Tag Archives: Jerry Lee Lewis

Bob Dylan: Matchbox (Carl Perkins) (Videos & Audio)

bob dylan carl perkins

Well I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
Yeah I’m sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes
I ain’t got no matches, but I got a long way to go
I’m an ol’ poor boy and a long way from home
I’m an ol’ poor boy and a long way from home
Guess I’ll never be happy, eveything I do is wrong, yeah

He [Carl Perkins] really stood for freedom. That whole sound stood for all degrees of freedom. It would just jump off the turntable… we wanted to go where that was happening.
~Bob Dylan (note from Dylan @ Carl Perkins funeral)

Wikipedia:

Released 1957
Format 7″ Vinyl
Recorded December 4, 1956
Genre Rockabilly
Length 2:10
Label Sun Records
Writer(s) Carl Perkins
Producer Sam Phillips

carl-perkins-matchbox-sun-78

Matchbox” is a rock and roll and rockabilly song written by Carl Perkins and first recorded by him at Sun Records in December 1956 and released on February 11, 1957 as a 45 single on Sun Records as Sun 261. It has become one of Perkins’ best-known recordings. Perkins’ “Matchbox” has been followed by many cover versions, notably by the Beatles.

com-carl-perkins-and-sam-phillipsCarl Perkins & Sam Phillips

 

After recording “Your True Love”, Carl Perkins’s father Buck suggested that he do “Match Box Blues”. Buck knew only a few lines from the song, either from a 1927 recording by Blind Lemon Jefferson, or from the version by country musicians The Shelton Brothers (who recorded the song twice in the 1930s, and again in 1947). As Perkins sang the few words his father had suggested, Jerry Lee Lewis, who was at that time a session piano player at Sun Studios, began a restrained boogie-woogie riff. Carl began picking out a melody on the guitar and improvised lyrics. On December 4, 1956 Carl Perkins recorded the song called “Matchbox”. Later that day, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and session pianist Jerry Lee Lewis were all in the Sun studio with Sam Phillips. The impromptu group formed at this jam session became known as the Million Dollar Quartet.

Perkins maintained that he had never heard Jefferson’s “Match Box Blues” when he recorded “Matchbox”. Jefferson’s song is about a mean spirited woman; Perkins’ was about a lovelorn “poor boy” with limited prospects.

Other notable versions

Carl Perkins – live TV Performance 1957:

Jerry Lee Lewis – live Star Club Hamburg 1964:

Continue reading Bob Dylan: Matchbox (Carl Perkins) (Videos & Audio)

October 8: Jerry Lee Lewis Great Balls of Fire was recorded in 1957

Well kiss me baba, woo-oooooo….it feels good
Hold me baba
I want to love you like a lover should
Your fine, so kind
I got this world that your mine mine mine mine-ine

From Wikipedia:

Released November 11, 1957
Recorded October 8, 1957, Sun Studio, Memphis, Tennessee
Genre Rock and roll, Rockabilly, Country
Label Sun 281
Writer(s) Otis Blackwell (under the pseudonym Jack Hammer)

Great Balls of Fire” is a 1957 song recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie Jamboree. It was written by Otis Blackwell (under the pseudonym Jack Hammer). The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 recording was ranked as the 96th greatest song ever by Rolling Stone. The song is in AABA form.

Continue reading October 8: Jerry Lee Lewis Great Balls of Fire was recorded in 1957

September 29: Happy 80th Birthday Jerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis 2

September 29:  Jerry Lee Lewis was born in 1935

“I am right. I`m always right. One time I thought I was wrong, I found out I was right. ”
~Jerry Lee Lewis

“Just point me to the piano and give me my money. In fifteen minutes I’ll have ’em SHAKIN’, SHOUTIN’, SHIVERIN’, and SHAKIN'”
~Jerry Lee Lewis

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Jerry Lee Lewis
Also known as The Killer
Born September 29, 1935 (age 80)
Origin Ferriday, Louisiana, U.S.
Genres Rock and roll, country, rockabilly, blues, Honky tonk, gospel
Occupations Singer, songwriter, pianist
Instruments Vocals, piano, guitar
Years active 1954–present
Labels Sun, Mercury, Sire/Warner Bros, MCA
Website www.jerryleelewis.com

Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. He is known by the nickname “The Killer”.

Continue reading September 29: Happy 80th Birthday Jerry Lee Lewis

30 Best live albums countdown: 20 – Live at the Star Club Hamburg by Jerry Lee Lewis

live at the star club 1964

I have 20 albums left in my top 30 live albums countdown, it is getting extremely difficult to say that one is better than the other. Now I continue on “gut feeling” and even if it is a carefully thought out list, it may well look different tomorrow (or even later today). But don’t take it too seriously, we’re just having fun here.

Live At The Star Club, Hamburg is not an album, it’s a crime scene: Jerry Lee Lewis slaughters his rivals in a thirteen-song set that feels like one long convulsion. – Rolling Stone Magazine

Live at the Star Club, Hamburg by Jerry Lee Lewis is the best classic rock’n roll live album ever made. No, it is not from Lewis’ golden age, the 50’s, it is from The Star Club in Hamburg in 1964.

It was not released in the U.S. until the early nineties when Rhino re-issued it on CD. That’s when I heard this thunderstorm of a record.

From the liner notes (the Rhino re-issue):
What do you think of when you think of the Star Club? “Well, that’s obvious. That’s where The Beatles played.” Right and wrong. If you’re a regenerate rocker, you’d say, “That’s where Jerry Lee Lewis recorded the greatest album ever made.”

It’s a speed driven, frenzied, rock’n roll moment, luckily it is captured for posterity.

Mean Woman Blues:

Continue reading 30 Best live albums countdown: 20 – Live at the Star Club Hamburg by Jerry Lee Lewis

July 30: The legend Sam Phillips died in 2003

sam phillips and Elvis
Sam Phillips with Elvis Presley

July 30:  The legend Sam Phillips died in 2003

Samuel Cornelius Phillips (January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003), better known as Sam Phillips, was an American businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s. He was a producer, label owner, and talent scout throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He most notably founded Sun Studios and Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Through Sun, Phillips discovered such recording talent as Howlin’ Wolf, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash.

Great documentary about Sam Phillips, part 1:

Continue reading July 30: The legend Sam Phillips died in 2003