JERRY LEE LEWIS
Last Man Standing
Artists First
· 71-year-old Jerry Lee out-rocks performers two-thirds his age. For whatever that’s worth.
Jerry Lee Lewis is known for the thunder in his hands, the ego up top, and an unfortunate choice in spouses that pretty much killed his career. If he hadn’t married his 13-year-old cousin (he was 23 at the time) there’s a good chance the Killer would be right up there with the King and the Man in Black in the rock ’n’ roll pantheon.
Last Man Standing is both Lewis’s stab at a comeback and a shot at all of the celebrity-studded duets albums that have sprung up lately. Yes, every track on Last Man features at least one rock icon (or, in one case, Kid Rock), but the key difference is that Lewis absolutely dominates the album. Legends like Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Eric Clapton are relegated to the background – even CCR’s John Fogarty struggles to keep up with Lewis’s take on "Traveling Band."
Of course, some moments on the album sound more like marketing than music. Rock sounds entirely out of place on the otherwise spirited "Honky Tonk Woman," and Mick Jagger completely embarrasses himself with his hokey commentary on "Evening Gown." And it’s admittedly a little awkward to hear Lewis utter the phrase "she was just 17, if you know what I mean" (it means she was four years older than your cousin when you married her). But that squeamishness aside, when the guests stay the hell out of Lewis’s way, the results are surprisingly solid.
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