Reviewed by John Cheek

Here's a book you should read even if you're not an avid fan of the veteran rock'n'roll giant who in the '50s gave the world such high velocity gems as "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and "Great Balls Of Fire". As music biographies go, this is a Daddy. So often, such titles can be slim affairs, with lots of discography and less about how the artist actually felt about certain events, certain songs. Not here. You get Jerry Lee's feelings on, well, just about everything that matters to him. In effectively 500 pages Pulitzer Prize-winner Bragg skims the surface of six decades in music, and at the same time, says everything that needs to be said. Bragg's technique is to relay the story in just two tones-of-voice. That of passive observer, and fascinatingly, in Lewis' own voice. He pulls it off, captivatingly and even when not quoting him directly, the same turns-of-phrase are employed for the text; the same slang, the same logic. Quite early, I realised I was reading a fine example of music journalism. I found myself transported to working-class, post-war America. The word-pictures painted by Bragg are absorbing enough to placate the lack of detail in this huge, expansive story. This is necessary. Time is tight. Space is short. The legendary Million Dollar Quartet session is an example. The coming together at Sun Studios of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis - at the dawn of rock'n'roll - not to jam, but to sing classic hymns and choruses, is given five pages here, but the reader still finds it insufficient. Yet it leaves an impression, colouring the reading of the narrative thereafter. Likewise, the account of Lewis' crisis-of-conscience in the studio, where he fears that rock'n'roll is the devil's music, is related dramatically but briefly. Shortly after, Lewis shares a conversation with Presley where they seriously discuss whether they will go to hell for performing such music. A conversation which left both men upset at the time is here described succinctly and tantalisingly, leaving the reader only wanting more.

For the birth of rock, these are defining moments and for Lewis' career, so was his first tour of Britain, where media and promoters turned against him. In some US States, marrying your 14 year-old cousin is legally permissible, but in Britain it wasn't. Not when you were already married. This was notoriety on a Sex Pistols-scale, and it not only scandalised still further an already-tainted music in the UK, it proved sufficiently controversial to turn his huge American audience against him. His Own Story describes how Lewis spent 10 years constantly gigging to return to his previously high commercial plateau. Bragg fails to assert that Lewis' vocal delivery and wild stage performances were copied from manic Pentecostal preachers, but the reader sees enough to know that this original rocker was as much a product of the church, as a cheap moonshine bar.

The subject's Christian beliefs are never denied or covered over. Lewis 'believed' from an early age, but was later asked to leave Bible college. He battles his dark side, like Jacob wrestled the angel. As a teenager, he refuses to have sex before marriage; but the same Jerry Lee gets irritated by a 15 year-old Paul Anka, and chillingly, almost successfully persuades him to commit suicide. The nickname "Killer", however, came from a different root. Later, he finally makes a commitment to Christ in 1970, but even then struggles to make him anything like Lord of his life. He finally faces bankruptcy; he immediately donates thousands of dollars to a local church to pay for the refurbishment of the building.

Lewis' lifestyle begins to reflect his beliefs in the late 1990s, when his heartfelt prayers help him to beat a year-long addiction to painkillers. It also leads to remarkable reconciliation with his cousin, disgraced televangelist Jimmy Swaggart. It's here the book takes on the guise of an Old Testament morality tale. After years of condemning Lewis from every pulpit, Swaggart decides to keep up with him, in terms of lifestyle - even buying an identical aeroplane. Eventually, getting caught in an extra-marital affair proves one copy-cat behaviour too far. His Own Story shows Jerry Lee Lewis extending Christ-like grace and forgiveness to his prodigal cousin. It sums up his life and the joy that is this biography.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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