Stellungsname von einigen Alben von Patrick Wall.......many thanks for your great job, Patrick

JERRY LEE LEWIS ALBUMS: 
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CLASSIC: 
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This 8 CD box set contains the best music from the rock 'n' 
roll era.For those who think rock 'n' roll is just teenage 
trash,this set will make you think again.Rock 'n' roll and 
the blues are the same thing as far as Jerry Lee Lewis is 
concerned. 
Jerry Lee may not have had many rock 'n' roll hits and the 
reason for this was the music was too pure and bluesy for 
the pop charts.However,his 4 rock 'n' roll hits ("Great 
balls of fire","Whole lotta shakin' ","Breathless" & 
"Highschool confidential") were anthems and among the 
best remembered hits from that era. 
However,Lewis' greater work at Sun (the label he recorded 
for in the rock 'n' roll era (i.e. 1956 to 1963) was not 
the hits but the tracks that were not released at the 
time.Lewis recorded hundreds of songs for Sun and encompassed 
many diverse styles including blues ("Big legged woman","Hello 
hello baby","Tomorrow night","Honey hush"),Hillbilly 
blues ("Deep Elem blues"),Country ("You win again","I could 
never be ashamed of you","Crazy arms"),country blues ("Ole 
pal of yesterday","Silver threads among the gold),gospel 
("Old time religion","When the saints go marching in"), 
boogie ("Rockin' with Red","Lewis boogie"),Jump blues 
("Let the good times roll"),rock 'n' roll ("Wild one", 
"Lovin' up a storm") and R&B ("Good rockin' tonight", 
"Hang up my rock 'n' roll shoes").No other artist of 
that or any era convinced on such a diverse amount 
of material both as a singer and a musician. 

LIVE AT THE STAR CLUB: 
---------------------- 
Quite possibly,Jerry Lee Lewis at his greatest.This 
album showed the sanitized '60s music business what 
rock 'n' roll should be all about.For Lewis,rock 'n' 
roll meant the same thing as blues and the key was to 
sing with feeling and say what you meant. 
"Mean woman blues",the opener,was wild blues-shouting. 
This made all other rock 'n' roll look tame.A furious 
"Highschool confidential" follows.Next up was "Money, 
a very bluesy version of the R&B song which he had 
recorded at Sun in the early 1960s.Surely this was 
engraved on the Beatles' minds forever,who later 
cut it. 
"Matchbox blues",the old Blind Lemon Jefferson 
blues that was revived by both Lewis and Carl Perkins 
at Sun,gets its definitive treatment from Lewis here. 
Lewis learned this all those years ago at Haney's Big 
House - and all the stylistics of the black bluesman 
is ingrained in Lewis' style. 
"What'd I say" & "Great balls of fire" are then given 
a wild R&B treatment to please his old rock fans.Lewis 
then decides to 'show up' some of his rivals,who we 
know,they knew and Lewis himself knew couldn't compare 
to him."Hound dog" was an old blues standard and was 
covered and made famous by popstar/rock 'n' roller 
Elvis Presley in 1956.Lewis' version here is wilder, 
bluesier and far superior than any of its predecessors. 
Little Richard's "Good Golly Miss Molly" & "Long tall 
Sally" also are great improvements on the originals. 
"Lewis boogie" & "Whole lotta shaking" are more 
crowd pleasers and reveal the total wildness of this 
set. 
"Your cheating heart" is the only slow song from this 
concert and is also one of the highlights.Jerry Lee 
approaches the song as a tough blues (Hank Williams had 
wrote and originated it as a bluesy song but it was 
recorded in Nashville since as a country-pop track 
by many ).This is pure Lewis invention and shows the 
fine line he drew between country and blues. 

LOCUST YEARS: 
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After "What'd I say" became a hit for Lewis in 1961, 
Jerry Lee decided to concentrate more on the R&B side 
of his music.His style during his Smash and early 
Mercury years owed much to Ray Charles - but the 
music produced during these years was no mere 
Charles copy: This was Jerry Lee Lewis style music, 
nothing else. 
Lewis recorded many great blues anthems like "Got 
you on my mind","Mathilda","I believe in you" & 
"The hole he said he dig for me".All of these 
deserved to be a lot more successful than they 
were."It's a hang-up baby","Baby hold me close", 
"I bet you're gonna like it","Just dropped in" 
and many others was soul music equal to anything 
else on the market during the soul era. 
The only reason that Jerry Lee didn't make it as 
the premier white R&B/soul singer of the 1960s was 
due to the influx of British copycat bluesmen onto 
the American charts.The 'British invasion' really 
watered down the blues and Jerry Lee began to 
see that blues music in its original form was 
migrating to the country charts. 
For Jerry Lee,blues and country were always very 
similar and Lewis turned to country music sung 
with blues feeling for his 1968 album "Another 
place another time".The title track,"What's made 
Milwaukee famous" & a few more were big hits 
and set the path for the future of Lewis. 
More country albums continued throughout the 
late 1969s and produced such big hits as "To 
make love sweeter for you","She still comes 
around","Once more with feeling","She even 
woke me up to say goodbye" and others.Lewis' 
bluesy singing combined with the country 
melodies of the songs made this the greatest 
country music of the '60s. 

THERE MUST BE MORE TO LOVE THAN THIS: 
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In the 1970s,Lewis' albums maintained a formula: 
Most of the songs on them were slow country songs 
but there was also one or two blues,jazz or rock 
'n' roll revivals on them as well to maintain his 
older fans. 
This album from 1970 was the first example."Sweet 
Georgia Brown" was a wild version of an old jazz 
standard & "Reuben James" was a fast bluegrass 
song.The title track (A No.1 hit),"Bottles & 
barstools","Woman,woman" & "I'd be talking all 
the time" were slow country while "One more time" 
was country/blues. 

TOUCHING HOME: 
-------------- 
This album followed the same procedure as "There 
must be more to love than this" but was a lot more 
country orientated."Please don't talk about me 
when I'm gone" was a wild version of a jazz song. 
Lewis' approach was similar to his approach on 
"Sweet Georgia Brown".All the other tracks on 
the album were country,though. 
The title track is possibly Jerry Lee's best ever 
country recording and mixed country and blues to 
good effect.Jerry Lee was also one of if not the 
first to record "Help me make it through the night", 
a bluesy song that would become a huge standard 
later."Coming back for more" is a great piece of 
Western Swing music while "Mother the queen of 
my heart" shows us Jerry Lee's affinity with 
Jimmie Rodgers' music."Time changes everything" 
improves greatly on the Bob Wills original and 
sounds like a Moon Mullican performance. 
Overall,this album reveals Lewis the country 
vocalist at his best. 

THE KILLER ROCKS ON: 
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In 1973,Jerry Lee would almost abandon country 
music completely.In 1972,he diverged from the 
country style for one album and the result 
was a very popular set that told him that blues 
based albums sold better than country based 
albums.The idea of a blues/rock album a year, 
as well as a few country albums was adopted as 
the way of the future. 
'Killer rocks on' was an excellent set.There 
were many highlights and chief among them was 
a powerful blues version of Roy Hamilton's 
"You can have her".The old blues "C.C Rider", 
which Jerry Lee had cut at least twice before, 
always received an excellent treatment from 
Lewis and this is one of his best.The Elvis 
Presley pop song "Don't be cruel" is given a 
definitive blues treatment by Jerry Lee,while 
another '50s hit - Fats Domino's "I'm walking" - 
also receives a great boogie/blues treatment. 
There were many songs written by others that 
were just waiting for the Lewis treatment. 
"Chantilly lace",a 1958 Big Bopper hit,is 
greatly improved upon by Lewis,while the C&W 
standard "Me & Bobby McGee" also receives 
the performance it deserved.Charlie Rich's 
material always brought out the best in Lewis 
and "Lonely weekends" is no exception.Joe 
South's gospel/blues/country compositions 
"Games people play" & "Walk a mile in my 
shoes" also reach their full potential 
in the hands of Lewis. 
The only faults about the album was some 
over-production and the release of three 
tracks previuosly released on other 
albums. 

WHO'S GONNA PLAY THIS OLD PIANO: 
-------------------------------- 
This album was a country album less pure in style 
than many of its predecessors.The songs are country 
in structure - but their performance from Lewis is 
a blues-country hybrid. 
Dallas Frazier has been one of the greatest writers 
in country music and his contributions to Lewis in 
the past have been big highlights ("Touching home", 
"When he walks on you",etc.).The tracks he wrote for 
this album are far bluesier in nature - "We both know 
which one of us was wrong" & "She's reaching for my 
mind".The title track & "Bottom dollar" - written by 
Bill Joe Shaver,who himself would be a country-blues 
star - are excellent examples of Western Swing. 
"No more hanging on" is classic country and should 
have been a hit while "Too many rivers to cross" is 
Lewis' interpretation of how Sinatra might have 
approached country music."No traffic out of Abilene" 
is a modern sounding country-rock song again showing 
Lewis' versatality. 

WOULD YOU TAKE ANOTHER CHANCEON ME: 
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During his Sun years,Lewis' country music had 
mainly been cover versions of songs by the artists 
he was influenced by.Most of his originals at Sun 
were of a blues nature.At Mercury,after Lewis hit 
big as a country star,things changed.There was 
a big emphasis on top class original country 
music. 
This album is a great example.The title track, 
which was a No.1 country hit,was country-blues 
with a touch of soul,while "Another handshaking 
goodbye" & "Lonesome fiddle man" was country 
balladry at its best."The hurting part" was a 
tough blues,while "The goodbye of the year" was 
in the mould of "Touching home". 

THE SESSION: 
------------ 
Jerry Lee has always been unfortunate to see others 
benefit from his style.Jerry Lee's ideas have been 
stolen by many - and many of his ideas and styles 
have been hitmaking potential for many the inferior 
artist. 
However,thankfully there were genuine poeple who 
benefitted from Lewis' style who 'repaid' Lewis a 
complement."The Session" album is an example of 
this.The album features some top class British 
guitarists and even quite a few hippies. 
This combination may have been strange - but 
it works well.Jerry Lee is doing what he does 
best and the allstar band back him resulting in 
a classic blues album. 
There are many highlights.Chief among them is 
"No headstone on my grave",a Charlie Rich blues 
composition.Lewis storms his way through the song 
at both fast and slow tempos,resulting in one of 
the greatest of Jerry Lee's blues recordings. 
Jerry Lee also shows that he can out-blues even 
the prominant black blues guys of the day.Jerry's 
versions of Jimmy Reed's "Big boss man" & "Baby 
what you want do" are way bluesier than the 
originals.Johnny Ace's "Pledging my love" is a 
pleasant blues ballad,while Chuck Berry's "Memphis" 
also gets the powerful Lewis blues treatment. 
The New Orleans rock 'n' roll standard "Sea 
cruise" also gets a definitive boogie-ing up by 
Jerry Lee while the original "Jukebox" is another 
example of Lewis' blues versatility."Trouble in 
mind",a '20s blues standard,reveals Lewis' blues 
vocals at their best.There is soul and urgency 
about this performance and its yet another blues 
classic from Lewis. 
Jerry Lee also recorded versions of songs he did 
at Sun.The best of these include "Sixty minute man", 
a jazzy R&B standard complete with excellent slide 
guitar playing from the band.Also "Be bop a Lula", 
a song originally a hit for Gene Vincent,gets the 
bluesiest treatment imaginable from Jerry Lee. 

SOUTHERN ROOTS: 
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After 5 years of more or less country orientation, 
Jerry Lee decided in 1973 to go back to the blues 
side of his music."The session" was one album that 
revealed that,this one was another. 
"Meat man",an original,was Lewis' kind of song: a 
tough,suggestive gutbucket blues."Hold on I'm coming" 
is equally as good - a blues assault on a soul track. 
"Just a little bit" was an old blues standard that 
Lewis made his own and this performance echoes his 
double-entrende blues from his Sun days like "Big 
legged woman" or "Keep your hands off of it". 
On the more polite side was a great original 
reading of "Blueberry hill" that differed from the 
Fats Domino or Louis Armstrong versions that preceded 
his one."Big blue diamonds" & "Born to be a loser" 
were there to keep country fans amused and yet reaked 
with blues feeling."Bourbon street church" was a 
tough blues/jazz hybrid with a truly Southern feel 
while "Haunted house" was humourous blues at its best. 
This was a classic blues/R&B album and boasted many 
top class musicians.Many songs remained unreleased 
from the album though including the excellent blues 
"Raining in my heart". 

BOOGIE WOOGIE COUNTRY MAN: 
-------------------------- 
As the years at Mercury passed,there was less and less 
emphasis on country music every time.If this 1975 album 
had been cut 5 years earlier,it would have been pure 
country.Yet,what we get here is a set of country intended 
songs sung as blues. 
"Forever forgiving" is,for example,more blues balladry than 
country balladry."Remember me,I'm the one who loves you", 
an old country standard,also gets a very bluesy treatment. 
Even the originals ("Red hot memories","I can still hear the 
music in the restroom","I'm still jealous of you","A little piece 
and harmony") are very much blues.Moon Mullican's 
"I was sorta wondering" was certainly an appropriate choice 
for a country-blues album like this.Moon was,like Jerry Lee, 
an artist who always wanted to do his country with a bluesy 
feel. 
More tracks on the album totally went away from the country 
style altogether: The title track was pure blues boogie,while 
"Jesus is on the mainline" is very much gospel blues. 

ODD MAN IN: 
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Jerry Lee was an artist who never pigeon-holed himself 
to the one style.That was his major advantage over all 
the other stars of his time.This album from 1975 showed 
a wide variety of Lewis' style. 
"Crawdad song" is a major highlight and is a grreat 
piece of traditional blues from the Mississippi Delta. 
"Shake rattle and roll",a song sanitized by Bill Haley, 
Elvis Presley and others in the '50s,is brought right 
back to its roots as a dirty blues by Lewis."Don't boogie 
woogie when you say your prayers at night" is a superb 
piece of rock 'n' roll gospel while "I don't wanna be 
lonely tonight" shows that Jerry Lee can make any song, 
regardless of background,into a blues.Makes you wonder 
what Lewis could have done with crap like "The wonder 
of you" or "You're my best friend"."Goodnight Irene", 
a song prone to many treatments and originally a 
blues by Leadbelly,is a song Lewis has always given 
a powerful blues feeling to - and this is no exception. 
On the more country side was "That kind of fool" & 
"You ought to see my mind" - fair enough,they are 
not as pure country as previous Lewis albums' tracks 
were but by 1975 Lewis had contributed his fair share 
of pure country to his fans and had proved how well 
he excelled on it. 

UNRELEASED MASTERS: THE MERCURY COLLECTION: 
-------------------------------------------- 

This CD of unreleased material from Jerry Lee's 
Mercury years is one of the best collections of 
Lewis' music ever.Many of these songs were left 
unreleased for one reason only: they were not stictly 
country. 
The material ranges from great wild blues boogies 
like "Corrine Corrina" & "Honey hush" to the superb 
Western Swing balladry on tracks like "You call everybody 
darling","Someday you'll want me to want you" and the 
Moon Mullican-inspired "I don't know why".In between, 
we have country-blues such as "Until the day forever 
ends",gospel tracks such as "Lord,what's left for me 
to do" (anyone who think Cecil Harrelson couldn't 
write songs please listen to this one...) & "Life's 
railway to heaven" and excellent selfwritten tracks 
like "Alvin" & "Nobody knows me". 
There was no excuse for not releasing country masterpieces 
such as "Sittin' & thinking","Let's live a little","The 
last letter" or "Cheater pretend" - these were all up 
there with Lewis' best country hits. 
Overall,this is an essential collection and even the 
weakest track,"The fifties" [a rock 'n' roll revival 
song] is stunning.Anyone interested in rare Jerry Lee 
material should get this CD as soon as possible. 

JERRY LEE LEWIS: 
---------------- 
During the latter Mercury years,there was a shift in 
Jerry Lee's style away from country and back to blues. 
It is not surprising that the Elektra era would see 
Lewis singing many bluesy songs. 
This first album is a classic."Rockin' my life away", 
a tough blues,was the ultimate rock 'n' roll anthem 
for Jerry Lee and like all Lewis performances of this 
kind there was no distinction made between blues and 
rock 'n' roll."Number one loving man" is another 
classic slice of blues,while "I like it like that" 
lives up to previous versions of New Orleans R&B 
he had cut.Roy Hamilton's gentle R&B hit "Don't let go" 
gets an out and out gutbucket blues treatment by 
Jerry Lee while the real surprise of the album was 
"Rita May",a blues version of a Bob Dylan song. 
"I wish I was 18 again" was the only country offering 
while "Rockin' little angel" - a mediocre pop-gospel 
song originally done by Ray Smith - was done as a 
tribute to Smith,but Lewis' version totally transformed 
this weak piece of material into a classic Lewis 
performacne. 

WHEN 2 WORLDS COLLIDE: 
---------------------- 
Jerry Lee's second Elektra album was not as good as 
his first,but it still is superb.Al Jolson's "Toot toot 
tootsie goodbye" receive an excellent treatment by 
Lewis - is this bluegrass?ragtime?jazz?Western Swing? 
"Alabama Jubilee" gets a similar treatment."Love game" 
is a tough original blues ballad,while "Good news 
travels fast" is a classic Jerry Lee Lewis blues 
boogie. 
On the more country side was the No.1 hit title track, 
a great version of "Good time Charlie's got the blues" 
and a revival of "It all depends",which Lewis first cut 
at Sun. 

KILLER COUNTRY: 
--------------- 
The title may certainly be misleading as this is very 
much more a blues album than a country album.But then 
again,Lewis' definitions of blues and country have 
always been similar. 
Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison blues" gets such a gutbucket 
blues treatment from Lewis that you couldn't imagine it 
to have been sung any other way.This is a Hillbilly 
blues classic comparable to Bill Monroe's "Rocky 
road blues" or Moon Mullican's "Trifling woman blues". 
"Late night loving man" is another excellent slice of 
gutbucket blues,while "Let me on" is an excellent 
train boogie. 
"39 and holding" sounds like a Jimmie Rodgers song, 
but obviously it is an original Jerry Lee song if 
you listen to the words.But that's how convincing 
Jerry Lee is:he had really bring oldtime country 
to life in a new song."Over the rainbow",an unusual 
choice for Lewis it would seem,again is excellent 
and definitive. 

YOUNG BLOOD: 
------------ 
After spending much of the 1980s and early 1990s lying 
low,Jerry Lee came back with this excellent album. 
Jerry Lee's MCA albums from 1982 to 1984 were good - 
but their lack of blues-orientated stylings was just 
not Jerry Lee Lewis. 
This 1995 album was definitely Lewis' best since 
1981's "Killer Country".His version of Jimmie 
Rodgers' "Miss the Mississippi and you" makes 
you wonder if Jerry Lee is Jimmie Rodgers 
reincarnated - this is classic."It's the 
whiskey talking not me",an original,again 
captures the style of oldtime bluesy 
country and seems just as old as Jimmie 
Rodgers' "Blue yodel No.9" or "Mean Mama 
blues". 
The title track,Huey Smith's "High blood pressure" 
and the original "Crown Victoria Custom '51" are 
excellent blues performances.A song that many 
Lewis fans had long expected was "Down the road 
apiece" - and what a performanece?This is way 
superior to all previous versions,even those 
by Merrill Moore,Chuck Miller,Chuck Berry and Amos 
Milburn.This is a blues/boogie classic. 
"Poison love" is a blues version of an old bluegrass 
standard and "House of blue lights",another boogie 
standard done by Merrill Moore,Chuck Miller and 
others,also gets an excellent performance - but 
Jerry Lee could do this particular song well in 
his sleep. 
Bobby Darin's "Things" is a surprise for Lewis.But 
Darin was always an artist a cut above the rest of 
the 'Bobbies' of the late 1950s.As Jerry Lee stated 
after recording the song: "At least it wasn't a Bobby 
VEE song!".And yes,"Things" - Darin's contribution to 
country music - gets a great treatment from Lewis, 
sounding not unlike a Hank Williams performance.And 
speaking of Hank Williams,"I'll never get out of this 
world alive" gets a superb uptempo blues treatment 
from Lewis. 
"Goosebumps" is certainly not bad - but it is certainly 
the weakest track on the album,due to overproduction. 
It was the track chosen as a single from the album 
but why is a mystery when you see the choice of other 
material to choose from. 
This album is a classic - and it deserved to do better. 
But Garth Brooks and many other young country stars had it 
sewn up in the 1990s.But then again:Was this REALLY a country 
album?