“Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to say it’s a pleasure; a great honour to be back, at the fabulous, most beautiful, I mean really swinging Star Club, alright!”
That’s how Jerry Lee Lewis addresses the adoring crowd present at the Star Club in Hamburg on April 5, 1964. And from opening track Mean Woman Blues onwards. it's impossible to listen to the purest, rawest rock show ever committed to vinyl without envying those lucky souls fortunate enough to have had front row seats on the night. as 'The Killer' lives up to his moniker by decimating all other live entertainers.
Formalities dispensed with, Lewis and the Nashville Teens launch straight into a ferocious rendition of 1958 hit High School Confidential, at the end of which the crowd breaks out into hysterical screams of “JERRY JERRY JERRY!” From there on in, the Ferriday, Louisiana legend has his audience in the palm of his hand, and half hour that follows is the most relentless rock ‘n’ roll ride money can buy.
Of all the original rock stars, Jerry Lee Lewis was by far the most radical, dangerous and damn right out of control. The man responsible for introducing Elvis and Johnny Cash to narcotics, his wild, untamed energy made his live performances the most exciting and unpredictable on the scene. He was a one man hurricane, embodying the very essence of rock ‘n’ roll, hence that nickname, The Killer.
By the end of the 1950s however, Lewis had all but disappeared from the live circuit, with the understandable outrage surrounding his marriage to his thirteen year old cousin, Myra Gale Brown, driving him underground. But as history has taught us, from the underground often emerges the most urgent and visceral art, and Live at the Star Club is both those things and more.
The album sees Lewis take on the biggest popular hits of the day, songs by Carl Perkins, aka the man with the Blue Suede Shoes, the genius Ray Charles, and the illustrious Little Richard with not only absolute ease but also sheer disregard for the originals. The reckless abandon with which he attacks each composition deems all other versions irrelevant, for the course of this record at least. You can actually hear The Nashville Teens struggling to keep up with The Killer from the opening to the final note played. That’s what makes this live album so vital, even by today’s standards; there’s no count-ins, synchronised endings or even flow to procedures. The music is fast, loud and loose as rock ‘n’ roll should be.
By the end of this blistering set you can only imagine what sort of a smashed-up state his piano was left in. All the competition was left similarly destroyed by the time The Killer left the stage that night, and the world wouldn’t hear anything as primal or punk as this until the arrival of the Ramones in 1976. The untamed fire of pure unadulterated rock ‘n’ roll burns so fiercely on this album, that no amount of praise can truly do it justice or convey just how feral the sonic experience is. So just turn it up to 11 and bask in the glory of the wildest, most eccentric live performer rock 'n' roll has ever seen. This isn't a record, this is a crime scene.
