Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story - Couverture rigide

Bragg, Rick

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0857861573 ISBN 13 : 9780857861573

Editeur : Canongate Books, 2014

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture :

For nearly sixty years, Jerry Lee Lewis has been a monumental figure in American life. The wildest and most dangerous of the early rock and rollers, he electrified the world with hit records such as “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “Great Balls of Fire,” and “Breathless.” His music was raucous, exuberant, slyly sexual; his wailing vocals were grounded by the locomotive force of his pumping piano. But his persona and performing style were what changed the world: whipping his long hair back, he would pound the keyboard like a coal-fired steam engine, then kick back the bench, climb atop the piano, and work the audience like the Pentecostal preacher he almost became. Poised to steal the crown from Elvis Presley, he seemed unstoppable—until news of his marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin broke during his first British tour, nearly ending his career.

Now, for the first time, Lewis’s story is told in full, as he shared it over two years with Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Rick Bragg. In a narrative rich with atmosphere and anecdote, we watch Jerry Lee emerge from the fields and levees of Depression-era Louisiana, blazing a path across Bible colleges and nightclubs en route to international fame. He shared bills with Johnny Cash and Chuck Berry, toured Australia with Buddy Holly and Paul Anka, and went Cadillac for Cadillac with Elvis on the streets of Memphis—even as both of them struggled with the conflict between their faith and their music. After a decade in the wilderness, he returned as the biggest star in country music, but his victory lap became a marathon of excess, a time of guns and pills and Calvert Extra. He crashed Rolls-Royces and Lincolns, including one he drove into the gates of Graceland; suffered the deaths of wives and loved ones; and nearly met his maker twice himself. Yet after six marriages, a long spell without a recording contract, and a bruising battle with the IRS, he overcame a crippling addiction, remarried, and scored his biggest hit records since the 1970s. Today, as he approaches his eightieth year, he continues to electrify audiences around the world.

The story of Jerry Lee Lewis has inspired songs and articles, books and films, but in these pages Rick Bragg restores a human complexity missing from other accounts. The result is a story of fire and faith and resilience, informed by Rick Bragg’s deep understanding of the American spirit, and rich with Jerry Lee’s own unforgettable voice.

Revue de presse :

"Rick Bragg's biography of Jerry Lee Lewis really is the business. The words on the page perfectly match the music and the man" (RODDY DOYLE author of PADDY CLARKE HA HA HA)

"No one in rock and roll has ever made music and lived life with the ferocity of Jerry Lee Lewis, and no writer is better suited than Rick Bragg to tell Lewis's story. The result is a biography with the memorable language and narrative drive we expect only from the finest novels. Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story is the best book on rock and roll I have ever read" (RON RASH)

"Jerry Lee Lewis is a fascinating guy, a really opinion-splitting kinda legend, and this is his autobiography" (NOEL FIELDING, My Life in Suitcase - Five Touring Essentials NME)

"There's vernacular lyricism to the way Bragg paints the key moments in Lewis's life . . . Bragg's fascination for Jerry Lee Lewis wins through, and his shining a light on the eternal dichotomy between sin and salvation makes for a fascinating, distinctly American story . . . Rick Bragg's pacey, extensively researched biography draws a portrait of a bullish man doing all the things he believes God will forgive him for, repenting, and doing them all over again" (The Times)

"As an intimate portrait of the original rock 'n' roll wild child, it's probably the closest look that we will ever have of one of pop music's greatest talents and most mysterious enigmas" (Record Collector)

"Hell-raising takes centre stage" (GQ)

"Beautifully written" (Mail on Sunday)

"[Bragg] tells the full story of a long and extraordinary life with critical honesty, describing the triumphs, disasters and scandals, the women, the drink and drugs" (Daily Express)

"Like Byron, he seems mad, bad and dangerous to know, but his art at least reflects him truthfully" (Independent)

"Absorbing . . . a thumpingly good yarn . . . thrillingly readable" (Daily Mail)

"Bragg's book really soars . . . a compelling read" (George Byrne Irish Independent)

"Compelling . . . Bragg's book really soars . . . gives us a sense of the vastly differing sides of the man" (Belfast Telegraph) --Roddy Doyle

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Canongate Books
• Date d'édition: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0857861573
• ISBN 13: 9780857861573
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 512