Jerry Lee Lewis VS. Johnny Cash

Do you really have to ask?

Having said that, I think the all-time greatest punk rock moment came in the mid-70s, when Charlie Rich, presenting the award for best artist during the Country Music Awards, set afire the paper containing John Denver's name.
Mr. Cash stomping out the lights at the Grand Ole Opry and playing "San Quentin" at San Quentin is not far behind.

BTW, there's a whole lotta Jerry Lee on this radio show (complete with link to RealAudio archive):

http://www.wfmu.org/Playlists/Spazz/spazz.20010927.html

Seen them both live once, and Cash was better.

(I probably think JLL has made the greater records but this is my favourite LP cover ever).

Maybe, but where is Jerry Lee's 'Mercy Seat'? Johnny Cash got better after Sun.

This is why, per the other JLL thread, YOU NEED TO HEAR HIS MERCURY RECORDINGS. (NB: I love Johnny Cash too.)

Now Carl Perkins, well...

And anyone who hasn't heard the lesser-known JLL Sun sides ("Big Legged Woman," "Deep Elem Blues," his Elvis covers, "My Carolina Sunshine Girl," "You Are My Sunshine") is missing out.

Baby's packed all her soft things and she's left me she's left me she's left me...

Jerry Lee actually had a one-off TV show, a very surreal experience available on DVD (not counting the five pilots shot for Holiday Inn circa '68/'69 or so). He plays guitar (well) and sings a bone-chilling gospel number accompanied by a black quartet. Incredible. There are some sublimely terrible duets with that indescribable creature Linda Gail as well. Jackie Wilson and Carl Perkins are the guest stars.

I can still hear the music in the restrooom....

Got a Maytag tongue with a sensitive taster...

"So is the Killer A KILLER?" intoned the imperious, finger-wagging Geraldo.

horribly classic.

isn't that on a Hallmark card somewhere?

Pretty good compared to Al Jolson and Hank Williams, though.

And nobody can match the cheap chaos of his mid-seventies recordings.
Note I say "cheap."

His version of 'Memphis' from this period ain't bad, either. In Jerry Lee's trembling, angry hands, reads as a convincing argument for NAMBLA.

Seriously, I can't recommend JLL's London Sessions/Southern Roots period highly enough, but one must hear the complete stuff, because that's where the meat is, man.

When you get to this period I think the thin-ness is part of the charm.

I love these records.

"My little Margie..."

Nine Inch Nails might've been more up his alley.

Head like a hole
Black as your soul
Jerry Lee would rather die
Than give you control darlin'

Old Glory with Toby Keith
Jerry wrote this song and plays piano and organ in it.
I Saw Her Standing There
the Beatles' song. Duet with Little Richard.
Pink Cadillac Bruce Springsteen song
Travelin' Band Creedence Clearwater song
I've Got A Few Years On You Baby Willie Nelson song
The Pilgrim Kris Kristofferson song
Rock 'n' Roll Led Zeppelin song
Evening Gown Mick Jagger song
Keep Your Hands To Yourself Georgia Satelites song
That's What Makes An Irish Heart Sing Van Morrison song
Before The Night Is Over piano and organ by Jerry
Trouble In Mind with Eric Clapton on guitar
That Kind Of Fool
Last Cheater's Waltz  

Op het Internationale Documentaire Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) gaat de documentaire Don't fuck with the Lewises van Ronny Kristoffersen in première. Hierin wordt verslag gedaan van een 'turbulent' bezoek aan Jerry's zus Frankie Jean, die nog steeds woont in het dorp waar zij zijn opgegroeid: Ferriday, Louisiana (zie deze website voor meer informatie over haar museum).

On the international documentary festival Amsterdam (IDFA) the documentary Don't fuck with the Lewises van Ronny Kristoffersen in première goes. Report is done of 'turbulent' visit to Jerry's zus Frankie Jean, which lives still in the village where they have grown up: Ferriday, Louisiana (to see this Internet site for further information on its museum).

Somehow I don't see this cutting a lot of ice with Geir.

Cash may have crawled into a cave to die, but they don't call Lewis "The Killer" for nothing. Jerry Lee is an original psycho rock star.

I like Johnny Cash a lot--to me he's an acquired taste. To my mind, elevating Cash over JLL or Faron Young is all hipstered out and kind of lame, just like all these people getting into Solomon Burke over that last album and maybe missing Howard Tate's comeback--Tate can still cut it, Burke cannot. Not to say that JLL can really cut it any more, but shorn of the mystique, Cash really couldn't either. So it's down to the classic recordings and as said above, JLL in his Mercury country period is way overlooked. You do hear stuff like "What Made Milwaukee Famous" on WSM radio here in Nashville--they play all the hits. Even knocked-off crap like "Memphis Beat," on some Pickwick comp of his '60s rock and roll, is cool. Lewis's "Old Tyme Country Music," reissued on Collectables, is a really great one too, the best mellowed JLL rockin' stuff.

Anyway, I think Charlie Rich was better than both of 'em.

No, that would be Tony Banks ;)

charlie rich was blessed with a god-like voice that gave him a pretty huge running start over both jc and jll. george jones trumps 'em both, too.

and i've got no problem with either jc or jll.

jerry lee lewis, particularly for 'hows my ex treating you?"

this thread is chock full of weird ideas (the idea that "i walk the line" doesn't hold up compared to "great balls of fire" - kinda like saying refrigerators don't hold up compared to iceboxes; the idea that johnny cash was some kind of sell-out for his brilliant late-career reinvention of his entire persona; the idea that JLL's records "don't live up to the legend"; yeesh, the list goes on...)

Cash could get pretty crazy, too, if we're gonna talk craziness. I'm thinking of him and Sammy Davis Jr. pulling (and shooting?) pistols in an Australian hotel lobby in the '50s -- an incident that led to Cash's writing "Don't Take Your Guns to Town."

Then on the other hand, you got Jerry Lee parading his way through "Big Legged Woman" ("I bet my bottom dollar there ain't a cherry in this house!"), ending with the edict "It's a HIT!"

Johnny Cash burned down a national forrest and got away with it. His music and legacy -- and even his anecdotes -- are more important than the killer's. But the Killer remains great. As a rock and roll performer and a country singer, he is unparalleled.

Perhaps the dumbest thing said in this thread is the slagging of Solomon Burke. If anyone ever had a successful artistic comeback -- it's him. His pipes are made of un tarnished gold.