Killer!: The Baddest Rock Memoir Ever

by Jerry Lee Lewis, Charles White

Written as the official biography of Jerry Lee Lewis in the early nineties, Killer! was discontinued as a project by publishers Random Century because contractual obligations were not met by all parties. Only enough copies were sold to pay for the first print run - the rest were pulped. Now rights have reverted to author Charles 'Dr Rock' White, fans can at last read the definitive Jerry Lee Lewis story.

Genres: Music, Biography

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Stephen Curran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it a bit disjointed with all the third party contributions. I was glad the book effective finished 3/4 way through due to all the appendices

[Joe Blevins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is certainly a very unusual "autobiography." It's sort of an oral history, with lots of quotes from Jerry Lee Lewis along with friends, business associates, relatives, other musicians, and ex-wives. Charles White basically narrates the book in italicized passages linking the various quotes. The format of the book at first seemed really chaotic to me. I looked at the pages and saw all these different kinds of formatting and thought, "What the hell is this?" But after a chapter or so I got used to it. All of Jerry Lee's quotes are set apart by a little bullet point icon in the margin, so if you just want Jerry's words they're easy to find. Occasionally, Jerry will comment on some of the quotes by others. ("Baloney!" he exclaims more than once.) And sometimes, others will comment on Jerry Lee's words. ("He's a devil to talk that way," Sam Phillips says at one point.) There is considerable disagreement over the particulars of Jerry Lee's rowdy life, and JLL may not be the most objective and reliable witness. It's a rock 'n' roll Rashomon, basically.

There is an extensive discography at the end of the book which accounts for roughly 1/4th of its length. Jerry Lee's recording sessions are listed, as are his singles, LPs, radio transcriptions, and Billboard chart rankings. When the timeline of the main text gets hazy (and this is often), the discography in back kind of gives you an idea what was happening in JLL's life at various points in history.

Keep in mind that this book was published in Britain, so the spelling, formatting, and punctuation may seem a bit dodgy to Americans. Or maybe White just has an odd style. I don't know.