Thomas Plotkin | West Hartford CT, United States | 03/19/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This massive box consists of the first act of the Killer's career, the complete output from his years at Sun Records, that asylum/Camelot in Memphis, from 1956-1962, wherein a bible school dropout with a high country tenor, a ten-fingered demolition derby piano attack out of boogie-woogie, and a miscegenation-spurred penchant for pouring blues idioms into his hillbilly music puts him on the Rushmore of the Founding Fathers of rock and roll, along with Elvis, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles.
Unbelievable, but Jerry Lee, at 71, is the last man standing:[FOOTNOTE WRITTEN YEARS LATER -- I used that phrase while his then-forthcoming comeback album of that title was still tentatively called Pilgrim; I will always wonder if someone in the Lewis circle copped "Last Man Standing" from my review, the CD was re-named not long after this appeared...]; of the pioneering generation of hell-raising teen-age eccentrics unleashed in 1955-58 at Sun Records - Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Charlie Rich -- only Jerry Lee still walks the earth. Call it the William S. Burroughs syndrome -- some individuals, no matter how hard they live,how much wreckage they left behind, or how much they abused themselves, manage to frighten away Death himself. Listen to this feast of music, and hear a man possessed by the shaking, the fire, the breathlessness. There was no wilder wildman, no greater genius in the rock and roll firnament. Beside Jerry Lee, Iggy Pop, Axl Rose, Keith Richard, Tupac, seem like milquetoasts and wimps. This is the real thing, timeless and atavistic, straight from the the landscape of William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy -- sin,lust, madness, salvation. And don't be scared of the alternate takes -- Jerry Lee, along with Charlie Parker, never plays a song the same way twice, and like Bird, JLL's alternates are often better than the master. Even the surprising amount of country ballads are raw and whiskey-soaked, dangerous, evoking what Hank Williams ruefully said to his mom: that audiences didn't come to his shows for the music, they came for the fights. The best spent 100.00 + bucks I ever made...As The Killer would say, "Think about it..."
As a non-musical bonus, this set contains the legendary between-takes debate between producer/Sun Records founder Sam Philips and JLL, when the latter walked away from his piano and refused to cut Great Balls of Fire because of it's sacreligious use of pentecostal imagery. The fight goes from theology (Jerry preaches, literally, that man is born in sin and must seek salvation and singing Great Balls ain't gonna get him there;Sam says music is a balm and fanaticism is bad), then JLL gets distracted by his band's talk of oral sex, forgets about his impending damnation, or else embraces it, and cuts not one, but several fearsome takes of "Great Balls." The dialog is priceless, (hearing JLL go from hell-fire preaching to a lascivious joke in a millisecond!) and says more about JLL's sinner/preacher schizophrenia (shared by the USA at large), and Sam Philips' charismatic genius, than the collected works of Greil Marcus."
Essential for any fan.
Eric Anderson | Lansing, MI USA | 11/27/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"this is an unbelievable box set, by the king of box sets - Bear Family Records. If you are a fan of JL Lewis then you need every second that was recorded in the Sun studios. The banter - the comments - the false starts. All 8 discs are excellent with only some repetition, but it doesn' even matter. I have owwned it for over 2 years and still listen to some of it every week."
Essential listening
Bill Taylor | Romney,WV | 07/23/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This box set contains fresh,vibrant vocals of pop songs,old songs,standards,Blues,jazz,gospel,spirituals,ballads,rocknroll ,new country,and old,all wrapped around a rule breaking piano sound. This box is you see,much more than a box of someone's recordings,it is a roadmap of American music and cultural shifts in this country as imagined and seen through one southern boy'eyes. Jerry Lee was all of 20 years old when most of this astounding flurry of musicality took place in the then,bustling den of creativity ,Sun Records. Check it out,none of the Killer's contemporaries came close to the diversity in their Choice of material as he did. These sides are ,in my estimation MUST HAVES for any music lover,or social scientist.The sound is classic,the liner notes superb,vocals are clear and sweet as honey,and so is the pianoplaying,the supporting cast are all top notch Sun session men,real roots music,laid down in several takes at the most.You can feel it!"
One Word - Unbelievable!
M. Woodard | Indianapolis, IN | 01/21/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"For those that think this is too pricey, well it is definitely worth every cent and more. Out of the 246 tracks, I didn't hit the skip button once. Even the multiple takes of certain songs are enjoyable. The versatility and breadth of the Killer's performances is amazing. Thank you Bear Family!"
Track Listings (31) - Disc #1
