YouTube Gold: Jerry Lee Lewis In His Prime

Jerry Lee Lewis, circa 1957 Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Jerry Lee Lewis has never been an easy man to like or even understand.

One of the great early rock and roll musicians, Lewis played piano with an extraordinary energy as you’ll see in this video. It’s a manic, unbridled energy that you rarely see anywhere.

They call him the Killer because no one ever wanted to follow him on stage. He was wild in a way you could be in the 1950s but never after, at least not in the same way.

There was a story from a tour in England where he was told Chuck Berry would follow him and close the show. Lewis said, “nobody follows the Killer” but that was how they wanted it so he went on as…