JERRY LEE'S ALBUMS

ODD MAN IN:
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Jerry Lee was an artist who never pigeon-holed himself
to the one style.That was his major advantage over all
the other stars of his time.This album from 1975 showed
a wide variety of Lewis' style.
"Crawdad song" is a major highlight and is a grreat
piece of traditional blues from the Mississippi Delta.
"Shake rattle and roll",a song sanitized by Bill Haley,
Elvis Presley and others in the '50s,is brought right
back to its roots as a dirty blues by Lewis."Don't boogie
woogie when you say your prayers at night" is a superb
piece of rock 'n' roll gospel while "I don't wanna be
lonely tonight" shows that Jerry Lee can make any song,
regardless of background,into a blues.Makes you wonder
what Lewis could have done with crap like "The wonder
of you" or "You're my best friend"."Goodnight Irene",
a song prone to many treatments and originally a
blues by Leadbelly,is a song Lewis has always given
a powerful blues feeling to - and this is no exception.
On the more country side was "That kind of fool" &
"You ought to see my mind" - fair enough,they are
not as pure country as previous Lewis albums' tracks
were but by 1975 Lewis had contributed his fair share
of pure country to his fans and had proved how well
he excelled on it.

UNRELEASED MASTERS: THE MERCURY COLLECTION:
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This CD of unreleased material from Jerry Lee's
Mercury years is one of the best collections of
Lewis' music ever.Many of these songs were left
unreleased for one reason only: they were not stictly
country.
The material ranges from great wild blues boogies
like "Corrine Corrina" & "Honey hush" to the superb
Western Swing balladry on tracks like "You call everybody
darling","Someday you'll want me to want you" and the
Moon Mullican-inspired "I don't know why".In between,
we have country-blues such as "Until the day forever
ends",gospel tracks such as "Lord,what's left for me
to do" (anyone who think Cecil Harrelson couldn't
write songs please listen to this one...) & "Life's
railway to heaven" and excellent selfwritten tracks
like "Alvin" & "Nobody knows me".
There was no excuse for not releasing country masterpieces
such as "Sittin' & thinking","Let's live a little","The
last letter" or "Cheater pretend" - these were all up
there with Lewis' best country hits.
Overall,this is an essential collection and even the
weakest track,"The fifties" [a rock 'n' roll revival
song] is stunning.Anyone interested in rare Jerry Lee
material should get this CD as soon as possible.

JERRY LEE LEWIS:
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During the latter Mercury years,there was a shift in
Jerry Lee's style away from country and back to blues.
It is not surprising that the Elektra era would see
Lewis singing many bluesy songs.
This first album is a classic."Rockin' my life away",
a tough blues,was the ultimate rock 'n' roll anthem
for Jerry Lee and like all Lewis performances of this
kind there was no distinction made between blues and
rock 'n' roll."Number one loving man" is another
classic slice of blues,while "I like it like that"
lives up to previous versions of New Orleans R&B
he had cut.Roy Hamilton's gentle R&B hit "Don't let go"
gets an out and out gutbucket blues treatment by
Jerry Lee while the real surprise of the album was
"Rita May",a blues version of a Bob Dylan song.
"I wish I was 18 again" was the only country offering
while "Rockin' little angel" - a mediocre pop-gospel
song originally done by Ray Smith - was done as a
tribute to Smith,but Lewis' version totally transformed
this weak piece of material into a classic Lewis
performacne.

WHEN 2 WORLDS COLLIDE:
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Jerry Lee's second Elektra album was not as good as
his first,but it still is superb.Al Jolson's "Toot toot
tootsie goodbye" receive an excellent treatment by
Lewis - is this bluegrass?ragtime?jazz?Western Swing?
"Alabama Jubilee" gets a similar treatment."Love game"
is a tough original blues ballad,while "Good news
travels fast" is a classic Jerry Lee Lewis blues
boogie.
On the more country side was the No.1 hit title track,
a great version of "Good time Charlie's got the blues"
and a revival of "It all depends",which Lewis first cut
at Sun.

KILLER COUNTRY:
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The title may certainly be misleading as this is very
much more a blues album than a country album.But then
again,Lewis' definitions of blues and country have
always been similar.
Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison blues" gets such a gutbucket
blues treatment from Lewis that you couldn't imagine it
to have been sung any other way.This is a Hillbilly
blues classic comparable to Bill Monroe's "Rocky
road blues" or Moon Mullican's "Trifling woman blues".
"Late night loving man" is another excellent slice of
gutbucket blues,while "Let me on" is an excellent
train boogie.
"39 and holding" sounds like a Jimmie Rodgers song,
but obviously it is an original Jerry Lee song if
you listen to the words.But that's how convincing
Jerry Lee is:he had really bring oldtime country
to life in a new song."Over the rainbow",an unusual
choice for Lewis it would seem,again is excellent
and definitive.

YOUNG BLOOD:
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After spending much of the 1980s and early 1990s lying
low,Jerry Lee came back with this excellent album.
Jerry Lee's MCA albums from 1982 to 1984 were good -
but their lack of blues-orientated stylings was just
not Jerry Lee Lewis.
This 1995 album was definitely Lewis' best since
1981's "Killer Country".His version of Jimmie
Rodgers' "Miss the Mississippi and you" makes
you wonder if Jerry Lee is Jimmie Rodgers
reincarnated - this is classic."It's the
whiskey talking not me",an original,again
captures the style of oldtime bluesy
country and seems just as old as Jimmie
Rodgers' "Blue yodel No.9" or "Mean Mama
blues".
The title track,Huey Smith's "High blood pressure"
and the original "Crown Victoria Custom '51" are
excellent blues performances.A song that many
Lewis fans had long expected was "Down the road
apiece" - and what a performanece?This is way
superior to all previous versions,even those
by Merrill Moore,Chuck Miller,Chuck Berry and Amos
Milburn.This is a blues/boogie classic.
"Poison love" is a blues version of an old bluegrass
standard and "House of blue lights",another boogie
standard done by Merrill Moore,Chuck Miller and
others,also gets an excellent performance - but
Jerry Lee could do this particular song well in
his sleep.
Bobby Darin's "Things" is a surprise for Lewis.But
Darin was always an artist a cut above the rest of
the 'Bobbies' of the late 1950s.As Jerry Lee stated
after recording the song: "At least it wasn't a Bobby
VEE song!".And yes,"Things" - Darin's contribution to
country music - gets a great treatment from Lewis,
sounding not unlike a Hank Williams performance.And
speaking of Hank Williams,"I'll never get out of this
world alive" gets a superb uptempo blues treatment
from Lewis.
"Goosebumps" is certainly not bad - but it is certainly
the weakest track on the album,due to overproduction.
It was the track chosen as a single from the album
but why is a mystery when you see the choice of other
material to choose from.
This album is a classic - and it deserved to do better.
But Garth Brooks and many other young country stars had it
sewn up in the 1990s.But then again:Was this REALLY a country
album?

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