|
Great
balls of fire!
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Movie
| Book
| Author
| Director
& cast
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Book: Great Balls of Fire: The Uncensored Story of Jerry Lee Lewis
(1982)
Movie: Great Balls of Fire! (1989)
Premise
movie:
"Dennis Quaid's delightfully over-the-top performance
dominates this 1989 biopic about the life, times, and music of
rocker Jerry Lee "the Killer" Lewis. It's all here: his snazzy
threads, his devil-may-care Southern charm, his mane of golden hair,
his underage girlfriends (Lewis's infamous marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, played here by Winona Ryder, and its effect on his
career is a big part of the story), his fascination with "the
devil's music" (much to the chagrin of cousin Jimmy
Swaggart, portrayed by Alec Baldwin), and of course the classic tunes
like "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."
Director Jim McBride plays the whole thing broadly, for laughs, much
like Quaid plays Lewis. The result is tongue-in-cheek entertainment
with a strong musical component, made all the more so by the fact
that all the singing and playing on the soundtrack is done by Lewis
himself."
from:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000063JDI/
qid=1112002859/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-7170189-4092622?
v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846
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Premise
book:
The book was (co)written by Myra Lewis whom Jerry Lee Lewis married
when she was just 14. Myra was his second cousin as well.
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Author:
"Born in the Northern Louisiana Town of Ferriday in 1935, Jerry Lee
Lewis grew up listening to a variety of music; The Louisiana Hayride
and Grand Ol' Opry broadcasts, 78 rpm recordings of country singers,
and the inspired gospel music of the Assembly of God Church. He also
spent hours hiding behind the bar at Haney's Big House, soaking up
the sounds of blues men like, then 18 year old B.B. King.
His parents both loved country music, and soon young Jerry Lee
picked up on it too. At his aunt's house, Jerry would play on the
piano and when his parents heard him, they knew he was naturally
gifted. They even mortgaged their home to buy him his own piano when
Jerry was 8. As a young man, Jerry studied to become a preacher at a bible
college in Texas. Unfortunately, Jerry could not resist the
temptation of his roots, and one Sunday boogied up the hymn 'My God
Is Real' and was expelled for doing so. Thereafter, Jerry Lee turned
to music. In 1949, Jerry Lee made his first public appearance. The event took
place in Ferriday, at a local Ford dealership. With his new mixture
of blues, gospel and country, and with his unique style, he stepped
onstage to join a country band. His father passed the hat around and
collected $13. Later the same year, he got his own 20-minute show on the radio
station WNAT just across the river, in Natchez, Mississippi. He made
very little money on those jobs until he got his first paid job at
the Hilltop Club in Natchez. During the summer of 1951, he visited
the city of jazz and blues, New Orleans. There, on a wax record
given to him by his friend Cecil Harrelson, he recorded two songs, a
rock instrumental, and "Don´t Stay Away Till Love Grows Cold".
On February 21st, 1952 he got married for the first time to Dorothy
Barton. The story says that Dorothy´s brothers showed up at his door
and threatened him into marrying their sister.
Jerry Lee and marriage never seemed to mix, and on September 15,
1953, he married Jane Mitcham, 23 days before the divorce with
Dorothy Barton was final. On November 2, 1954, Jane gave birth to
their son, named Jerry Lee Lewis Jr.
Jerry Lee heard that a small company in Memphis, called Sun Records,
recorded Elvis, and Jerry wanted a shot at it too. He and his father
financed a trip to Memphis with money they earned by selling 33
dozen eggs at Nelson's Supermarket in Ferriday. When they arrived at
the Memphis Recording Service, they found that the owner, Sam
Phillips, was on vacation in Florida. Jerry Lee persuaded producer
Jack Clement to let him record some demo songs in the studio. The
month was September and the year was 1956. Two months later, Sam
Phillips called Jerry Lee back in studio to record. "Crazy Arms" was
recorded in November and sold nearly 300,000 copies locally. Six
months after this first release, Jerry Lee was working as a studio
musician. His "pumping piano" can be heard on "Your True Love"
and "Matchbox" by Carl Perkins. For a short while, Jerry was a part
of Billy Riley´s "The Little Green Men" and played on Riley´s "Red
Hot" and "Flying Saucer Rock and Roll", using only his first name
and last name, Jerry Lewis. Now it was time to let Jerry Lee show his skills in rock and roll.
With his cousin J.W. Brown on bass, Jimmy Van Eaton on drums, and
Roland Janes on guitar, he cut a rock version of a song
called "Whole Lotta Shakin´ Goin´ On". They recorded the song in one
take, and to this day, Jerry Lee claims that they didn´t even know
the tape machine was running. A month later he appeared on
the "Steve Allen Show", and the show's ratings went through the
roof. By autumn, one million copies of "Whole Lotta Shakin'" had
been sold. "Killer" as he became known to his fans, had a big year in 1957,
releasing four rock n' roll classics ("Shakin'," "Great Balls of
Fire," "Breathless," and "High School Confidential") all within a
year. "Great Balls Of Fire" was recorded with thumbtacks stuck on
the piano hammers, witch accounts for the special clicking sound on
that recording. His songs were soon the "hottest" music around. They
topped the charts in every category. Jerry Lee even beat Elvis
Presley in record sales that year.
His marriage to Jane Mitcham had ended and on December 12, 1957,
Jerry married 14 year old Myra Gale Brown, his second cousin.
Cousins or second cousins getting married was a common practice in
the rural Southern United States in the Fifties, but when Jerry Lee
went to England in 1958, the press scandalized his marriage. He did
a few concerts, but the pressure from the furious and judgemental
British press became overwhelming and the tour was stopped. The
scandal nearly ruined Jerry Lee's career. By the time he got back to
the States, his records were being ripped from store shelves, his
appearances cancelled and his record sales declined. "High School
Confidential", from the MGM movie of the same name, sank to the
bottom of the charts. Lewis stood up to the deluge, however,
saying "I plumb married the girl, didn't I?".
On February 27, 1959, Jerry Lee´s second son, Steve Allen Lewis was
born, named for the TV host. Musically things were bad. His records
sold poorly, and Sam Phillips struggled to find Jerry Lee´s next
hit. Songwriters didn´t send him their newest material anymore, so
he had to find old songs which he could renovate. Although his
career was in a tailspin, Lewis never gave up performing. The late
fifties and early sixties were tough years, but the reputation of
his enthusiastic shows kept Lewis from nose-diving into the has-been
category. During the autumn of 1963, his contract with Sun Records expired.
Sam Phillips desperately tried to keep Jerry Lee. He signed
contracts with Jerry Lee's parents, but that didn´t change Jerry
Lee´s mind, he decided to go to Smash Records.
The first years at Smash resulted in numerous blues and country
singles. Jerry Lee´s producers wanted him to record some pure
country, and maybe achieve a major comeback in the country field.
One producer, Eddie Kilroy, was exited about this idea, and Jerry
Lee recorded a beautiful song called "Another Place, Another Time".
This record boosted his career and Jerry Lee once again had a number
one record. From 1969 to 1981, the C&W hits kept coming with fine
ballads like 'Would You Take Another Chance', 'She even woke me
up', 'Touching Home', 'He Can't Fill My Shoes' & 'When 2 Worlds
Collide'. He also put blues numbers like 'I'll Find It Where I Can'
into the C&W charts. His albums also sold well, especially 'The
Session' & 'Killer Rocks On'. Although his music career was going well, Jerry's personal life was
filled with tragedy. His beloved sons Steve Allen & Jerry Lee Jr.
died in accidents in 1962 & 1973 respectively, his mother died in
1970, the same year that Myra divorced him. Wife number 4 would
drown in 1982 and the next year, his fifth wife died of a methadone
overdose. The trouble in his life led to Jerry Lee's dependency on
drugs and alcohol and he nearly died in 1985 from bleeding ulcers.
In 1989, a Hollywood movie about Jerry Lee´s life was made, staring
Dennis Quaid . The movie is about his childhood in Ferriday, the
marriage to Myra and the English tour of 1958. The soundtrack was
supplied by Jerry Lee himself. "
from:
http://www.classicbands.com/jerrylee.html
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Director:
Jim McBride
Cast:
Dennis Quaid (Jerry Lee Lewis), Winona Ryder (Myra Gale
Lewis), John Doe (J.W. Brown), Stephen Tobolowsky (Jud Phillips),
Trey Wilson (Sam Phillips), Alec Baldwin (Jimmy Swaggart) and others.
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