Review: Mike Judge Presents Tales From The Tour Bus “Jerry Lee Lewis”

There’s that. Might as well get to it now.

When you get really into a certain thing, like a show, a book, a sport, a person, or a song, it can be hard to communicate what exactly about that thing is worth liking. Especially when there are likely parts of it that make people give odd looks, to say the least. Well, this is what I think Mike Judge trying to overcome by applying his aptitude with animation and knowledge of country music to put together this digestible series. That said, there are some more spotty parts of the genre’s history that you can’t hide if you want people to get the whole picture, and I don’t mean just the drug use because that’s kind of a universal music thing. That brings us to today’s focus, Jerry Lee Lewis, a founder of Rock and Roll.

OVERVIEW (Spoilers Below)

At the Framing Device Tour Bus, Judge wastes no time in bringing up one of Lewis’ more infamous instances: crashing through the gates of Elvis Presley’s home and threatening to kill him. But Judge asks to keep this positive, and to be fair, starting at that really makes anything seem more positive.

Morris “Tarp” Tarrent, Lewis’s drummer for a decade and a half, recounts how a long drive to a show led to a busted tire and no spare. Lewis, or “Killer” as he prefers to be called, was nothing if not punctual, driving on the rapidly sparking tire till they made it to Oklahoma City. “It was pretty crazy, actually,” says Tarrent, “but he made his show.”

Lewis was 21 when he was signed to Sun Records by Sam Phillips, the same company, and manager as Elvis Presley. But Sam’s son, Jerry, theorizes that had Lewis not married his 13-year-old second cousin, he probably would’ve claimed that title from Presley long ago.

*record scratch sound*

Yep, you read that right. Though if you’re reading this, you probably heard about that long before seeing this. Myra Lewis Williams was the daughter of Lewis’s first cousin, J.W. Brown, who was also Lewis’s bass player. To say Lewis’s family came from humble upbringing would be an understatement, coming from dirt-poor Ferriday, Louisiana. Lewis and his cousins were lucky enough to come across various instruments which taught them how to play.

Linda Gail Lewis, Lewis’s younger sister by twelve years as well as a performer in her own right, tells of how her brother would sneak off to “Haney’s Big House” to listen to New Orleans bound blues players, making a lasting influence on his music. But Lewis’s religious upbringing conflicted with his growing temptation for rocking and rolling, showcased in one instance of him trying to give some gospel music the ol’ razzle dazzle and getting slapped by the music director for his trouble. Evidently having his choice made for him, Lewis packed up and headed to Memphis with the help of his family. He stayed with his cousin J.W., and that’s how he met Myra.

Hitting paydirt on their first trip to Sun Records with “Crazy Arms”, the Killer’s unique sound and rebellious lyrics lit up 50’s America. By the time “Great Balls of Fire” was two weeks old, it had sold over 10 million copies. To celebrate, Lewis decided to marry Myra, who was, to reiterate, his teenage cousin. Not the way I’d commemorate a big hit, but to each their own I suppose. J.W. didn’t exactly take this well, going for his gun and death threats, and if guns weren’t made to keep your cousin from marrying your daughter, what are they good for?

Though seems time, and millions of dollars from a successful music career heals all wounds…and creates some new ones. On a trip to England, the marriage became public knowledge and sparked a huge scandal, only to have gasoline poured on it when Lewis nonchalantly revealed he had two previous marriages he hadn’t divorced from. Man, the press can be such prudes!

Well, this turned out to be a bit of a downfall for Lewis, whose pay rate had lost a couple zeroes by this time, but he swore to get back to the top. After a nice day of seeing werewolf movies with Tarp and kindly deciding not to run over Liberace, he would go to a show, then get everyone partying at his place before and after the main clubs opened. He’d become enraptured in the biggest party drugs, of all different colors and –phetamines. Some parties got close to being murder scenes, what with him shooting up the place and throwing knives from being so wired. Linda recalls one party where everyone started dozing off, only to be woken up by Lewis’s machine gun fire.

Eventually, Lewis reclaimed his footing in no small part by playing with some of the biggest names of his time, including rival Chucky Berry, leading to a nearly fatal encounter with Lewis’s dad Elmo. Though this didn’t stop his own impulsive and violent tendencies from coming up from time to time. During a party in Memphis, he got a call from his biggest claimant to the rock and roll crown, Elvis himself. Presley apparently was not emotionally well, which Lewis took to meaning he needed a nice night out. Heading over Graceland, he was barred from entering but made his own entrance by driving through the front gate, bringing us full circle.

Finally, Lewis and his band, now fully converted to the country, played the Grand Ole Opry, a Nashville stage concert that he’d set his sights on for the longest time. He promised no profanity or vulgarity and had a great show as usual…up until the end of the last song, signing off with “The Killer is number one, and I am a Rock and Roll motherfucker.” Oddly enough, they never got invited back. But he’s still kicking to this day after all his contenders had bit the dust. And while he might’ve fought with himself on what he was meant to do, he’s still the best in his loved ones’ eyes, and good boy as far as he himself is concerned.

OUR TAKE

Well, dang, sure a lot more happening in this one. I wouldn’t say I’m fully calibrated into knowing what to expect from this show’s format yet, but this story oddly seemed to focus more on the rock parts of Lewis’s life than the country parts. Though I guess if that’s where the meat of the story happened, it would make sense.

Lewis’s personality and the impact on those around him are obvious, it just seemed like this episode’s ordering of things was a bit more haphazard than how Johnny Paycheck’s story was told. When there’s a biopic film of someone famous that comes out, there’s always the balance of having to keep the true events with having the film itself be about something (hence why considerable embellishing happens), but with this kind of handling, it’s hard to say right now what really works and what doesn’t.

Though what is for sure is that the more eyebrow-raising aspects of Lewis’s history (such as the cousin marriage) will certainly keep your attention, and if there’s more like that with the remaining three-quarters of this series, at least I know I’m in for something interesting.

SCORE
7/10