9. Jerry Lee LewisLive At The Star Club, Hamburg
If you want to hear a rock & roll album then that is it. A load of those fantastic records were recorded in the 50s but this album really is it, even though it was recorded in the early 60s. The Nashville Teens were his backing band and you can hear that they’re barely keeping up with him when he just goes for it.
It’s so simplistic. There are just a couple of mics on his piano and not much else and you can hear everything that’s musically going on. There’s none of that thing that you get with modern records where they adjust bass drum beats and get everything perfectly in time. You can hear where things speed up and slow down. It’s a pure document of utter abandon. It’s the spirit of rock & roll and embodied by a guy who is at the top of his game.
Jerry Lee was shunned by many after that disastrous tour after he married his 13-year-old cousin but this album is the power and glory of rock & roll in its most simple form. He breaks down his piano solos to just one note but it’s the way that he hammers them. You can tell that it’s unhinged but it’s beautiful really.
I can’t really say much more about this other than if you want to hear the real deal when it comes to rock & roll then you won’t hear anything better than this. It’s all killer, no filler.
