One of my favorite Jerry Lee stories is that of a time when a biographer asked, “Is it true that…”
“Yeah,” he interjected, without waiting to hear the particulars.
That was Jerry Lee Lewis, who departed terra firma today at the age of 87. A man who lived by his own rules, his wife said "he is ready," just a few days ago.
As Rick Bragg shared in his obituary, "somewhere in the world, in a mean little honky-tonk or big music hall or church basement rec room, someone is playing a Jerry Lee Lewis song. Wherever there is a piano, someone is shouting…
You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain
Too much love drives a man insane…"
The song that, more than "Danger Zone," will always be the Top Gun song." The song that inspired countless pianists to view their piano as a percussion instrument.
Despite such a massive catalogue of hits, we gotta go with the Killer's most killer on this Music Friday that marks the end of an era.
And the Original + "Breathless.*"
I'd say rest in peace...but that's just not how it's gonna go down in his next life.
* and since we're talking movies...there's always the (spoiler) ending of Richard Gere's Breathless.
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