Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Sid Salter: Flawed & Human, Jerry Lee Lewis Significantly Impacted American Pop Culture

 When I learned that Jerry Lee Lewis, the volatile rock-and-roll legend who lived most of his life in Nesbit, Mississippi, had died at the age of 87 last week, I opened YouTube and searched for The Killer’s 1977 rendition of an old Sonny Throckmorton song I know by heart called “Middle Age Crazy” about a man foolishly trying to hold on to his youth.

The song was a hit my senior year of high school. In those days, I was a part-time disc jockey at WHOC-AM in my hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi. The melancholy, lushly produced “Nashville Sound” ballad was popular with older listeners.

At the time Mercury’s Country Memories album was released in September of 1977, Lewis was just 42 years old. But after decades of booze, pills and life on the road, Lewis had already endured multiple hospitalizations for bleeding ulcers and other health issues. “Middle Age Crazy” became a self-fulfilling prophecy for Lewis, who between 1952 and his death last week fathered six children with seven wives.

Born into poverty in 1935 in Ferriday, Louisiana, in the middle of the Great Depression, Lewis was raised in the conservative Assemblies of God church, the largest U.S. denomination of the Pentecostal church. His parents sacrificed to buy Lewis a piano – recognizing his preternatural talents. As a boy, Lewis shared a love of music and talent on the piano with his double first cousin Jimmy Swaggart – also born in Ferriday in 1935.

Swaggart’s mother and Lewis’s mother were sisters. They shared another first cousin with musical talent, country music icon Mickey Gilley. Gilley was born in Natchez in 1936.

Ferriday is five miles across the Mississippi River from Natchez, Mississippi. The town has more than the Lewis-Swaggart-Gilley family trio as points of notoriety. A particularly heinous civil rights murder – in which Black shopkeeper Frank Morris died as the result of an apparent nighttime arson fire in his shop in 1964 – is the basis of gifted Mississippi novelist Greg Iles’ Natchez Burning trilogy that encompasses the Morris murder and ensuing coverup

The trio was born within 12 months of each other into impoverished homes. All three were high school dropouts.

Lewis and Swaggart were both raised in religious homes and steered toward religious music, but they also shared more than a passing interest in hearing the rhythm and blues played at another Ferriday landmark, Haney’s Big House nightclub.

A well-known whistlestop on the famous “Chitlin’ Circuit – a collection of Black-owned jukes, clubs and performance venues that were safe for African American musicians after World War II – Haney’s Big House was part of the education and training of both Lewis and Swaggart.

The cousins stood on the sidewalk outside Haney’s to hear the sounds of Ray Charles, B.B. King, Solomon Burke, Redd Foxx, Moms Mabley, Fats Domino and Little Milton – and Lewis said they would leave the juke and “head home to see if we could recreate that music on the piano.”

Despite his humble beginnings, Lewis went on to be named to the Rock-and-Roll, Rockabilly, Country Music, and Memphis Music Halls of Fame. He won four Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award.

A popular movie was made about his life, and he is regarded as one of the most influential pianists of the last century to go along with a dozen gold records. Perhaps the greatest tribute to The Killer was that nobody ever wanted to follow him onstage. His career was torpedoed for a time by his marriage to 13-year-old cousin Myra Gale Brown in 1958.

Swaggart built a televangelism empire that made him one of the best-known ministers in the world. He was a Grammy-nominated gospel singer and pianist. But that empire crashed around him in 1988 when he became ensnared in two distinct sex scandals. Incredibly, his ministry survived and he continues to preach and sing as part of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries on a television streaming network at the age of 87.

Gilley had moderate success as a country singer and established Gilley’s Club in Pasadena, Texas, the inspiration for the 1980 film Urban Cowboy starring John Travolta and Debra Winger. A Gilley rendition of the standard “Stand By Me” was on the soundtrack and Gilley’s career skyrocketed. Despite a string of hits by the singer, Gilley’s closed in 1989. He died in Branson, Missouri in May of this year at age 86.


Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Flawed" is a cute euphemism for "pedophile."

He married his 13 year old cousin.

Anonymous said...

sidsalterpedia.org

Anonymous said...

9:04 AM, He was from Mississippi. Why would he be any different from everyone else?

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the alleged murder of one of his wives-I forget which number.

Anonymous said...

He was disgusting. He was a great performer. That’s it, take or leave it.

Anonymous said...

@9:04
Technically a 13 year old wife made him a hebephile, not a pedophile. Since technically she was sexually mature and could bear children. https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Hebephilia

Anonymous said...

@3:12pm
I’ll take your word for it. I am concerned by your depth of knowledge regarding relations with children. I probably wouldn’t let you anywhere near my kids.

Anonymous said...

Sure, Jerry lee had many demons.
He never denied that fact, but seemed to have overcame his issues.

But what in the Hell does Klan activity in
Ferriday,Louisiana (during his youth) have to do with him ?
The damn KKK was all over your hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi. when you were a kid.

Should that fact be mentioned upon your passing ?

Same with his goofy ass charlatan cousin Jimmy Swaggart’s fraudulent
religious antics. Nothing whatsoever about Swaggart is connected to Jerry Lee Lewis.









Anonymous said...

Ok, for one - marrying your 13 y/o cousin (twice removed or so, aka “kissing cousins” was the norm EVERYWHERE back in those days. Not saying it was right, it just was what it was. For two…Micky had more than ”moderate” success - and he managed to not get caught up in the hot mess that ol’ Jerry Lee was, or the complete farce that was Jimmy. For three, dropping all the Greg Isles, KKK, and such is just proof that Sid is not, nor has he ever been, cool.

Anonymous said...

10:20 PM gets it.
"Civil rights murder" has f all to do with Jerry Lee , as far as I know. Sid writes like a junior in High school , trying to fill up 2 pages with words.

Joseph said...

Is it just me, or did this column not really go anywhere? Salter sorta rambles around, talking about Ferriday, Greg Iles, Jimmy Swaggart, etc., and then wraps up a column that's supposed to be about Jerry Lee Lewis with Mickey Gilley's death. This looks more like a high school student trying to fill a word count than somebody actually wanting to write about Lewis' career and impact on popular music (which were both pretty monumental; there ain't a rock 'n roll piano player out there who doesn't owe a debt to The Killer).

JLL was one of a kind, probably because the world couldn't handle any more than one of him. As other folks have pointed out, great performer, but of...questionable moral fiber. Meh. Same can be said for lots of artists. I'd still liked to have seen him and Elvis live and in their primes.

Anonymous said...

9:46 AM, speaking about questionable moral fiber, why should JLL be run into the ground when we elect the leaders of our country with morals that would make him look like a preacher's son?

Unknown said...

11:30; AM. Man you hit that on the head!

someone said...

I'm disappointed in the article and the comments. Jerry Lee was a one of a
kind, charismatic piano player, singer, and performer. He influenced so many performers including Elton John. I was lucky to be able to watch him perform
several times. At his 50th birtday party he invited me down to sit on the front row. His music will last forever.


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