Note:I wrote the following book review for Country Standard Time way back in November 2009. In my most recent Turner's Picture Palace, I wrote about a more recent take on The Killer, Ethan Cohen's fab 2022 documentary, Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind. You can follow Joe Bonomo's writing at https://joebonomo.substack.com/ or purchase the book here.
Have you ever left a concert buzzing and beaming, sweaty and soul-fried, awakened, made a true believer - an overwhelming feeling in your gut that you just witnessed musical history? Joe Bonomo certainly has and he's never forgotten. It's with this spirit he skillfully investigates what some call one of the greatest rock-n-roll performances of all time, Jerry Lee Lewis' April 4, 1964 show at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany.
The resulting album, "Live at the Star-Club Hamburg," despite being highly revered by fans and other musicians alike, is currently not in print in the U.S. (it is available from Germany-based Bear Family on compact disc and on a newly released vinyl version). The performance, dubbed the "very essence of rock & roll" by allmusic.com, serves as the centerpiece of Bonomo's book, which follows Lewis mostly from the period after his 1958 wedding scandal to a pre-teen cousin through his success on the country charts in the late 1960s and early '70s.
A professor at Northern Illinois University and author of a wildly entertaining book on The Fleshtones, Bonomo is a capable researcher and engaging writer who often shares his experiences as a music fan to good effect. His introduction to Lewis as a pre-teen in the 1970s came through a budget-line LP compilation with a lifeless, re-recorded version of Breathless that left Bonomo with little appreciation of the Killer, who he decided was "strictly Fifties and strictly out of it." He would later learn, of course, to appreciate Jerry Lee, but the youthful experience helps him consider the theme of "sincerity" and Lewis' "battles" with it, which he explores throughout "Lost and Found."
Bonomo also recalls great live shows he's attended from the Rolling Stones to the New Bomb Turks and the small number of great live albums he's listened to. He writes, "Until a live album ... can replicate tinnitus or a chest full of illicit smoke or the helpless urge to grope the painted-on Jordache ass of the girl standing in front of you, a live album risks failure." The celebrated Star-Club performance is detailed extensively from the seedy section of Hamburg where it occurred to the career of Lewis' backing band that night, the Nashville Teens.
Enlightening interviews abound including producer Jerry Kennedy, the recently departed Shelby Singleton and Jim Dickinson, and contemporary artists such as Dave Alvin, John Doe and Jim (Reverend Horton Heat) Heath. The Killer himself would not agree to be interviewed for "Lost and Found," and while his audacious voice is certainly missed, Bonomo has managed a thoroughly exciting and thoughtful story that should delight both Jerry Lee Lewis fans and anyone who's had their world shook up by a live performance.
For seemingly forever and a day, we’ve lived in a
sequel-saturated, this-that-and-the other cinematic universe/IP world, so it’s
fun to read some anonymous reporter in a 1936 edition of the Altoona (Pa.)
Tribune bitching about there being too many goddammed vampire movies
since Dracula strolled into Hollywoodland: “When Universal made Dracula a
few years ago, there was no way of knowing that the wraiths of every vampire
that ever scared an old maid would come out once more from the dark corners of
the earth. However, they swooped in great numbers on the wings of night, to
cast their shivery shadows almost endlessly on the theatre screens of the
world.” Written in response to Dracula’s Daughter appearing in old
Altoona, the article ends hopefully that this silly sequel business might
finally be done: “Perhaps Dracula’s Daughter will set the wings of
superstition at rest and take the claws out of the vampire.”
But of course, I watched Dracula’s Daughter on
Universal’s Dracula: Complete Legacy Edition Blu-Ray collection, which
over six films, captures Drac’s doings in the Golden Age-time period before and
after this Altoona (character) assassination. And I loved it, lured in by
Gloria Holden’s nightmare eyes and broken soul, the moody and sensuous black
and white cinematography of monster movie master George Robinson, and the
delightful abundance of snooty British humor. Maguerite Churchill is stunning
and often hilarious as psychiatrist Jeffrey Garth’s fiancée and secretary,
Janet, who often seems like she has just escaped from a screwball comedy set.
Meanwhile, the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald
dismissed the movie as nonsense, but seemed to have a much firmer handle on
sequels and Hollywood: “Students of Bram Stoker will know that this should be
final; and that there’s no fear of the future appearance of Dracula’s
granddaughter. But students of Hollywood will not be quite so sure.”
Yes, I watch too many movies, but I also own way, way too
many, including an always-growing pile of box sets. In addition to the Dracula
box set, last month I focused on digging into box sets from Arrow, Severin,
Vinegar Syndrome, Criterion, and others. Some of my favorites included my first
“Bruce Li” movie (the charismatic and highly appealing Bruce Liang), Bruce
and the Iron Finger (1979, not to mention a scene-stealing, ride-em-cowgirl
performance by Nami Misaki as a kinky villain), Melvin Van Pebbles’
life-affirming Don’t Play Us Cheap (1972), the mind-blowing Voodoo Heartbeat,
aka, The Sex Serum of Dr. Blake (1970), and If Footmen Tire, What
Will Horses Do? (1971, more below on that).
Killer: As I watched Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in
Mind (2022), loving every second of the Ethan Cohen documentary and it’s
all Jerry, all the time approach, I wondered if the notoriously God-fearing but
hell-raising Lewis had seen If Footmen Tire, What Will Horses Do? as it
made its way around Southern churches and community centers. Surely, he would
identify with its we’re-all-going-to-hell-because-of-our-heathen-ways message
and its deliriously unhinged, bloody way of telling it. But then I consulted my
copy of Nick Tosches’ Hellfire : The Jerry Lee Lewis Story and was
reminded that in 1971, Jerry Lee lost his mother; his divorce with Myra Gale
Lewis was finalized; she married the private dick who had investigated him and
his lyin, cheatin’ ways; he was sued for allegedly attacking a woman at a
Memphis supper club; and, finally later in the year, he got remarried – and separated two weeks later. So, a busy man,
a beat (but not out) man. Not much time to think about communist invasions and infiltration.
Tosches captures this sad, sordid tale in a chapter with the fantastic title
“The Secret Parts of the Night.”
The King of Cult’s Little Brother: I came to The
Cat Burglar (1961) through Roger Corman’s The Intruder (1962), a
movie I rewatched in August with my movie club, again struck by the performance
of Leo Gordon, who is such a strong part of an incredibly fierce, tough movie.
Gordon served as a screenwriter for several Corman movies, including The
Wasp Woman, The Terror, and Tower of London and had numerous other
writing gigs and an extensive acting career. He also worked with Gene
Corman on The Cat Burglar (at one point was to be called The Case of the Black Book) – a ripping crime tale, filmed on location in L.A.,
depicting the downfall of a minor criminal with a code who tangles with spies
and thugs over a briefcase containing some sort of dastardly Cold War-formula. Goes
down easy over 65 entertaining minutes. Said The Anniston Star: “Producer
Gene Corman’s conviction that realistic stories call for complete set realism,
resulted in the film’s feel of urgency and suspense which Leo Gordon’s taught
script demanded.” Gordon and G. Corman teamed up again in 1967’s pro-flamethrower
Tobruk, a movie R. Corman
would borrow from frequently, starring Rock Hudson and George Peppard, and
1970’s You Can’t Win Them All with Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson.
Other crime favorites from the month included Dead End (1937),
Hayseed (2023), Blonde Ice (1948), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and Mystery
Street (1950), all first-time watches. There’s a fascinating story about Frances Glessner Lee,
a female forensics pioneer who was involved in the real life story behind Mystery
Street in a recent Boston Globe magazine article – unfortunately, behind
a paywall.
At the Movies, Mostly Blah: I had much less success in
theaters in August than I had in July, but I didn’t make it to a couple I
wanted to see (I’m looking at you, Strange Darling and Sing Sing).
What I did see largely left me cold, slightly entertained sometimes, or annoyed:
I’m trying to not look at you, Borderlands (2024), Blink Twice (2024),
and Mother, Couch (2023). I did enjoy watching Coup! (2023) 1 ½ times
– thanks to the summer storm that knocked out power to the theater during my
first viewing. It’s a pandemic movie set during that other pandemic, the
Spanish Plague, with characters and motivations that could have been ripped out
of current news stories and social media posts. In the lead role, Peter
Sarsgaard absolutely carries the movie, but Sarah Gadon is also memorable as
the sensible wife of a pompous fake played by Billy Magnussen (stay out of his
pool, peasant, or there will be consequences).
I had better luck streaming new
and newish movies, especially Al Warren’s Dogleg (2023) on Mubi. You’ve
seen the set-up before: various seemingly unrelated segments coming together at
the end (Slacker, Short Cuts, etc.) Warren’s film has plenty of its own
pleasures, especially Warren as Alan, a “balding film director,” who loses his girlfriend’s
dog at a gender reveal party. We see the indie movie within an indie movie he’s
making and the diverse characters he meets as he attempts to locate “Roo.”
Black and White – and, yep, Deadly: I also managed to
watch a handful of black-and-white horrors (dare I go all black and white for my
annual all-horror October –yes, I will!) and two that stayed with me the most were
Alex Nicol’s The Screaming Skull (1958)andJean Yarborough’s
King of the Zombies (1941). Neither movie was especially what you might
call good, but both are highly watchable in their own ways (and besides, when
the hell has “not good” stopped me?).
The Screaming Skull’s low-budget thrills contain zero
ounces of fright, but they look pretty damn cool. I also guess I hate-watched
it too, hoping for the condescending, mansplaining Eric Whitlock (portrayed convincingly
assholish by John Hudson) to get his. Spoiler: he gets his. A column by Dick Williams
in the June 28, 1958 Los Angeles Mirror reported that American International
Pictures “Prexy” James Nicholson had recently screened The Screaming Skull
and Bert I. Gordon’s Attack of the Puppet Master at his home for his
teenage daughters and their friends. Mr. B.I.G., and his then wife Flora were
even in attendance. Reported Dick: “The twin bill fared well. But Nicholson
says they don’t hesitate to give the horse-laugh to anything they don’t like or
consider phony.”
The pleasure of the cheap, cheap looking King of the Zombies
almost exclusively comes from
watching Mantan Moreland perform. He is consistently funny and truly captivates
in every scene he’s in, which is, fortunately, most of ‘em!The movie is unquestionably racially
insensitive, and it offers interesting insight to read coverage of the movie in
Kansas City, Missouri’s African-American newspaper, The Call, from when King of the Zombies appeared there in August 1941. In its
review, The Call notes Moreland’s popularity, writing that
he is “second only to Rochester in fan mail.” Legendary actor and comedian Eddie
“Rochester” Anderson’ was a regular on Jack Benny’s radio program at the time. Other
news in The Call that day was decidedly darker. Lewis
Gordon, a 40-year-old prisoner in Trenton, Georgia, died after being crammed in
a 7-by-7 ½ cell with 22 other prisoners
who had been protesting because of conditions at the prison camp: “It developed
in the testimony that guards were asked repeatedly for an hour and a half
before they were released, to take Gordon out because he was dying, but they
laughed.”
In June 1973, Moreland was interviewed by The Independent in
Richmond, California. He talked about how fellow Monogram Pictures actor Frankie
Darrow, who would later work as a 5-foot-3 stuntman, a “kid actor” at the time,
would get beat up and bruised frequently for defending Moreland every time someone
called him a “Black something or other.” But Moreland said he still would have done
it the same way: “Sure, I used to roll my eyes, and today they’ll tell you that’s
bad. But people came out the theaters laughing, not mad at anyone.” He died just
a few months later on Sept. 28, 1973.
Action-packed show this week. The 1:00 hour featured interviews with Jack and Dan from the Carolinas to talk about the Townes Van Zandt Tribute and Birthday Bash going on last night at Linneman’s in honor of the late, great man and a phoner with author Joe Bonomo. Read my review of Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found here. I played an hour of songs inspired by Joe’s books afterward, and both the interview and rowdy music were a blast. My wife and I are heading to spring training in Florida on Tuesday, so no Zero Hour for me next week. You will be in capable hands of all-star substitute DJ Good John, who has agreed to sit in for me. I started the show with a set from Florida-based performers in honor of our trip to the Sunshine State.
All Love All Gone – Charlie Pickett – Bar Band Americanus South by So What – Ronny Elliott – My Nerves Are Bad Tonight Home By Eleven - Steve Alaimo & The Red Coats – Rampage Goin’ Back to Miami – Wayne Cochran Girls Can't Do What the Guys Do - Betty Wright – The Best Of
Stay With Me – The Dictators – Everyday is Saturday On Our Way – Pierced Arrows – Descending Shadows It Came Out of the Sky – The Scientists – Absolute
Tomorrow Is – Insomniacs – Get Something Going The Capitol – Visqueen – Message to Garcia First Mate Rigby - Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby - Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby
Turnstyled, Junkpiled – Townes Van Zandt – Anthology Rex’s Blues – James McMurtry And The Heartless Bastards - Live in Aught-Three White Freight Liner Blues – Steve Earle – Rig Rock Deluxe I’ll be Here in the Morning - Townes Van Zandt – Anthology
Local Lunchbox Interview with Jack Rice and Dan Patscot Mr. Gold and Mr. Mud – Townes Van Zandt – Anthology To Live is to Fly - – Townes Van Zandt – Anthology
How Can I Face Tomorrow – A Loose Confederation of Saturday City States -45 (Mark Linkous RIP) More Questions Than Answers – Graham Parker – Imaginary Television Good To Be - Backyard Tire Fire – Good To Be
Interview with author Joe Bonomo
Mean Woman Blues – Jerry Lee Lewis - Live at the Star Club - Hamburg High School Confidential – Jerry Lee Lewis - Live at the Star Club - Hamburg Money - Jerry Lee Lewis – Live at the Star Club-Hamburg Sick and Tired – Jerry Lee Lewis - Sun Recordings, vol. 4 Be Bop A Lula – Jerry Lee Lewis – Sun Recordings, Vol. 5
American Music – The Blasters – American Music Wine – James Luther Dickinson – Dixie Fried Lovin’ Up Storm – Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Big Little Baby – Rev. Horton Heat – Holy Roller Shake Some Action - Charlie Pickett – Bar Band Americanus
New York City – Fleshtones – Take a Good Look American Beat – The Fleshtones – Blast Off! High on Drugs – Full-Time Men – Your Face, My Fist Medicine Man – Fleshtones - Turban Renewal - A Tribute To Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs
Hey Sah Lo Ney – Mickey Lee Lane – 45 Kitty Kitty – Floyd Dakil Four – Garage Hangover 8 Teen - ? & The Mysterians – 45 Ruler of My Heart – Irma Thomas – Time is On My Side
Why Does it Hurt So Bad - Geater Davis - Down & Out: the Sad Soul of the Black South I Wonder What Happened – Lost Crusaders w/ Jon Spencer – Have You Heard About the World One Bad Stud – The Honey Bears - The Doo Wop Box Vol. III All Night Boppin’ – The Real Kids – Grown Up Wrong
Get Out While You Can – Outrageous Cherry – Universal Malcontents Unpronounceable Name – Chain and the Gang – Down with Liberty … Up With Chains You're the Reflection of the Moon on the Water – Grant Hart – Hot Wax Martin Luther King Day – Times New Viking – Born Again Revisited
Janitor’s Waltz – Visqueen – Message to Garcia Look at it This Way – The Tripwires - House to House I Wanna Be Your Gun – Mayflies USA - The Pity List You Can Call Me – The Mockers – The Lonesome Death of Electric Campfire
Willie Mitchell (R.I.P.) tribute Soul Serenade - Willie Mitchell – Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years For the Good Times - Al Green – From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music Is It Over – Otis Clay – Best of Otis Clay: The Hi Records Years Back for a Taste of Your Love – Syl Johnson – Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years Shame on Me - Solomon Burke – Home in Your Heart: The Best of Solomon Burke
7” Six-Pack - Estrus Gearbox Warm Piston - Mono Men SS396 - The Untamed Youth Cheater, Cheater – The Vacant Lot Road Runnah –Gas Huffer Burrito Grand Prix – Huevos Rancheros Boss Hoss – The Nomads
Cool Cool Ways – Jerry Lee Lewis – Sun Recordings, Vol. 3 Shake Some Action (live) – Charlie Pickett – Bar Band Americanus Road Runner - Bo Diddley – Bo Diddley’s Beach Party Lookin’ at You – MC5 – Babes in Arms Ramblin’ Rose – Jerry Lee Lewis – The Complete Sun Singles, Vol. 2 Money – Jerry Lee Lewis – Live at the Star Club Hamburg Tobacco Road – The Nashville Teens – 60’s Rock Bands That Lucky Old Sun – Jerry Lee Lewis – Sun Recordings, Vol. 1
Come Back to Shelby – Two Cow Garage - Three New York – Clock Hands Strangle – Distaccati
Le Two Step Motorcycle – Mama Rosin – Black Robert I Want You – Cobra Verde – Copycat Killers – Scat She’s Like Heroin to Me – The Gun Club – Fire of Love Milkcow Blues Boogie – Elvis Presley – Boppin Hillbilly To Red Hot Rockabily Tip on In, Part 2 – Slim Harpo – Hip Shakin’ Go To It – Ike Turner – Classic Early Sides You Are My Sunshine – Earl Gaines – Dirty Laundry (R.I.P.) She’s a Heartbreaker – Gene Pitney – Blame it On the Dogg Knowing I’m Pleasing Me and You – Swamp Dogg – The Excellent Sides of Swamp Dogg, Vol. 2. Please Step Back – Swamp Dogg – single
Asleep on the Snow – Comet Gain – Broken Record Players In Your Head - Kendra Smith – Five Ways of Disappearing Uncertainty Principle – Chris Knox – Yes!! Buñuel – Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers The Party’s Over – Phosphorescent – To Willie
