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**JERRY LEE LEWIS** 1935 - 2022

“Last Man Standing”

I never managed to see Jerry Lee Lewis play ‘live’. Many
years ago, another Jerry Lee fan asked me why I wasn’t
there. “Where?” I replied. “They were hanging off the
rafters in the place, it was that packed”. “Where”, I
asked again.

It’s no longer there, but The Bure Club in Mudeford
was the place he was referring to and Jerry Lee
played to a packed house. I missed it.

Later I managed to purchase my ticket to see the
man, at last, at the Gaumont Theatre.

On the same show would be the fabulous
Treniers. But, as is often the case, fate stepped in, and
Jerry was removed from the show because he’d
married his fourteen year old cousin. His
replacement on the tour was the crooner,
Michael Holliday, who’d had a number one hit
with “The Story Of My Life”. Good he may have
been, but hardly in the same league! I didn’t go.

Through the years Jerry Lee’s career had its ups
and quite a few downs, but he never lost faith in
his abilities as a performer. When the world of
rock and roll no longer wanted him, he
continued with country music. It was this style
that would raise him up again in the music
business. Although many of the ‘rockers’ would
initially desert him, thinking that he’d turned his
back on them, nothing could’ve been further
from the truth, we’re talking about a real rebel
here! Jerry had always included country songs
and gospel in his stage act and did until the day
he died.

Personally, I really like his country recordings,
he had a way of making it all seem so effortless.

Jerry Lee’s 2006 album ‘Last Man Standing’ pretty much sums it up—he was the last man
standing. The other giants of the era had already gone: Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Fats
Domino, Carl Perkins, Little Richard and of course, Elvis.

As you’ve possibly guessed, I’ve always been a fan and have lots of his albums on my shelves...
however, there’s one more to complete the collection. Recently recorded with his cousin, Jimmy
Swaggart, the two reunited after many years to cut an album of the gospel songs they grew up
with.

On his ‘Rough & Rowdy’ tour this year, Bob Dylan closed one of his concerts in the U.K. by playing
and singing a tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis - ‘I Can’t Seem To Say Goodbye’.

Bob Pearce