Wednesday 6 May 2009

Occasional Bootleg Series No. 6 - Jerry Lee Lewis, Newport, 1987


Jerry Lee Lewis, Civic Centre, Newport, South Wales, UK
April 16th 1987

The band: Kenneth Lovelace (guitar/fiddle/vocals), Linda Gail Lewis (vocals), Phoebe Lewis (vocals), Joel Schumaker (guitar), Harvey 'Duke' Faglier (bass), Danny Harrison (drums), Moetta Stewart (keyboards, vocals)

Tracklist: Rockin' My Life Away / You Win Again / Why Don't You Love Me / Mean Woman Blues / Over The Rainbow / Rock & Roll Is Something Special / One Of Them Old Things / Meat Man / Autumn Leaves / Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee / You Belong To Me / Roll Over Beethoven (with Linda Gail Lewis) / We Live In Two Different Worlds (with Linda Gail Lewis) / When You Wore A Tulip (with Linda Gail Lewis) / Great Balls Of Fire / This World Is Not My Home / Tennessee Saturday Night / Middle Age Crazy / Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On ­ You Can Have Her (Medley)

I've been waiting for a bootleg of this show for 22 years and here it is. This was my first ever Jerry Lee show and marked the moment when I fell in love with the guy. I always liked him but after this show, I was obsessed. For an audience recording the sound is pretty good. The main thing I remembered about this show was his version of Over The Rainbow which blew me away.

The tracklist shows how diverse a Jerry lee show was in those days. It's such a shame that he now plays the same handful of songs show after show. Personally I'd like to see Kenneth Lovelace take a more proactive role here and start prompting Jerry Lee with some numbers that would stimulate the Killer and be fresh for the audience.

The show kicked off in great style with a quintet of songs that ranged from the rock 'n' roll of Rockin' My Life Away to the country of Hank's You Win Again, to a superb strolling version of Why Don't You Love Me to the beautiful five minute version of Over The Rainbow. Effortlessly moving from one genre to another, JLL is the king, no doubt about it.

I don't recall it from the time but listening now I'm surprised how uninspriring Meat Man was and although Rock & Roll Is Something Special is an apt title, it's a pretty average song. That's about it though, the rest is wonderful. Even the three duets with Linda Gail are fine. Jerry Lee tries to blame himself for the wrong key in We Live In Two Different Worlds, but whatever key they played, it was always going to be too much for Linda to hit. You Belong To Me and Middle Aged Crazy are both performed beautifully and you get the usual power and excitement in Balls and Shakin'.

If you were at the show or any shows from the tour, it can be downloaded courtesy of jbored76 at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CFLCNCEM

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