"Although Lewis's piano playing is commonly labelled boogie woogie, gospel music was another major influence in the formation of his technique. In Joe Bonomo's 2009 book Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found, Memphis producer and musician Jim Dickinson calls Lewis's occasional penchant for interrupting the standard boogie woogie left-hand progression by omitting the seventh and repeating the fifth and sixth, creating a repetitive, driving, quasi-menacing momentum, "revolutionary, almost inexplicable. Maybe Ella Mae Morse, maybe Moon Mullican had done it, but not in a way that became the propelling force of the song. Rock and roll piano up to that point had been defined by Rosco Gordon, Ike Turner, and to an extent, Ray Charles. None of them were doing that. Even Little Richard, as primitive as he plays, wasn't doing that shuffle...There was something in Jerry Lee that didn't want to play that seventh, and that's the church. Certainly in white spiritual music you avoid sevenths.""
When Dennis Quaid was signed to play Jerry Lee I thought his brother Randy might have done a better job of portraying "The Killer". Dennis had the looks and enthusiasm but he lacked Jerry Lee's magnetic force that was "mean as hell". Maybe I expect too much. I wasn't enthused about Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash or Richard Thomas as Hank Williams Jr either.
Very interesting quote, deborah, about the seventh that was never played. My take on Jerry Lee is that he believed in the gospel and perhaps didn't want to offend it any more than he already had. I remember him saying that he knew he was going to hell because he couldn't picture Jesus Christ doing a whole lotta shakin. That's pretty rebellious whereas nowadays the rebels can just call themselves atheists. He seemed to figure there was a price to be paid for having an hellacious good time and he intended to make it worth his while.
DB, his wiki page is a great read, says a lot about his religious aspects. I get the impression that he was compelled from within to make the music he did, though he was a believer. Comes across as Scotch-Irish to me :)
As far as Phoenix playing Cash, yes, he nailed it, but I could not suspend belief...I remained aware that Phoenix was playing Cash. IMO Witherspoon was completely miscast as June Carter.
6 comments:
Did someone say Chuck Berry?
Lewis's Wiki page is a good read. This is neat:
"Although Lewis's piano playing is commonly labelled boogie woogie, gospel music was another major influence in the formation of his technique. In Joe Bonomo's 2009 book Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found, Memphis producer and musician Jim Dickinson calls Lewis's occasional penchant for interrupting the standard boogie woogie left-hand progression by omitting the seventh and repeating the fifth and sixth, creating a repetitive, driving, quasi-menacing momentum, "revolutionary, almost inexplicable. Maybe Ella Mae Morse, maybe Moon Mullican had done it, but not in a way that became the propelling force of the song. Rock and roll piano up to that point had been defined by Rosco Gordon, Ike Turner, and to an extent, Ray Charles. None of them were doing that. Even Little Richard, as primitive as he plays, wasn't doing that shuffle...There was something in Jerry Lee that didn't want to play that seventh, and that's the church. Certainly in white spiritual music you avoid sevenths.""
When Dennis Quaid was signed to play Jerry Lee I thought his brother Randy might have done a better job of portraying "The Killer". Dennis had the looks and enthusiasm but he lacked Jerry Lee's magnetic force that was "mean as hell". Maybe I expect too much. I wasn't enthused about Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash or Richard Thomas as Hank Williams Jr either.
Very interesting quote, deborah, about the seventh that was never played. My take on Jerry Lee is that he believed in the gospel and perhaps didn't want to offend it any more than he already had. I remember him saying that he knew he was going to hell because he couldn't picture Jesus Christ doing a whole lotta shakin. That's pretty rebellious whereas nowadays the rebels can just call themselves atheists. He seemed to figure there was a price to be paid for having an hellacious good time and he intended to make it worth his while.
Among Jerry Lee's first cousins one finds Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. You know there was some churchin' goin' on.
DB, his wiki page is a great read, says a lot about his religious aspects. I get the impression that he was compelled from within to make the music he did, though he was a believer. Comes across as Scotch-Irish to me :)
As far as Phoenix playing Cash, yes, he nailed it, but I could not suspend belief...I remained aware that Phoenix was playing Cash. IMO Witherspoon was completely miscast as June Carter.
Down in the dirt stuff, here, great.
I like Dennis Q. I can see me telling him how ignorant he is... back in the day.
Jerry Lee believed in his member. At the time that was enough.
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