7 ms·

Jerry Lee Lewis has died

97 points by SirLJ 4y ago

dang 4y ago
Also: https://variety.com/2022/music/news/jerry-lee-lewis-dead-singer-great-balls-of-fire-1235415340/ https://variety.com/2022/music/news/jerry-lee-lewis-dead-sin... https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/arts/music/jerry-lee-lewis-dead.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/arts/music/jerry-lee-lewi... (We changed the URL above from variety.com to the article that seems to have the most background)
- SirLJ 4y ago
  Thank you Sir!
harveywi 4y ago
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
nemo44x 4y ago
dpatrick86 4y ago
This is being reported as false https://ew.com/music/jerry-lee-lewis-alive-after-erronerous-report-dead/ https://ew.com/music/jerry-lee-lewis-alive-after-erronerous-...
- tomjakubowski 4y ago
  That was two days ago, this is today.
WarOnPrivacy 4y ago
I saw him in 86 in Fairfax with Fats Domino. Amazing show. That man could seriously play drunk.
- BirAdam 4y ago
  That was probably an amazing time.
kennywinker 4y ago
Yikes. I knew about him “marrying” his 13yo cousin, but the suspicious deaths of two of his later wives? Sometimes it’s worth it to separate the art from the artist… but in his case i have a hard time seeing any reason to
- TremendousJudge 4y ago
  He was a pioneer in the field of being a rock and roll star with a questionable moral record.
  - coldtea 4y ago
    rock n' roll was all about having a questionable moral record... it wasn't about people going to hear Mother Teresa singing
    - kennywinker 4y ago
      If by questionable you mean hedonism, hell yeah, I'm right there with ya. If you mean "marrying" 13 year olds and possibly murdering your wives... we've got beef.
      - swyx 4y ago
        was her side of the story recorded at the time? what did her parents say? i am morbidly curious at this point how it happened
        croes 4y ago
        She co-wrote the book Great Balls of Fire: The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis (1982).
        mikeyouse 4y ago
        I mean, 13-year olds are actual children, so I don't know what "her side of the story" at the time would be. 7th graders don't typically have a great grasp on capturing narrative, or you know, basic geometry.
conductr 4y ago
Just me or does anyone else think this guy was dead decades ago?
- rsj_hn 4y ago
  I'm still shocked that Henry Kissinger is still alive. At this point, it should be a hn story ```Kissinger still alive``` (200 comments)
  - boringg 4y ago
    Wait he is? Amazing. Might be able to compete at the Centurion Olympics
  - kylecazar 4y ago
    I was at a screening of a documentary in Rockefeller center about the liberation of Ahlem. Henry Kissinger was giving remarks afterward. Stopped speaking mid-sentence, and stared directly at me, locking eyes, in the front row for at least 10 seconds before resuming. Everyone around me was puzzled. To this day we don't know why, and my brother likes to tell people at parties that Henry Kissinger hates me.
    - ydlr 4y ago
      I would never sleep through the night again. That is terrifying.
  - melling 4y ago
    Why are people shocked? Some people live well into their 90s. Kissinger is 99. Jimmy Carter is 98. Charlie Munger is 98. Warren Buffett is 92. Mel Brooks is 96. Roger Penrose is 91. Willie Nelson is 90. Ed Thorp is 90. Kissinger just published a book: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Six-Studies-World-Strategy/dp/0593489446 https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Six-Studies-World-Strategy...
  - dbg31415 4y ago
    The good die young.
jboggan 4y ago
No man more sinful has ever sung gospel more heavenly.
- dylan604 4y ago
  It's like it's part of the family's DNA
- bambax 4y ago
  The article ends with this memorable quote: > “I was raised a good Christian,” he told Rolling Stone in 1979. “But I couldn’t make it. … Too weak, I guess. I can’t picture Jesus Christ doin’ a whole lotta shakin’.” ;-)))
austinprete 4y ago
Highly recommend the episode about him from Mike Judge’s Tales from the Tour Bus. A lot of overlap with the Rolling Stone article but a little more dynamic!
- reidjs 4y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOdc_DG5EcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOdc_DG5EcQ
- CharlesW 4y ago
  Wow — great episode, and I had no idea this series was a thing. Thanks for posting!
tcbawo 4y ago
I don't recall the podcast I was listening to, but several years ago there was a discussion about Jerry Lee Lewis's album "Live At the Star-Club" as one of the best live albums ever recorded. It's a snapshot of a unique time and place in popular music and highlights Jerry Lee Lewis's controversial, but unique talent. The energy captured on the album (described by some as amphetamine-fueled) is remarkable. I recommend giving it a listen.
- mgkimsal 4y ago
  Sounds pretty clear and clean to me. Shame we couldn't have gotten as nice a recording of the Beatles at the Star Club just bit earlier :) FWIW, it's a nice live album, but doesn't strike me as one of the great live albums of all times. Unless there's some other bootleg with more. The only one I've found is... 8 songs. Tame audience (or they just weren't recorded?)
  - psweber 4y ago
    There is some kind of legal issue with the recording. I didn't look too deep. There were sixteen tracks recorded. Thirteen were on the real album, and one that had a recording fault was released later. Here's the songs on the original release: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXRKTcRs-Xs7RqWKl8hqt9wPn7GWpt8K7 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXRKTcRs-Xs7RqWKl8hqt...
  - gumby 4y ago
    > Tame audience (or they just weren't recorded?) If you can find a boot of Led Zeppelin's '69 recordings for the BBC you'll have the same impression: after each song the audience claps politely, as if they'd just heard some chamber music. I had an image of them all in short hair, dressed up, and sitting politely in wooden chairs or folding chairs. Perhaps they new the recording was for BBC broadcast (was it broadcast?) or perhaps that's just how things were in those days. OTOH, I visited London as a small child in 67 or 68 and my memories, even now, are of a pretty swinging place.
- ZoomZoomZoom 4y ago
  > highlights Jerry Lee Lewis's controversial, but unique talent His morals were controversial, but his talent was anything but.
ubermonkey 4y ago
i_am_proteus 4y ago
Nick Tosches's biography of Lewis, Hellfire, is a great read. https://groveatlantic.com/book/hellfire/ https://groveatlantic.com/book/hellfire/
- mgkimsal 4y ago
  Agreed. Got it as a gift a couple years back. Ended up being a pretty fast read as I was engrossed the whole time :)
mihaic 4y ago
Actually surprised he was still alive! The current decade is probably going to beat out all others in the number of famous musicians dying.
- anonymousiam 4y ago
  I came across this article just two days ago: https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/jerry-lee-lewis-misreported-dead-still-alive-rep-confirms/ https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/jerry-lee-lewis-misreported-de... I was glad that he was still with us. Today I mourn his passing.
DennisP 4y ago
I saw him at an outdoor concert about twenty years ago. He was still going completely nuts on stage, playing keys with his feet, belting out Great Balls of Fire and jumping around like a maniac. Not bad for 67 or so at the time.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tsol 4y ago
Let's not forget, since history is so in vogue right now >Yes, it was 1958. But even back then, a 22-year-old marrying his 13-year-old cousin while still married to another woman was scandalous. And yet that's exactly what Jerry Lee Lewis, one of rock ’n’ roll's most important pioneers, did. It was in 1958 when British journalists learned of the tender young age of Myra Gale Brown, and the ensuing uproar caused Lewis to cancel his tour and spoiled his chance to dethrone Elvis as the king of rock. >At 14, the couple had a child, who would die in a swimming pool accident three years later. Lewis' infidelity and drug use further strained the marriage, and they got divorced in 1971. Lewis, who is still alive, married for a seventh time in 2012. He kept it in the family again — she was reportedly his cousin's ex-wife.
stuntkite 4y ago
Almost 10 years ago I built a music news platform for his son in law that he funded until he got in the news for marrying another cousin and cut out extra expenses. It was an amazingly stupid project but kind of a highlight of my career getting to talk to "The Killer" and do my best to explain the iOS app his son in law wanted. After Jerry pulled his cash they were scrambling to try to find other funding and wanted me to work for free, which I declined but they said if I did I could meet Kid Rock. Lol.

97 points by SirLJ 4y ago

dang 4y ago

Also: https://variety.com/2022/music/news/jerry-lee-lewis-dead-singer-great-balls-of-fire-1235415340/ https://variety.com/2022/music/news/jerry-lee-lewis-dead-sin... https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/arts/music/jerry-lee-lewis-dead.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/arts/music/jerry-lee-lewi... (We changed the URL above from variety.com to the article that seems to have the most background)

SirLJ 4y ago
Thank you Sir!

harveywi 4y ago

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

nemo44x 4y ago

dpatrick86 4y ago

This is being reported as false https://ew.com/music/jerry-lee-lewis-alive-after-erronerous-report-dead/ https://ew.com/music/jerry-lee-lewis-alive-after-erronerous-...

tomjakubowski 4y ago
That was two days ago, this is today.

WarOnPrivacy 4y ago

I saw him in 86 in Fairfax with Fats Domino. Amazing show. That man could seriously play drunk.

BirAdam 4y ago
That was probably an amazing time.

kennywinker 4y ago

Yikes. I knew about him “marrying” his 13yo cousin, but the suspicious deaths of two of his later wives? Sometimes it’s worth it to separate the art from the artist… but in his case i have a hard time seeing any reason to

TremendousJudge 4y ago
He was a pioneer in the field of being a rock and roll star with a questionable moral record.
- coldtea 4y ago
  rock n' roll was all about having a questionable moral record... it wasn't about people going to hear Mother Teresa singing
  - kennywinker 4y ago
    If by questionable you mean hedonism, hell yeah, I'm right there with ya. If you mean "marrying" 13 year olds and possibly murdering your wives... we've got beef.
    - swyx 4y ago
      was her side of the story recorded at the time? what did her parents say? i am morbidly curious at this point how it happened
      - croes 4y ago
        She co-wrote the book Great Balls of Fire: The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis (1982).
      - mikeyouse 4y ago
        I mean, 13-year olds are actual children, so I don't know what "her side of the story" at the time would be. 7th graders don't typically have a great grasp on capturing narrative, or you know, basic geometry.

conductr 4y ago

Just me or does anyone else think this guy was dead decades ago?

rsj_hn 4y ago
I'm still shocked that Henry Kissinger is still alive. At this point, it should be a hn story ```Kissinger still alive``` (200 comments)
- boringg 4y ago
  Wait he is? Amazing. Might be able to compete at the Centurion Olympics
- kylecazar 4y ago
  I was at a screening of a documentary in Rockefeller center about the liberation of Ahlem. Henry Kissinger was giving remarks afterward. Stopped speaking mid-sentence, and stared directly at me, locking eyes, in the front row for at least 10 seconds before resuming. Everyone around me was puzzled. To this day we don't know why, and my brother likes to tell people at parties that Henry Kissinger hates me.
  - ydlr 4y ago
    I would never sleep through the night again. That is terrifying.
- melling 4y ago
  Why are people shocked? Some people live well into their 90s. Kissinger is 99. Jimmy Carter is 98. Charlie Munger is 98. Warren Buffett is 92. Mel Brooks is 96. Roger Penrose is 91. Willie Nelson is 90. Ed Thorp is 90. Kissinger just published a book: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Six-Studies-World-Strategy/dp/0593489446 https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Six-Studies-World-Strategy...
- dbg31415 4y ago
  The good die young.

jboggan 4y ago

No man more sinful has ever sung gospel more heavenly.

dylan604 4y ago
It's like it's part of the family's DNA
bambax 4y ago
The article ends with this memorable quote: > “I was raised a good Christian,” he told Rolling Stone in 1979. “But I couldn’t make it. … Too weak, I guess. I can’t picture Jesus Christ doin’ a whole lotta shakin’.” ;-)))

austinprete 4y ago

Highly recommend the episode about him from Mike Judge’s Tales from the Tour Bus. A lot of overlap with the Rolling Stone article but a little more dynamic!

reidjs 4y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOdc_DG5EcQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOdc_DG5EcQ
CharlesW 4y ago
Wow — great episode, and I had no idea this series was a thing. Thanks for posting!

tcbawo 4y ago

I don't recall the podcast I was listening to, but several years ago there was a discussion about Jerry Lee Lewis's album "Live At the Star-Club" as one of the best live albums ever recorded. It's a snapshot of a unique time and place in popular music and highlights Jerry Lee Lewis's controversial, but unique talent. The energy captured on the album (described by some as amphetamine-fueled) is remarkable. I recommend giving it a listen.

mgkimsal 4y ago
Sounds pretty clear and clean to me. Shame we couldn't have gotten as nice a recording of the Beatles at the Star Club just bit earlier :) FWIW, it's a nice live album, but doesn't strike me as one of the great live albums of all times. Unless there's some other bootleg with more. The only one I've found is... 8 songs. Tame audience (or they just weren't recorded?)
- psweber 4y ago
  There is some kind of legal issue with the recording. I didn't look too deep. There were sixteen tracks recorded. Thirteen were on the real album, and one that had a recording fault was released later. Here's the songs on the original release: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXRKTcRs-Xs7RqWKl8hqt9wPn7GWpt8K7 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXRKTcRs-Xs7RqWKl8hqt...
- gumby 4y ago
  > Tame audience (or they just weren't recorded?) If you can find a boot of Led Zeppelin's '69 recordings for the BBC you'll have the same impression: after each song the audience claps politely, as if they'd just heard some chamber music. I had an image of them all in short hair, dressed up, and sitting politely in wooden chairs or folding chairs. Perhaps they new the recording was for BBC broadcast (was it broadcast?) or perhaps that's just how things were in those days. OTOH, I visited London as a small child in 67 or 68 and my memories, even now, are of a pretty swinging place.
ZoomZoomZoom 4y ago
> highlights Jerry Lee Lewis's controversial, but unique talent His morals were controversial, but his talent was anything but.

ubermonkey 4y ago

i_am_proteus 4y ago

Nick Tosches's biography of Lewis, Hellfire, is a great read. https://groveatlantic.com/book/hellfire/ https://groveatlantic.com/book/hellfire/

mgkimsal 4y ago
Agreed. Got it as a gift a couple years back. Ended up being a pretty fast read as I was engrossed the whole time :)

mihaic 4y ago

Actually surprised he was still alive! The current decade is probably going to beat out all others in the number of famous musicians dying.

anonymousiam 4y ago
I came across this article just two days ago: https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/jerry-lee-lewis-misreported-dead-still-alive-rep-confirms/ https://nypost.com/2022/10/26/jerry-lee-lewis-misreported-de... I was glad that he was still with us. Today I mourn his passing.

DennisP 4y ago

I saw him at an outdoor concert about twenty years ago. He was still going completely nuts on stage, playing keys with his feet, belting out Great Balls of Fire and jumping around like a maniac. Not bad for 67 or so at the time.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

tsol 4y ago

Let's not forget, since history is so in vogue right now >Yes, it was 1958. But even back then, a 22-year-old marrying his 13-year-old cousin while still married to another woman was scandalous. And yet that's exactly what Jerry Lee Lewis, one of rock ’n’ roll's most important pioneers, did. It was in 1958 when British journalists learned of the tender young age of Myra Gale Brown, and the ensuing uproar caused Lewis to cancel his tour and spoiled his chance to dethrone Elvis as the king of rock. >At 14, the couple had a child, who would die in a swimming pool accident three years later. Lewis' infidelity and drug use further strained the marriage, and they got divorced in 1971. Lewis, who is still alive, married for a seventh time in 2012. He kept it in the family again — she was reportedly his cousin's ex-wife.

stuntkite 4y ago

Almost 10 years ago I built a music news platform for his son in law that he funded until he got in the news for marrying another cousin and cut out extra expenses. It was an amazingly stupid project but kind of a highlight of my career getting to talk to "The Killer" and do my best to explain the iOS app his son in law wanted. After Jerry pulled his cash they were scrambling to try to find other funding and wanted me to work for free, which I declined but they said if I did I could meet Kid Rock. Lol.