last Man Standing, which featured duets with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Rod Stewart, Jimmy Page, and others. He followed it up in 2010 with another album of duets, Mean Old Man, which saw Lewis teaming with Eric Clapton, Merle Haggard, John Fogerty, and Kid Rock, among others. With box sets and compilations, documentaries, a bio flick, and his induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame all celebrating his legacy, Lewis still continued to record and tour, delivering work that vacillated from tepid to absolutely inspired. While his influence will continue to loom large until there's no one left to play rock & roll piano anymore, the plain truth is that there's only one Jerry Lee Lewis and American music will never see another like him.

~ Cub Koda, Rovi

Tracklist Disc 1:

01 Whole Lotta Shaking Going On
02 Crazy Arms
03 Great Balls Of Fire
04 High School Confidential
05 I'll Make It All Up To You
06 Break Up
07 Down The Line
08 Hit The Road Jack (1)
09 End Of The Road
10 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Your Cheatinґ Heart
11 Wedding Bells
12 Just Because
13 Breathless
14 He Took It Like A Man
15 Drinkinґ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
16 Johnny B. Goode
17 Hallelujah, I Love Her So
18 You Went Back On Your Word
19 Pen And Paper
20 The Hole He Said Heґd Dig For Me (alt./ster.)
21 The Hole He Said Heґd Dig For Me (mono)
22 You Win Again
23 Fools Like Me
24 Hit The Road Jack (2)
25 Iґm On Fire (alt.)
26 Iґm On Fire
27 She Was My Baby (He Was My Friend)
28 Bread And Butter Man
29 I Bet Youґre Gonna Like It Jerry Lee Lewis





Tracklist Disc 2:

01 Got You On My Mind - 1965
02 Mathilda - 1965
03 Corrine, Corrina - 1965
04 Sexy Ways - 1965
05 Wild Side Of Life - 1965
06 Flip, Flop And Fly - 1965
07 Don't Let Go - 1965
08 Maybellene - 1965
09 Roll Over Beethoven - 1965
10 Just In Time - 1965
11 I Believe In You - 1965
12 Herman The Hermit - 1965
13 Baby, Hold Me Close - 1965
14 Skid Row - 1965
15 This Must Be The Place - 1965
16 Rockin' Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu - 1965
17 Seasons Of My Heart - 1965
18 Big Boss Man - 1965
19 Too Young - 1965
20 Danny Boy (mono) - 1965
21 Crazy Arms - 1965
22 City Lights - 1965
23 Funny How Time Slips Away - 1965
24 North To Alaska (& Linda Gail Lewis) - 1965
25 Walk Right In - 1965
26 Wolverton Mountain - 1965
27 King Of The Road - 1965
28 Detroit City – 1965





Tracklist Disc 3:

01 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Ring Of Fire - 1965
02 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Baby (You've Got What It Takes) (& Linda Gail Lewis) - 1965
03 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Green Green Grass Of Home - 1965
04 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Sticks And Stones - 1966
05 - Jerry Lee Lewis - What A Heck Of A Mess - 1966
06 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Lincoln Limousine - 1966
07 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Rockin' Jerry Lee (mono) - 1966
08 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Memphis Beat - 1966
09 - Jerry Lee Lewis - The Urge - 1966
10 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Whenever You're Ready - 1966
11 - Jerry Lee Lewis - She Thinks I Still Care - 1966
12 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Memphis Beat (version 1) - 1966
13 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Memphis Beat (version 2) - 1966
14 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Twenty Four Hours A Day - 1966
15 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Twenty Four Hours A Day (with strings) (mono) - 1966
16 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Swinging Doors (mono) - 1966
17 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Swinging Doors (with strings) - 1966
18 - Jerry Lee Lewis - If I Had It All To Do Over - 1966
19 - Jerry Lee Lewis - If I Had It All To Do Over (with strings) (mono) - 1966
20 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Just Dropped In - 1967
21 - Jerry Lee Lewis - It's A Hang Up Baby - 1967
22 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Holdin' On - 1967
23 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Hey Baby - 1967
24 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream) - 1967
25 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Treat Her Right - 1967
26 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Turn On Your Love Light - 1967
27 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Shotgun Man – 1967





Tracklist Disc 4:

01 - Jerry Lee Lewis - All The Good Is Gone
02 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Another Place, Another Time
03 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Walking The Floor Over You
04 - Jerry Lee Lewis - I'm A Lonesome Fugitive
05 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Break My Mind
06 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Play Me A Song I Can Cry To
07 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Before The Next Teardrop Falls
08 - Jerry Lee Lewis - All Night Long
09 - Jerry Lee Lewis - We Live In Two Different Worlds (& Linda Gail Lewis)
10 - Jerry Lee Lewis - What's Made Milwaukee Famous
11 - Jerry Lee Lewis - On The Back Row
12 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Slipping Around
13 - Jerry Lee Lewis - She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left Of Me)
14 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Today I Started Loving You Again
15 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Louisiana Man
16 - Jerry Lee Lewis - There Stands The Glass
17 - Jerry Lee Lewis - I Can't Have Merry Christmas, Mary (Without You)
18 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Out Of My Mind
19 - Jerry Lee Lewis - I Can't Get Over You
20 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Listen, They're Playing My Song
21 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Echoes
22 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Release Me
23 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Let's Talk About Us
24 - Jerry Lee Lewis - To Make Love Sweeter For You





Tracklist Disc 5:

01 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Don't Let Me Cross Over (& Linda Gail Lewis)
02 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Born To Lose
03 - Jerry Lee Lewis - You Belong To Me
04 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Oh Lonesome Me
05 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Sweet Dreams
06 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Cold Cold Heart
07 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Fraulein
08 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used To Do)
09 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Four Walls
10 - Jerry Lee Lewis - It Makes No Difference Now
11 - Jerry Lee Lewis - I Love You Because
12 - Jerry Lee Lewis - I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
13 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Jambalaya
14 - Jerry Lee Lewis - More And More
15 - Jerry Lee Lewis - One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)
16 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Burning Memories
17 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Mom And Dad's Waltz
18 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Pick Me Up On Your Way Down
19 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Heartaches By The Number
20 - Jerry Lee Lewis - I Can't Stop Loving You
21 - Jerry Lee Lewis - My Blue Heaven
22 - Jerry Lee Lewis - I Wonder Where You Are Tonight





Tracklist Disc 6:

01 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Jackson (& Linda Gail Lewis)
02 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Swet Thang (& Linda Gail Lewis)
03 - Jerry Lee Lewis - He'll Have To Go
04 - Jerry Lee Lewis - You've Still Got A Place In My Heart
05 - Jerry Lee Lewis - I Get The Blues When It Rains
06 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Gotta Travel On (& Linda Gail Lewis)
07 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Milwaukee Here I Come (& Linda Gail Lewis)
08 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Cryin' Time (& Linda Gail Lewis)
09 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Roll Over Beethoven (& Linda Gail Lewis)
10 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Secret Places (& Linda Gail Lewis)
11 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Don't Take It Out On Me (& Linda Gail Lewis)
12 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Earth Up Above (Grand Ole Moon Up Above) (& Linda Gail Lewis)
13 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Waitin' For A Train
14 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Love For All Seasons
15 - Jerry Lee Lewis - She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye
16 - Jerry Lee Lewis - When The Grass Grows Over Me
17 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Wine Me Up
18 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Since I Met You Baby
19 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Workin' Man Blues
20 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Once More With Feeling (version 1)
21 - Jerry Lee Lewis - In Loving Memories (version 1)
22 - Jerry Lee Lewis - You Went Out Of Your Way (To Walk On Me)
23 - Jerry Lee Lewis - My Only Claim To Fame
24 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Brown Eyed Handsome Man
25 - Jerry Lee Lewis - In Loving Memories (version 2)
26 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Once More With Feeling (version 2)





Tracklist Disc 7:

01 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Intro (Panther Hall, Fort Worth, Texas, August 20, 1966, First Show)
02 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Little Queenie
03 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Blue Suede Shoes
04 - Jerry Lee Lewis - How's My Ex Treating You
05 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Johnny B. Goode
06 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Crazy Arms
07 - Jerry Lee Lewis - Green Green Grass Of Home
08 Lovin' Up A Storm
09 Mean Woman Blues
10 What'd I Say, part 1 & 2 / Closing





Tracklist Disc 8:

01 Jerry Lee Lewis - Interview, by Dave 'Daddy Cool' Booth at the Bever




All thanks go to sinicinal