| Jerry Lee
Lewis is the last American wildman. The tapestry of his life is
founded on his musical genius, which is supreme; his repertoire
is a storehouse of vital 20th-century American music with which
even the Smithsonian Institute would find it hard to compete. On
stage he can sing literally thousands of songs redefining and
re-interpreting them every time he plays. This is not a show, it
is real life. The most fundamental conventions of show business
fall by the wayside as he acts out his life through his music.
It is a life that reads like a mixture of Shakespeare and
Tennessee Williams - murder stories - death - insanity - bigamy
- drug abuse - violence - bankruptcy - vandalism - racism -
arrogance - egotism - genius. All these are part of Jerry Lee's
incredible life and style.
His personal life has been pulverised
by uncontrolled sexuality, drug and alcohol abuse and tainted by
death. He has been through more tragedy than Shakespeare could
conceive, losing two sons and two wives in tragic accidents, and
both parents to cancer.
These mammoth events have absorbed the
media ever since the British press arched its pompous nose at
Jerry's marriage to his 13-year-old second cousin - a normal
occurrence in the southern states in the 50s. Jerry's now
infamous 'child bride' marriage has made him better known in the
public consciousness than the great musical talent which first
propelled him to fame. The recent movie Great Balls of Fire
has further perpetuated the mythic aura that surrounds Jerry,
that of a man who loves young girls and sets Steinways on fire.
Jerry is no angel' and indeed did once set a piano on fire.
However, there are hundreds of recordings to prove that he has
played pianos superbly, a point of little interest to the mass
media. The true Jerry Lee story comes out of the searing
environs of the southern states, where his mother's musical
influence created a passion so great that it would fill the
spectrum of American music and make Jerry Lee Lewis its greatest
living exponent.
A Jerry Lee show is not simply a show,
it is a confrontation with life and death, a musical explosion
akin to opening your door and having Niagara Falls gush through.
Too wild to tame, too tough to die. The runway of Jerry's mind
is deeply scarred by the hereditary sins of racism and
blasphemous Bible-bashing. His double-first cousin is the
notorious Jimmy Lee Swag-gart, a public ego-basher in the
larger-than-life tradition, while another cousin is Mickey
Gilley, former owner of Gilley's Night Club in Texas, The
Largest Honky Tonk in the World'.
Swaggart leaked on to an unsuspecting
world as God's messenger via the Bible-bashing American T.V.
Network and had at one stage a viewing audience of more than
five hundred million worldwide. His fall from grace produced the
most mortifyingly embarrassing scene ever seen on T.V. Live, in
front of millions of viewers, he begged forgiveness with tears
streaming down his face before his designer-suited wife.
The media struck Jerry Lee a cruel blow
again in 1984 when Rolling Stone, the up-market magazine
for yuppies and ageing rockers, virtually accused him of the
murder of his fifth wife, Shawn.
'It wasn't the failed marriages that
brought me down - it was the passing of caskets.'
Jerry Lee remains aloof, noble,
arrogant, witty and spontaneous even when surrounded by such
degradation.
Jerry Lee: 'I would have to be
at least dead or 5,000 years old to do all the things they say I
have done. I am what I am, I've always said what I've wanted to
say, done what I wanted to do and been what I wanted to be. I've
never tried to hide anything, everything I've done has been out
in the open. If people don't like that then that's their problem.
I've been picked on, abused, sued, jailed, ridiculed, persecuted
and prosecuted, but I never let it bother me.'
Jerry Lee has truly lived his life as a
man who controlled his own destiny.
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