![]() In later years, the former Myra Lewis alleged that her former spouse abused her, but more recently, appears to have created an affable relationship with her ex-husband, and has called their marriage "ten incredible, wonderful years." (Over the years, Lewis married a total of seven times.) I thought about her being 13 and all, but that didn't stop her from being a full-fledged woman." Meanwhile, Lewis' own sister had reportedly married at age 12, giving credence to the idea that this was a cultural norm. His marriage to Myra lasted a decade, and in Rick Bragg's best-selling 2014 biography, Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, Lewis says, "She looked like a grown woman, blossomed out and ready for plucking. That doesn't mean that he was ever publicly regretful. Lewis made it through a just a few tour dates before succumbing to the press and public's censure, and retreated back to the U.S. But it was Lewis' rockabilly version, released in 1957, that became a hit on the pop charts - and put a piano at the center of rock 'n' roll. When Lewis was 25, he struck gold with a career-defining hit: "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." It was a song first recorded in 1955 by a black artist, Big Maybelle, for Okeh Records (a side that was produced, notably, by a promising young man Quincy Jones). Playing alongside Presley, Cash and Perkins, Lewis was part the one-night foursome that became known as the "Million-Dollar Quartet," which inspired a Tony-nominated musical of the same name that opened on Broadway in 2010. ![]() At first, he was a journeyman side player to artists like Carl Perkins - but that proximity meant that he was also played in a legendary single session in December 1956 at Sun Studios. In late 1956, Lewis was signed to Sam Philips' Sun Records, the Memphis record label that became legendary and where his labelmates included Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Religion influenced more than the music this was a time when rock 'n' roll was deemed downright demonic.Īs a teenager, Lewis was thrown out of the school he was attending, Southwest Bible Institute in Texas, for playing boogie-woogie on a school piano. He taught himself to play, combining the boogie beats from the Black clubs and some of what he heard on Sundays at his Pentecostal church. I kinda always figured I was the real thing too." In a 1987 documentary called I Am What I Am, Lewis described the music he heard there: "Something different about it - it was blues and it was kind of rock. And he grew up sneaking into the black clubs, hiding under the tables until he got kicked out. ![]() His mother was a Pentecostal preacher who disapproved of secular music his cousin, the influential and eventually infamous evangelical preacher Jimmy Swaggart, was also fond of condemning "the devil's music." But when Lewis was just eight years old, his father (who had served time in prison for bootlegging), took out a mortgage on the family farm to buy young Jerry a piano. 29, 1935 in Ferriday, La., Jerry Lee Lewis grew up caught in a binary quandary over music and morality, perpetually torn between his religious upbringing and a burning desire to boogie. one of the most talented human beings to walk God's earth." But almost as quickly as his star ascended, his career collapsed, after he married his 13-year-old cousin in 1958 - mere months after his first hit song was issued.īorn Sept. Sam Philips, the founder of Sun Records - and the producer who also discovered Elvis, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison - called Lewis "the most talented man I ever worked with, black or white. ![]() Rock 'n' roll's first great wild man, Jerry Lee Lewis - the singer and pianist nicknamed "The Killer" - has died. Jerry Lee Lewis, in a photo taken during his infamous trip to London in June 1958, when it became public that he was married to his 13-year-old cousin.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |