Murray Silver

"a stick to fish the filemot frith for treasures" What the hell does that mean? Well, neither Myra nor co-author Murray M. Silver, Jr. is no Tosches Nick and should leave the language stunts alone, but this is all-in-all a good music biography about The Killer and the Golden Age of Rock for which he was "a dream ... that is coming to birth". Like Elvis and others, he was drawn from a largely impoverished and illiterate South not unlike we pick out military (Ambush at Fort Bragg).

This book is show more really built around Jerry's marriage to his first cousin once removed, Myra. There are three acts: life from obscurity to fame in the Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll and marriage to Myra. Act II is the fall from grace and wilderness years after he exposure of his child bride in England with a soundtrack from the syrupy crooner era. The final act is reclaiming the throne in Elvis' twilight and the ascendancy of The Beatles and Rolling Stones while sparking the career of Tom Jones. The remaining decades covered are compressed into a breathless epilogue that touches on shooting his own bass player and other highlights of the couple's rebound years. show less

I just could not finish this. The author is so self indulgent, so misguided. Everything becomes about him as he tries to create a career on the accomplishments or stories of other people. If meeting the Dalai Lama had converted Silver to an intensely spiritual person, as he implies, he would not have published a book based on the hopeless failures, self deceptions and ruined lives of other people.

I am a collector of most things Jerry Lee Lewis, including biographies of the man (which now number over 1/2 dozen). This one, "Great Balls of Fire", is written by Myra Brown, better known as Myra Gail Lewis, the thirteen year old cousin bride of Jerry Lee, so there's more intimate knowledge of the topic present than most biographies.

Any coverage of the Killer tends to include Old Testament references, which seems to fit Jerry Lee like a glove. Mixed in as well are the many wives of the show more Killer and the countless pitfalls he faced, many self-inflicted, as well as Myra's recollection of her own pre-teen sexual assault.

Not the best Jerry Lee Lewis biography out there but certainly not the worst. show less