“Live” at the Star‐Club, Hamburg

Plinky plonky plinky plonky plinky plinky plinky plonk.

This is #day21 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and... discovering a record released 60 years ago and learning about the Star Club and its history is great. Yes, it's a wild live album, full of energy, presence, and all that. But... it leaves a bitter taste when you dig deeper. Why does a panel of music critics that compiled this list tolerate moral degenerates? This isn't the first time. For this reason, I'm giving it a 1 out of 5. Looking forward to #day22.

Great stuff

Wow. He bangs the hell out of that piano!!

Sounds so good live too. Great songs

5 ⭐️

That’s a 5. I feel a little dirty giving it a 5, but I think it’s fine.

Jerry Lee Lewis is a strange, strange man. I think he did some really weird shit in his lifetime, and I don’t like any of what I’ve read since I finished listening to the album. However… I can kinda separate it, mainly because I just don’t have any sort of deeper connection to the guy’s music like I did for a certain rapper who shall not be named.

It’s just kind of annoying that this is as good as it is; I don’t have a single complaint. I think the crowd’s energy is electric, I think the live performances from the band are off the charts, and his piano performances (while singing!) in particular are downright incredible. There’s not a single missed note nor a single missed breath from the man, and he had that crowd hanging onto both of them deeply. His stage presence and control are unbelievable to me – I’m glowing with praise about the way this sounds because it just sounds that damn good.

Yes, a lot of this set is ripped wholesale from other artists, and I’d be remiss not to acknowledge that, but I do think he did those songs justice – What’d I Say in particular keeps a lot of the grit from the Ray Charles version, and it just feels good to listen to. Honestly, I enjoyed this a lot, and I really wish the whole thing was on streaming. It’s pretty damn good. Solid 5.

Incredible performance, piece of shit human.

Live at the Star-Club Hamburg
Generally not a fan of live albums so wasn’t looking forward to this. There’s two versions on Tidal, a German release and what I presume is the UK/US release, but it only has 8 songs and different track listing from what’s on Wikipedia, but at 22 minutes I thought at least it would be over quickly.

It’s nice to have my expectations and assumptions turned on their head though, I thought this was great. The energy is fucking nuts.

Despite Jerry-Lee being an objectively terrible human being his piano playing is superb on this, and you can genuinely feel his stage presence and showmanship in the audio.

The band, particularly the drummer, are great too. Pretty much straight ahead rockabilly/rocknroll playing but they absolutely stomp. Just read it’s the drummer from The Animals. As a side note, I’ve been listening to that History of RocknRoll in 500 songs podcast and, due to musician union rules in the 60s backing bands weren’t allowed to go to the US from the UK and vice versa and take other musicians jobs. So if a singer like Jerry Lee Lewis or Gene Vincent or Muddy Waters went on tour to the UK they had to use UK musicians as a backing band, which is how I guess Barry Jenkins ended up on here.

Anyhow, the classics are all present and correct, delivered with manic intensity, but I really love the version of Money. Great choice of song, although Money was released very early in their history, Motown hadn’t quite become the musical force and phenomenon by early 64, so it’s an interesting choice. Maybe a nod to the Beatles cover, or a nod to blues, country and RocknRoll branching out into what would become soul. Or like Lennon he just liked the literal message.

Love the version of Your Cheating Heart too, a lot of tenderness in his vocal and a nice drop in tempo before the finish. Whole Lotta Shakin’ absolutely slaps/bangs/fucks, as the kids would say.

Kind of tempted to go 5. As a snapshot of primal RocknRoll it’s absolutely amazing, but it is a live album, so maybe it doesn’t count as a a proper ‘album’, whatever that means. So I’ll go 4, but if everyone else goes 5 I’ll change it.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Apparently Lewis was a nightmare of a person, and I'm consistently not a fan of this era of rock & roll acts just being endless covers of genre staples. Makes it easy for me to dismiss this one, so I will.

"Troubled" individual wasn't he. Hard to argue with the emotion and energy of this performance, with all the key tracks from the beginning of rock and roll.

So conflicted between "this guy's a wrong'un" and "these tracks changed the way we perceive music".

While I generally like oldies and first-wave rock 'n roll, I don't particularly enjoy Jerry Lee. I'm sure he was a fairly entertaining performer, but his recorded work doesn't really blow my hair back. This album was a quick listen and didn't make much of an impression on me. Moving on....

My dad used to play Great Balls Of Fire all the time when I was a little kid and I loved it. It seemed more popular back in the 80s and 90s than now. I feel like original rock and roll has been forgotten a bit or it's at least fading quickly. I tried to find significance in this album aside from the music because the album itself didn't thrill me that much. It does sound good for a 60 year old live concert recording, but the music itself isn't something I'm going to revisit. And then I read that Jerry Lee Lewis had married his 13 year old first cousin once removed a few years prior to this show and it kind of kills Jerry Lee Lewis for me a bit. He would have been so canceled today. This show would not have existed today. Not that that makes the music better or anything. It was interesting, but live albums aren't typically something I find myself returning to.

It's early rock and roll. It's pretty upbeat, so that's good, I guess? Better than Elvis, at least, and ironically less country-ish. Wikipedia says it's considered one of th greatest live albums of all time. That might be a bit much, but it didn't suck, so that's something. 3 stars.

Raucous energy, succinct length, minimal talking, great songs. What's not to love.

Packed a lot in for just 22 minutes. Solid rock and roll.

I know, I know, the guy was a sexual predator. I will rate his personal life a one or zero stars.
But this album demonstrates a rock and roll energy that I don’t think existed in many people in 1964. The guy had musical magic in him. You can try, but good luck not tapping along to this one.

I get why this is on the list, but it doesn't really do much for me. Obviously a very explosive and energetic performance, and is quite significant historically. Don't think I'll ever listen to it again though.

Ignoring the fact Jerry Lee Lewis was an Incestious Pedophile.

This is an outstanding live rock n roll album, one of the very best. I normally moan that albums are too long, this is one of the very few albums Iv got to say is just too short.

It only has 8 songs, which is 1 number less than the unfortunate women who were married to Jerry Lee Lewis. And is only 22 mins long, 22 was the age Jerry Lee Lewis was when he bigamously married his 13 year old first cousin.

4 stars

A classic is classic for some reason. It sounds (of course) old school for 2024, but still enjoyable. It's not a masterpiece tough.

Eine ADHS Explosion des am 29.9.35 geborenen Interpreten. Er „Rockt“ die Bühne in Hamburg und „rollt“ einen Hammer nach dem anderen raus .. „Great Balls of Fire“, „ Long Tall Sally“ & „ Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On“. Auch wenn es nicht ganz meine Musik ist, ist die Platte zur Wiederholung dringend empfohlen 😊

Live At The Star Club, Hamburg was a pretty decent live album. The songs all sounded quite good whilst live and Jerry Lee Lewis always had an energetic and fun stage presence. The songs were a bit samey sounding to the point of being the same song just with different lyrics but i don't really know if this is the album's fault. Its still a fun live album with some very enjoyable moments
Best Song: Your Cheating Heart
Worst Song: Good Golly, Miss Molly