Live At The Star Club, Hamburg

''Live at the Star Club'' is a 1964 live album by rock and roll pianist and singer Jerry Lee Lewis, accompanied by the Nashville Teens. The album was recorded at the Star-Club in Hamburg, West Germany on April 5, 1964. It is regarded by many music journalists as one of the greatest rock and roll albums ever, noted for its hard-hitting energy and Lewis' wild stage presence.Peter Checksfield, "Jerry Lee Lewis. The Greatest Live Show on Earth", ''Record Collector'', #188 - April 1995, p. 79.

Recording

''Live at the Star Club'' was produced by Siggi Loch, who was head of the jazz department at Philips Records. In Joe Bonomo's book ''Lost and Found'', Loch states that "...I realized that there were all of these young, mainly British, bands who were playing Chuck Berry and other white American rock & rollers, their big heroes...And I went to the owner and made a proposal to start recording bands at the Star-Club, which I did." According to Loch the recording setup was uncomplicated, with microphones placed as close to the instruments as possible with a stereo mike placed in the audience to capture the ambience. The results were sonically astonishing, with Bonomo observing that "Detractors complain of the album's crashing noisiness, the lack of subtlety with which Jerry Lee revisits the songs, the fact that the piano is mixed too loudly, but what is certain is that Siggi Loch on this spring evening captured something brutally honest about the Killer, about the primal and timeless center of the very best rock & roll..."

Sixteen songs were recorded over two sets, the first set comprising "Down The Line," "You Win Again," "High School Confidential," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Great Balls of Fire," "What'd I Say (Parts 1 & 2) and "Mean Woman Blues." The second set featured "Good Golly Miss Molly," "Matchbox," "Money," "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," "Lewis Boogie," "Hound Dog," "Long Tall Sally" and "I'm On Fire."Joe Bonomo, ''Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found'' (Continuum Books, 2009), by Joe Bonomo. "Down The Line," which was omitted on the original LP due to a sound fault at the beginning, was released on the French Mercury single ''Les Rois du Rock, Vol. 8 : Jerry Lee Lewis'' and included on later CD and LP releases from Bear Family Records. The tapes for " You Win Again" and his current single " I'm On Fire" are believed to have been lost.

For decades the album was available only in Europe due to legal constraints. In 2014, Lewis told biographer Rick Bragg "Oh, man, that was a big monster record" but that the record company "never paid me a penny." Speaking to Patrick Doyle of ''Rolling Stone'' in 2014, Lewis remained proud that he "stuck with rock & roll when the rest of them didn't, I kept the ball rollin' with that."

Reception

''Live at the Star Club, Hamburg'' is generally regarded as one of the greatest live rock and roll albums ever made. Recorded during his "wilderness years" following the fallout surrounding his 1958 marriage to his thirteen-year-old first cousin once removed Myra, the album showcases Lewis's phenomenal skills as a pianist and singer, which had been honed by relentless touring. He had played at Deutschlandhalle in Berlin the night before. In a 5-out-of-5 stars review, Milo Miles raved in ''Rolling Stone'' that "''Live At The Star Club, Hamburg'' is not an album, it's a crime scene: Jerry Lee Lewis slaughters his rivals in a thirteen-song set that feels like one long convulsion. Recorded April 5th, 1964, this is the earliest and most feral of Lewis' concert releases from his wilderness years ...".Miles, Milo (June 6, 2002)
Live at the Star Club, Hamburg Music Reviews ''Rolling Stone">ear Family
/nowiki> by Jerry Lee Lewis "> Music Reviews ''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved on 2011-06-27. ''Q Magazine'' commented "This might be the most exciting performance ever recorded...".'' Q Magazine