Live at the International, Las Vegas
Live at the International, Las Vegas | ||||
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Live album by Jerry Lee Lewis | ||||
Released | 1970 | |||
Venue | International Hotel Lounge, Las Vegas, Nevada | |||
Genre | Country, rock | |||
Label | Mercury | |||
Producer | Jerry Kennedy | |||
Jerry Lee Lewis chronology | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Christgau's Record Guide | B[1] |
Live at the International, Las Vegas is a live album by Jerry Lee Lewis that was released on Mercury Records in 1970.
Background
After a full decade in a commercial abyss, by 1970 Jerry Lee Lewis was one of the hottest country stars in the business after hit singles like "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)" and "She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left of Me)" had rocketed up the charts. With his albums selling again, he appeared in front of 25,000 fans at the Toronto Peace Festival in 1969 and later that year performed on his own television special called The Many Sounds of Jerry Lee Lewis. In early 1970, he appeared on The Johnny Cash Show and, with his profile higher than it had been since his Sun Records days, was invited to play the International Hotel in Las Vegas. Befitting his new role as a honky-tonk balladeer, Lewis kept it mostly country, performing his recent hits and other songs made famous by Bob Wills, Hank Williams, and Tom T. Hall. The album would be another hit for Lewis, rising to number 5 on the Billboard country albums chart.
Lewis played Vegas at the same time as Elvis Presley, who was enjoying his own comeback around this time. According to Rick Bragg's authorized biography Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, in 1969 Presley tracked Jerry Lee down at a hotel in Columbus, Ohio and invited him to see his show at the International, an invitation Lewis accepted. According to Lewis guitarist Kenny Lovelace, when Presley introduced Lewis during the show, the audience gave him a standing ovation. The next year, Lewis would be playing the International with his own band while Elvis played in the main room. "I was playin' in the lounge," he recounts to Bragg. "I mean, the lounge was as big...It was as large as this whole house. Just the lounge. I mean, the main room would seat, like, three thousand people. And the room I was in would seat, like, twenty-five hundred. I was hittin' Elvis tit for tat on that." Lewis added that he was largely unimpressed by Presley's show: "He had an enlarged band, with horns and violins, stuff like that, and I don't think it ever come off that good. He was tryin' to prove somethin' that really didn't need provin'." In the 1982 book Hellfire, biographer Nick Tosches reports of an alleged exchange between the two at the time, with Lewis telling Elvis, "You don't know what you're doin'. You're just Colonel Parker's puppet." "Well," Elvis replied, "if I'm so dumb and you're so smart, how is it that I'm playin' the main room and you're playin' the lounge?"[2]
Track listing
- "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye" (Doug Gilmore, Mickey Newbury)
- "Jambalaya" (Hank Williams)
- "She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left of Me)" (Glenn Sutton)
- "Drinking Champagne" (Bill Mack Smith)
- "San Antonio Rose" (Bob Wills)
- "Once More with Feeling" (Kris Kristofferson, Shel Silverstein)
- "When You Wore a Tulip (And I Wore a Big Red Rose)" ** (Jack Mahoney, Percy Wenrich)
- "Take These Chains from My Heart" * (Hy Heath, Fred Rose)
- "The Ballad of Forty Dollars" (Tom T. Hall)
- "Flip, Flop and Fly" (Charles Calhoun, Lou Willie Turner)
- "You Went Out of Your Way (To Walk on Me)" (Paul Craft)
- "My Only Claim to Fame" (Glenn Sutton)
- "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" (Chuck Berry)
Personnel
- Jerry Lee Lewis - vocals, piano
- Linda Gail Lewis - vocals (*solo) (**duet)
- Buck Hutcheson - guitar
- Ned Davis - steel guitar
- Kenny Lovelace - fiddle, guitar
- Eddie DeBruhl - bass
- Morris Tarrant - drums
- Jerry Lee Lewis Jr. - tambourine
References
- ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: L". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 1, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
- ^ Fink, Jesse (2013). The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC. Australia: Ebury. p. 237. ISBN 9781742759791.
- v
- t
- e
- Jerry Lee Lewis
- Jerry Lee's Greatest!
- Golden Hits of Jerry Lee Lewis
- The Return of Rock
- Country Songs for City Folks
- Memphis Beat
- Soul My Way
- Another Place, Another Time
- She Still Comes Around
- Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 1
- Sings the Country Music Hall of Fame Hits, Vol. 2
- The Golden Cream of the Country
- She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye
- In Loving Memories: The Jerry Lee Lewis Gospel Album
- There Must Be More to Love Than This
- Touching Home
- Would You Take Another Chance on Me?
- The Killer Rocks On
- Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano?
- The Session...Recorded in London with Great Artists
- Sometimes a Memory Ain't Enough
- Southern Roots: Back Home to Memphis
- I-40 Country
- Boogie Woogie Country Man
- Odd Man In
- Country Class
- Country Memories
- Jerry Lee Keeps Rockin'
- Jerry Lee Lewis
- When Two Worlds Collide
- Killer Country
- My Fingers Do the Talkin'
- I Am What I Am
- Young Blood
- Last Man Standing
- Mean Old Man
- Rock & Roll Time
- Together (with Linda Gail Lewis)
- Million Dollar Quartet (with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley)
- The Survivors Live (with Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins)
- Class of '55 (with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison)
- Live at the Star Club, Hamburg
- The Greatest Live Show on Earth
- By Request: More of the Greatest Live Show on Earth
- Live at the International, Las Vegas
- Last Man Standing Live
- Jamboree (1957)
- American Hot Wax (1978)
- Great Balls of Fire! (1989)
- Dick Tracy (1990)
- Original Golden Hits, Vol. 1
- Original Golden Hits, Vol. 2
- Rockin' Rhythm and Blues
- A Taste of Country
- Best of Jerry Lee Lewis
- All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology
- A Whole Lotta...Jerry Lee Lewis: The Definitive Retrospective
- "Another Place, Another Time"
- "Baby Baby Bye Bye"
- "Baby, Hold Me Close"
- "Break-Up"
- "Breathless"
- "Chantilly Lace"
- "Cold, Cold Heart"
- "Come as You Were"
- "Crown Victoria Custom '51"
- "Crazy Arms"
- "Don't Let Me Cross Over" (with Linda Gail Lewis)
- "Down the Line"
- "End of the Road"
- "Fools like Me"
- "Great Balls of Fire"
- "Hi-Heel Sneakers"
- "High School Confidential"
- "How's My Ex Treating You"
- "I Can't Seem to Say Goodbye"
- "I'll Make It All Up to You"
- "I'm on Fire"
- "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"
- "In the Mood"
- "Invitation to Your Party"
- "It'll Be Me"
- "Jackson" (with Linda Gail Lewis)
- "Lewis Boogie"
- "Me and Bobby McGee"
- "Meat Man"
- "Money (That's What I Want)"
- "Old Black Joe"
- "Once More with Feeling"
- "One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)"
- "One Minute Past Eternity"
- "Pen and Paper"
- "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye"
- "She Still Comes Around (To Love What's Left of Me)"
- "She Was My Baby (He Was My Friend)"
- "Sixteen Candles"
- "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
- "Seasons of My Heart"
- "Sweet Little Sixteen"
- "Teenage Letter"
- "There Must Be More to Love Than This"
- "To Make Love Sweeter for You"
- "Turn On Your Love Light"
- "What's Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me)"
- "What'd I Say"
- "When He Walks on You (Like You Have Walked On Me)"
- "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
- "Who's Gonna Play This Old Piano?"
- "Wild One"
- "Would You Take Another Chance on Me"
- "You Win Again"
- Jamboree (1957)
- High School Confidential (1958)
- Be My Guest (1965)
- 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee (1969)
- American Hot Wax (1978)
- Myra Gale Brown (cousin/wife)
- Linda Gail Lewis (sister)
- Mickey Gilley (cousin)
- Carl McVoy (cousin)
- Jimmy Swaggart (double first cousin)
- Discography
- Great Balls of Fire!
- Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind
- Walk the Line
- Jerry Kennedy
- Kenny Lovelace
- Mack Vickery