by Tony Papard » Wed Jan 20, 2010 12:27 pm
I'd say these are all highly unreliable. If Linda Gail really does remember her parents buying Jerry his first piano, then she must have been extremely young at the time surely? Born in 1947, even if she'd only been 2 that would place Jerry getting his own piano in 1949 at the age of 13 or 14.
Jerry always claims 'I was born feet first, came out jumpin', been jumpin' ever since'. Another exaggeration no doubt, but as boogie-woogie was a big influence at the time, along with 'swing' no doubt and of course Country some of which was uptempo, I would imagine Jerry played both Country and uptempo stuff which would be fairly close to rock'n'roll or boogie as it was then called from a very early age, certainly in the late 1940s.
Earliest example we have, of course, is the 1952 recording 'Don't Wait Til Love Grows Cold'/'New Orleans Boogie'.
If Jerry and most of the biographies are correct, he was playing piano before he got his own one, and that's what prompted his parents to buy one because he was so talented. So this would mean he was playing his Aunt Stella's and the church piano long before 1944/45 when he was 9 and, according to Jerry and most of the biographies but not according to Linda Gail, he got his own piano.
If Linda Gail is right and his own piano was bought at the end of the 1940s or even later, then all the biographies and Jerry himself are wrong.
Perhaps we should ask Frankie Jean, as she'll probably have a different version again. I know she claims to have the first piano Jerry ever played in her house/museum - i.e. not the Starck upright, which is at the Ranch.
P.S. 'Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee' was recorded in the 1940s by Sticks McGhee of course, and has a typical early black rhythm'n'blues tempo which developed into rock'n'roll in the 1950s.
Long ago in Ferriday down in Louisiana, They all watched Jerry play and pump that old piana
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