SMASH The Greatest Live Show On Earth

[Andrew McRae]

x

[Tony Papard]

We'll never know, but I thought it might be Breathless because of the panting, and the fact Jerry has never been keen on singing that song. In such a high energy show it would leave him literally Breathless. But who knows - perhaps it was Big Legged Woman, or Black Mama come to that!

You can't imagine nowadays the effect on liberal-minded audiences on hearing Jerry, in his Southern drawl, praise 'the marvelous, beautiful town of Birmingham, Alabama'. This was akin to praising 'the marvelous, beautiful town of Berlin, Germany' in London during the Blitz.

When I played the record at a CND office party there were gasps of horror and shocked comments made about this remark. Birmingham and Selma Alabama, Little Rock Arkansas and the whole state of Mississippi were considered hotbeds of violent racism at the time.

But as Andrew says, Jerry was singing a lot of R&B stuff at this show originally done by black singers like Little Richard,, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles. I suppose if he'd have mentioned them by name there could have been a lynching - of Jerry Lee himself.

So seems he was performing a delicate balancing act by praising the city, and calling Chuck a fine gentlemen, and Little Richard a great entertainer, without actually mentioning their names.

Very difficult times.

[Andrew McRae]

x

[Tony Papard]

I never got this 'spoken' bit till just now when I read it. It means nothing to non-American ears. I thought he was saying something like:

'It's all over with. headed by the door, 126 paces and Jerry's gone'

Never heard the expression 'Katy bar the door'.

A 'dear John' letter in England at least is a letter from a wife/girlfriend informing her husband/lover that it's all over, she's met another partner.

Andrew's right of course. The Birmingham,Ala audience didn't consist of 15,000 KKK members in white hoods. And Germany was not populated exclusively by raving anti-Semite Nazis in the Third Reich years.

But I'm sure British liberals at the time imagined 90% of white people in places like Mississippi and Alabama were KKK members.

Of course I made a mistake in my last email on this subject - Ray Charles' 'What'd I Say' was on the Star-Club and Panther Hall albums, not on the Alabama one. Nevertheless Little Richard and Chuck Berry songs are strongly featured - 2 of each. And a Tommy Tucker R&B song.

[Andrew McRae]

x

[Andrew McRae]

x

[Andrew McRae]

x

[Andrew McRae]

x

[tchr]

This begs the question, of course, as to whether or not somebody, somewhere, has at least a copy of the original, unedited, performance in Birmingham, Alabama, on 18th July 1964... the same thought occurs in respect of the 'second show' at Panther Hall, Fort Worth in August 1966... not to mention the original two shows at the Star Club in April 1964! Just to remind everyone, this is the original running order of the performances that were edited to make the "Live At The Star-Club, Hamburg" LP

I always thought that the Alabama-show was edited from two different shows. The sound is "different" on Together Again as far as I remember (at work now). Do we know for sure that this is the whole show, and do we know what songs that actually was done on this show? No Great Balls of Fire?
The second Bear Family Box (Smash/Mercury-recordings) did not include anything new from this show, but they dig up very interesting stuff from the Panther Hall performance from 1966. Was there nothing more to add from the Alabama show, or did they not find the tapes?

Tore

[Dave McKee]

The Greatest Live Show On Earth (1964)

Jenny, Jenny / Who Will The Next Fool Be / Memphis, Tennessee / Hound Dog / Mean Woman Blues / High Heel Sneakers / No Particular Place To Go / Together Again / Long Tall Sally / Whole Lotta Shakin´ Goin´ On

Although inevitably over-shadowed by the wilder (& better-recorded) Live At The Star-Club, Hamburg, this is still a storming performance. Jerry purposely avoided most of his usual hits & included several new (at least to him) songs. Buck Hutcheson (the guitarist at this concert) can recall the entire band rehearsing these songs with Jerry at his home a few days beforehand, quite a rarity for Jerry to do any rehearsing! Highlights include Who Will The Next Fool Be (later recorded in the studio for Elektra in 1979) & High Heel Sneakers (released in slightly edited form as a single). 5 out of 5

(No known outtakes)

Note: This is from an excellent blog by Peter Checksfield. See the full blog at http://themargatemusicman.blogspot.com/ ... years.html

[PeterC]

ALBUM COVER RATING: 5/5

I'm going through Jerry's albums on here and giving marks out of five for the album covers (regardless of the actual content)...

Superb cover! Very atmospheric, capturing the excitement of the contents.

[jarireinikka]

Great cover,but I still prefer the French version even more!

[PeterC]

Yes, that is fantastic!

[Akiller]

The Greatest Live Show On Earth (1964)

Jenny, Jenny / Who Will The Next Fool Be / Memphis, Tennessee / Hound Dog / Mean Woman Blues / High Heel Sneakers / No Particular Place To Go / Together Again / Long Tall Sally / Whole Lotta Shakin´ Goin´ On

Although inevitably over-shadowed by the wilder (& better-recorded) Live At The Star-Club, Hamburg, this is still a storming performance. Jerry purposely avoided most of his usual hits & included several new (at least to him) songs. Buck Hutcheson (the guitarist at this concert) can recall the entire band rehearsing these songs with Jerry at his home a few days beforehand, quite a rarity for Jerry to do any rehearsing! Highlights include Who Will The Next Fool Be (later recorded in the studio for Elektra in 1979) & High Heel Sneakers (released in slightly edited form as a single). 5 out of 5

(No known outtakes)

Note: This is from an excellent blog by Peter Checksfield. See the full blog at http://themargatemusicman.blogspot.com/ ... years.html

This cover I like more, perhaps because I bought that LP in Stockholm in early seventies.

[PeterC]

My first purchase of this was actually the 1978 double-album set with 'By Request', but the covers were basically the same.