Last Man Standing....

Some recent news came across the Natural Blues desk this past week. Jerry Lee Lewis, at the age of 71, will be releasing an album this month, "Last Man Standing". An apt title, given that Jerry Lee Lewis is from a time long gone, with the inconic figures of rock n roll all but gone (Elvis, Carl Perkins), or lost to madness (Little Richard), The Killer is indeed the Last Man Standing. The significance of Jerry Lee Lewis releasing a record in 2006 goes far beyond the discussion of whether "Can the old man pull it off?", but rather it allows for a reflection of American Music and History. And make no mistake, The Killer is American History. Much like Greil Marcus' essays on "Old Weird America", I would propose that the world of mid-50's Rockbilly is very much the alternative history of America. The 50's rockabilly icons were not the clean cut "Happy Days" types....these men were crazed and full of hellfire and sex...and danger....

He created rock's first great scandal - as an incestuous, cradle-robbing bigamist - which set him up for rock's first failed comeback - the public so disgusted that he had to wait a decade for acceptance, and then only as a country star.....
There have been fist-fights, handguns, shotguns. On a tear in 1976, he accidentally shot his bass player in the chest (not fatally), flipped his car and waved a handgun outside Graceland when Elvis wouldn't come out and say hello; the next day, Elvis went to visit Jerry Lee, who was out, and wound up signing autographs on Jerry Lee's lawn. Jerry Lee drank more whiskey, took more pills and had more car wrecks than most rock bands combined. He's broken out of hospitals, fled the Betty Ford Centre, and seen Hollywood make a cartoon of his life. Life, it seems, has clung to him, not he to life. That's unlike his peer, Elvis Presley. Elvis died like a wimp. Elvis was a girl. Wouldn't fuck his beautiful wife? Got so fat he had to wear jumpsuits? Sang suck-ass songs like 'The Impossible Dream'? And that wore him out at 42? 'What the shit did Elvis do,' Jerry once said, 'except take dope I couldn't get ahold of?' Survivors are the real sufferers. (Robert Gordon)

This is a whole segment of American History that is fading from our sights.....and an important era that warrants attention not only for music fans, but anyone in America, really. Along with Jazz and Blues, Rock n Roll is our music, America's music. And we must never forget that.
Here are two songs from Jerry Lee Lewis' new record, both incredible performances. The first is a version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock n Roll", with none other than Jimmy Page on guitar. This performance by the Killer demonstrates that age is an artifact of time, not a grim reality. The other song is "Evening Gown", a duet with Mick Jagger (who also wrote this song) with Ron Wood on slide guitar, and is everything you'd want a honky-tonk song to be.
Well, that's it for now.....dig the crazy old man from Lousiana...and dig back into America's old weird past.....