Liberaci?
I’ve wondered if Liberace’s stage persona influenced Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis. They definitely had different styles of playing.
Liberace was 16 years older and had different musical influences.
Note: You need to read this linked rant to the end. And it is totally WORTH the read. You’re welcome
This was about the time I saw him live. At first, he seemed underwhelming. And in the case of the show I saw, he stayed that way. His heart clearly wasn’t in it. The most disappointing concert I’ve ever been to.
I still love his old songs though, and crank ‘em up every time I hear them.
R.I.P. Killer.
What I’ve read of him leads me to believe he was a huge a******, and a racist one at that.
Two of his wives died, and there’s significant evidence that he had at least a hand in killing both of them.
Damn. I never knew much of him beyond his music. I, honestly, never really cared for his piano stylings, but I’m clearly in the minority. He was a huge influence and force in early rock-n-roll, and a spectacular showman.
This is worth a read.
I saw him in concert in Moscow back in the 1990s. Played the piano with his toes, he did!
RIP.
Leave us not forget Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Who made his entrance in a coffin.
Are there any of the great rock and rock pioneers left? Seems to me he was the last one. Farewell to the killer.
There are still a few stars from the '50s who are still alive, such as Pat Boone, Paul Anka, Connie Francis, and Fabian. But, IMO, they aren’t on the level of the real pioneers.
There’s also Brenda Lee, Wanda Jackson, and Chubby Checker.
It’s remarkable how many 1950s rock-and-roll greats lived to their late 80’s and died in the last 5 years: Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino and now Jerry Lee Lewis.As mentioned Lewis was probably the last living 50s rocker of major importance so his death truly marks the end of an era.
I beg to differ when it comes to Pat Boone. Quoting Wikipedia:
He sold more than 45 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in more than 12 Hollywood films.
According to Billboard, Boone was the second-biggest charting artist of the late 1950s, behind only Elvis Presley, and was ranked at No. 9 in its listing of the Top 100 Top 40 Artists 1955–1995. Until the 2010s, Boone held the Billboard record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with one or more songs each week.
He may be whiter than white bread, but he’s certainly made his mark.
A New York Times obit gave the full effect.
“Mr. Hawkins’s 1956 hit, “I Put a Spell on You,” defined a career built on vocal dementia, imagery lifted from voodoo folklore and B-movies, an anarchic sense of humor and a stage show that raised the stakes on rock ‘n’ roll theatricality. He took stereotypes of black savagery – cannibals, witch doctors – and mocked them with gleeful hyperbole. He would arrive on stage in a flaming coffin, wearing a black satin cape and, sometimes, a bone in his nose, clutching a cane topped by a flaming, cigarette-smoking skull named Henry. Snakes, tarantulas, shrunken heads and a crawling hand were also part of the act.”
“Whether he was singing his own songs or tearing into a sentimental standard, Mr. Hawkins might at any moment jettison the melody for shouts, moans or bursts of gibberish. “I don’t sing them,” he once said of his songs. “I destroy them.””
He also had considerable vocal talent (he was classically trained in opera).
Apologies (not really) to Jimmy Swaggart for this image of Jerry Lee Lewis at the Pearly Gates:
Open up, a-honey,
it’s your lover boy me that’s a-knockin
He was not an originator in any way. He was a successful performer which is different from being a great musician. Boone will be forgotten in the history of music save for being the poster boy for ‘white washing’ music. An unfair characterization as the poster boy since he wasn’t at all alone.
I don’t think Boone gets enough credit for making Rock n Roll the supreme genre in Popular music that it became less than 10 years after its invention. Like the rest, he was mostly in it for the money and fame, but his impact was just as powerful. He almost single-handedly co-opted a counterculture into popular culture. You can argue that wasn’t a good thing, but it was certainly influential.
Hey, what sells, sells! Ain’t no gettin’ away from it.
I was chuckling all the way up to “Goodness gracious great balls of HEY LAAAAAAADY!” , and that’s when I started laughing out loud!