“Live” at the Star‐Club, Hamburg

Short concert, stolen music. The performance is energetic, but the cloud of "white man popularising the black man's music" hangs heavy here. Classic rock & roll, albeit distilled.

I was glad I got to listen to this and hear Jerry pound the same chord over and over again and then run his finger up and down the piano. It compelled me to Goggle “Was Jerry Lee Lewis a good piano player?” Apparently there’s some strong opinions. There were flashes of him showing better playing (Your Cheating Heart), but I was pretty underwhelmed. I was expecting to love this, and am glad I didn’t. Because he was a bad guy.

Må have været en fed koncert! Der er god energi, men der er noget som ikke helt får mig solgt.

Aren't people who do terrible things supposed to be really talented? This was boring. Sure, the piano playing is impressive, but it's just rock 'n' roll standards played slightly faster than usual. I can find more impressive piano-centered pieces from a century before this album. Thank god it's short, or I'm more than sure I'd hate this.

Hot!

Good stuff

Today's album is by Jerry Lee Lewis, a rock and roll pioneer from way back in the 50's in the time of Elvis.

Before we delve into this album review, here is a hilarious story about Jerry: So he's in a bar, driving liquor into himself after he unsuccessfully tried to get his dad out of jail for drunk driving. Elvis calls him up and tells him to come over. Jerry grabs a bottle of champagne, gets into his brand new Lincoln Continental, drives to Elvis's place drunk as fuck, and slams into the gates of Graceland. Elvis watches on closed circuit TV as Jerry finishes his bottle of champagne, and tries to throw the empty out the window but the window was up so he ends up covering himself in broken glass. Elvis's security guard was apparently also his cousin, so he calls up to Elvis after all this horseshit goes down, and Elvis tells him to call the police. The police come and arrest Jerry Lee and put him in jail with his dad.

Now, onto the album review. It is well documented that Jerry Lee may not have been the nicest human being, having married his 13 year old cousin, shot his bass player while drunkenly shooting at a door on his birthday, and being a huge racist, but we are here to listen to the music.

This album is phenomenal! Jerry enters the performance hall, seemingly strung out on pills, and puts on a non stop white knuckle performance! He played the shit out of that piano, so much so that they probably needed to re-tune it afterwards. Jerry's belted lyrics, and fast paced playing style were amazing, and this was some of the earliest signs of what was to come with future rock bands of the 60's and 70's.

Overall, just a pleasure to listen to! His performance was so captivating! Easy music to swing to. Imagine being there, that would have been crazy!! I will 100% listen again!! Oddly, Spotify only has 8 of the 13 songs on this record. I did, however, find a full album playlist on YouTube. Do yourself a favor, and listen to the full album as intended. It's all gold!!

Favourite songs: Hound Dog, "Good Golly, Miss Molly", Great Balls of Fire, "Long, Tall Sally", Matchbox, Mean Woman Blues, Money (That's What I Want), Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, High School Confidential, What'd I Say (Parts 1&2), Lewis' Boogie

Least favorite songs: Your Cheating Heart

5/5

*listened to full version on YT rather than shortened version available for streaming*

HL: "Hound Dog", "Great Balls of Fire", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "Money"

This is a piano bar but on a recording and Jerry is the maestro par exellence.

Jerry Lee Lewis stint to this German club sees him hitting the piano almost as violently as he was hitting his underage cousin-wife.

Bet let’s try to set that aside for a while and focus on the music.

JLL is in the zone on this live recording and the band plays focused and almost aggressively fast-paced. The main character delivers a powerful vocal performance and it’s evident from the cheering and shouting that the audience got exactly what they came for.

Almost 60 years after I don’t feel half the effect that those people did back in the club. But I can’t help to admire the sheer force of entertainment that is Jerry Lee Lewis either.

Did I mention that he married his 13 year old cousin?

What fun! A little self similar but very engaging!

rock 'n' rolll

This kind of early 60s rock and roll just doesn't do anything for me really. I appreciate the cultural significance but I wouldn't ever seek out listening to it.

Controversies aside, his music performance could certainly bring a room alive. Wild, energetic and audacious. Still, controversies, eh!

A bit sloppy and messy, like live albums often are. Really enjoyable, and interesting, and sounds like it was an awesome gig. Weirdly also sounds like he was already kind of a heritage act, even so close to his heyday.
Loved it!

You have live albums and then you have live albums

A machine gun of hits.

I really enjoyed listening to this. Way more than I thought I would initally.

Ok, yeah it's great rock and roll. But, seriously, a song called "High School Confidential" by a guy who married his 13 year old cousin? That's f'd up. Deducting 1 star for creepiness.

Seems like what they have up on Spotify doesn't have all the tracks from the original album which is kinda disappointing. Its funny cause I'm reading a book about krautrock right now and there's a whole chapter about the Hamburg red light district scene from this era and the Star Club in particular. Didn't realize such an iconic live album came from their efforts to put out records. I was pretty into all the big Sun Records artists back in high school. Even had a Sun Records t-shirt. Probably liked Jerry Lee the most of all for his unique phrasing and sheer energy. He never seemed to be able to really break out much beyond his initial success like Elvis or Johnny Cash but he really seemed to embody the real spirit of rock and roll more to me. And that is very much in evidence on this recording. Kinda like that it is very simply recorded and retains a sort of rawness that sounds very honest and accurate to the live experience.