[www.tennessean.com]

Keep hangin' it in Killer …..



ROCKMAN

He's a tough one - glad he's hanging in there.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Please hang in there, you're in our thoughts & prayers

Tough old SOB. Hang in there, Killer.

Starting to think Killer can overcome anything and is possibly immortal.

not even reading this
no

Seems like the Killer is doing okay. HANG IN MATE.
Jeroen

Oh no ! I hope he keeps "Comin' Back For More".

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hopkins
not even reading this
no

Go on, read the article, he's a badass, he's not even cancelling any shows!

Get well soon Jerry.
He's still touring, what a guy.

that stroke is gonna get its ass kicked.
they don"t call him The Killer for nothing baby

Stay Strong !

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keithglimmer
Starting to think Killer can overcome anything and is possibly immortal.

Yes, when you consider the life he's led...makes Keith look like a well behaved choirboy.

Also, when folks start talking about 'the group 's last album...or last tour', it's good to read about guys like Jerry Lee and John Mayall (and countless others in their 80's), who show no signs of stopping.
Of course it's different with a group situation. But still no reason why health permitting they can't be still making music individually over the next 10-15 years.
If the motivation is there of course.

Jerry Lee also had a mid-80s bad patch, what with I am What I am, and My Fingers Do The Talkin' albums. Ron Chancey at MCA didn't know what to do with him, and the albums covered too many bases out of The Killer's comfort zone. They were his Dirty Work equivalent.

As he's advanced in years, The Killer hit another great patch, be it Young Blood, albeit that album had more overdubs than you could shake a stick at, Last man Standing, Mean Old Man, and Rock'n'Roll Time.

I know he's led a less than exemplary life, but he's probably the best of the 50s rock'n'rollers as far as talent goes. I am also of the opinion that he's a better honky-tonk pure country singer than George Jones even, and that he released one of the finest albums ever in Southern Roots.

Killer Country is GREAT album …..

When The Killer does
country he's only second to Hank ……..



ROCKMAN

I agree with Rockman. Jerry Lee is the best country artist. His country music should be required listening to any fan of music. I live his SUN years but his post sun years were the highlights for me. Similar in a way to Chuck Berry’s later stuff. In its own ways his country music is so genuine. IMHO that is very hard to do with American roots music. Exile has this same quality as do others. I highly recommend is biography by Rick Bragg. Jerry Lee can be a an enigma to someone who did not grow up to n the south. But Bragg did a really good job opening someone as “complex” as Jerry lee is up. It will make you appreciate his music even more. The Stones are mentioned in his book a few times. He seems to have a high regard for them.

I just wish I could hear the sessions he did with the Stones in Ireland back in the 90s. And if there happen to be any others.

Go Dawgs!

Saw him in 1971 at the age of 11. Will never forget him kicking over his piano stool and playing with the heel of his boot. OMG.

Mike

Mike


[www.flickr.com]

I saw JLL back in December 1968 opening for the Doors. He was booed off stage, sort of like Prince was for the Stones in 1981. The more he was booed, the more he intimidated the crowd..."I hope you all get heart attacks" was his comment. In my opinion he got the last laugh because the Doors were terrible that show and the crowd left in silence.

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tomcasagranda
Jerry Lee also had a mid-80s bad patch

And strangely he came back en force with the "Great Balls Of Fire" soundtrack! Outtakes from these 1988 (?) sessions are among the finest things JLL has ever done (imo).

I saw Jerry Lee Lewis & Dr. John The Night Tripper open for The Allman Brothers at the Spectrum in Philly sometime in the 70s...

We were at front near the stage... I recall that I thought I was the only person there that wasn't on LSD...

Only time I saw the killer live was at Farm Aid in 2004 outside of Seattle.

Was front and center, he put on a great set and was glad to cross off musical bucket list.
Whole line-up was great that year.

Perhaps a little known fact.. he is cousins with both televangelist
Jimmy Swaggart and country star Mickey Gilley.
[countryroadsmagazine.com]

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dcba

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tomcasagranda
Jerry Lee also had a mid-80s bad patch

And strangely he came back en force with the "Great Balls Of Fire" soundtrack! Outtakes from these 1988 (?) sessions are among the finest things JLL has ever done (imo).

The Great Balls of Fire soundtrack is one of the best moments of The Killer. T-Bone Burnett actually knew how to produce The Killer, and he also miked the piano properly: the last two to ever do that were Huey Meaux, and Steve Rowland, for Southern Roots and The London Sessions respectively.

I always maintain that the MCA sessions had poor song choices: Circumstantial Evidence, Better Not Look Down, Candy Kisses, remain poor. The Ace Records stripped back sessions from the same era, i.e Pretty Much Country and Honky Tonk Rock'n'Roll Piano Man, were a lot better. Ron Chancey needs shooting for the poor production technique too. By that time, too, The Killer was chemically enhanced, and was blowing sessions, apparently.

However, previously, you can see a wealth of difference in the Elektra era recordings. The first album, from 1979, with Bones Howe producing, was a great album. The second two, When Two Worlds Collide, and Killer Country (not the compilation), were good, but not great Jerry Lee albums, although 39 & Holdin' and Over The Rainbow stem from Killer Country.

When you get to the Class of 55 sessions, in 1985, both Jerry Lee and Johnny Cash were at a low ebb. 16 Candles isn't too bad, but Keep My Motor Running is running on fumes. I think both The Killer and Cash were relapsing, or drugging themselves silly. Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison do come out of it fairly intact, but Class of 55 is a poor album.

Young Blood, produced by Andy pale, is over-produced and over-dubbed, although the piano sounds good, and the Jo-El Sonnier cover of One of Them Old Things is a stone cold country classic from the Killer. It also shows signs of recovery from a studio career that had, at the time, stalled.

Furthermore, a lot of stuff at the time, remains in the vaults, i.e more from T Bone Burnett, the early 80s Caribou Sessions, and some Elektra outtakes. It's pity Bear Family, or BGO, or another archive specialist, cannot license and issue what would be first rate Killer. Lately, the Knox Phillips sessions from the mid / late 1970s have been issued, so why not these ?

I get the whole 'Yeah cool! The old cats are still doing it!' vibe but JLL should've stopped quite a while ago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-03-06 02:57 by GasLightStreet.

I’d sure like to hear these outtakes. The Great Balls soundtrack is awesome.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-03-06 09:14 by padre69.

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GasLightStreet
I get the whole 'Yeah cool! The old cats are still doing it!' vibe but JLL should've stopped quite a while ago.

I disagree; he went into a genre, country, in 1968 which is far better suited for an older musician. Granted, in 1972/73, 1989, he still could rock, but his best music has been the stone cold country tracks that he had hits with from 1968-1981, and the ones that surface on his albums ever since. The purest Jerry Lee has always been the country stuff, i.e You Win Again, I'm Throwing Rice, Pen & Paper, Another Place Another Time, There Must Be More to Love Than This, She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye, When Two Worlds Collide, 39 & Holdin.