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Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1964)

Where the lyrics of Live at the Star Club, Hamburg take you, and where it was really made.

Recorded in a Hamburg club in 1964, this album was available only in Europe for decades because of legal constraints.

Key places

Where the album was recorded (1964)

Recording site Star-Club — The album was recorded live at the Star-Club in Hamburg, West Germany, on April 5, 1964, during Lewis's two-week engagement at the club. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Live at the Star Club, Hamburg: live album by American rock and roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis, accompanied by the Nashville Teens
• Recorded live at the Star-Club in Hamburg, West Germany, on April 5, 1964
• Regarded by many music journalists as one of the greatest rock and roll albums ever
• Noted for its hard-hitting energy and Lewis's wild stage presence
• Generally regarded as one of the greatest live rock and roll albums ever made

Background

• Recorded during Lewis's "wilderness years" after the fallout from his 1957 marriage to his thirteen-year-old first cousin once removed Myra
• Lewis had played at Deutschlandhalle in Berlin the night before the Hamburg recording
• For decades the album was available only in Europe due to legal constraints

Recording

• Produced by Siggi Loch, head of the jazz department at Philips Records
• Loch began recording bands at the Star-Club after noticing young, mainly British bands playing Chuck Berry and other white American rock and rollers
• Microphones were placed as close to the instruments as possible
• A stereo microphone in the audience captured the ambience
• Sixteen songs were recorded over two sets
• The first set included Down the Line, You Win Again, High School Confidential and Your Cheatin' Heart
• The second set featured Good Golly Miss Molly, Matchbox, Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On and the current single I'm On Fire
• Down the Line was omitted from the original LP due to a sound fault
• The tapes for You Win Again and I'm On Fire are believed to have been lost

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• American country and rock and roll pianist, singer, and songwriter, nicknamed "The Killer".
• Made first recordings in 1952 at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studio in New Orleans; early Sun Records recordings in 1956 in Memphis.
• 1957 hit "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" brought worldwide fame; followed by "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless", and "High School Confidential".
• 1964 live album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is widely regarded as one of the greatest live rock albums.
• Switched to country in 1968 with "Another Place, Another Time", which revived his career; 30 songs reached the Billboard country top 10 across his career.
• Last Man Standing (2006) was his best-selling release; Mean Old Man (2010) was another major seller.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1986) and the Country Music Hall of Fame (2022).

Members

• Solo artist; the Million Dollar Quartet session on Sun Records included Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Milo Miles in Rolling Stone gave the album 5 out of 5 stars, calling it a crime scene and a thirteen-song set that feels like one long convulsion
• Miles called it the earliest and most feral of Lewis's concert releases from his wilderness years
• Q Magazine commented that this might be the most exciting performance ever recorded
• Mojo included the album in its list The 67 Lost Albums You Must Own!
• Joe Bonomo called the opening number Mean Woman Blues nothing short of a concert in itself
• Colin Escott described Your Cheatin' Heart as a one-man tour-de-force
• Rick Bragg, in the 2014 book Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, said the piano sounds like it is breaking at times
• AllMusic described the album as extraordinary and the purest, hardest rock and roll ever committed to record

Reappraisal

• Generally regarded as one of the greatest live rock and roll albums ever made
• AllMusic gave the album 5 out of 5 stars
• Robert Christgau gave it an A, his second-best grade
• Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin described the album as absolutely breathtaking
• The album is named in the reference book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
• Its reviews were and remain overwhelmingly positive

Records

• 1998: Mojo included it in its list of the best 20 live albums of all time
• 2003: Digital Dream Door placed it at number 4 on its list of the greatest live albums of all time
• 2011: Goldmine included it in its list of the best 13 live albums of all time
• 2015: NME placed it at number 34 on its list of the greatest live albums of all time
• 2015: Rolling Stone placed it at number 16 on its list
• 2020: The Telegraph placed it at number 2 on its list of the best live albums of all time
• 2020: The Independent placed it at number 4 on its list of the greatest live albums of all time

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · de.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Down the Line was later released on the French Mercury single Les Rois du Rock, Vol. 8: Jerry Lee Lewis and included on later Bear Family CD and LP releases.
• In 2010 Bear Family Records released the album on 180-gram vinyl with an elaborately designed cover, and that version adds Down the Line as a bonus track.
• In 2014 Lewis told biographer Rick Bragg that it was a big monster record but the record company never paid him a penny.
• For decades the album was available only in Europe, which kept it out of reach for many listeners.
• Robert Christgau gave the album an A, the second-best grade in his system.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · de.wikipedia.org

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