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53rd out of 411 books
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305 voters
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Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story
by
Nick Tosches
The life of Jerry Lee Lewis is one of the most dramatic and tormented in rock 'n' roll history. Hellfire is a wild, riveting, and beautifully written biography that received universal acclaim on its original publication and remains one of the most remarkable biographies ever written.
Born in Louisiana to a family legacy of great courage and greater wildness, Jerry Lee was t
...morePaperback, 304 pages
Published
April 22nd 1998
by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
(first published 1982)
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Not only is Nick among the greatest non-fiction writers that I have ever read - and that is no empty gushing statement - this is really one the the best musician biographies that has ever been published. Of course, when you start with a maniac like Jerry Lee, one the Kings of Rock and Roll, you already have some wild stories to get things rolling. Who exactly was the King and/or Father of Rock and Roll, was always an arguement between Jerry Lee, Elvis and Chuck Berry - while Little Richard was c...more
Good god, I always heard that this book was great, but I didn't expect it to live up to the hype--which it completely did and more. Part of me wanted it to be 9,000 pages long, but that might've taken away from its sleek, almost singular perfection. Hard to think of a musician more deserving of a Faulkner-esque bio than Jerry Lee. Now if only Tosches would give Hank Williams this treatment too. How mind-blowing would that be?
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This is also the best celebrity bio ever- No really-
It describes Jerry Lee's existence in a manner that is both brutal and other worldly- The best thing about this book is that it was written in like 1980 and they talk about him as if he will be dead any day because how could you be him and live and - I'll be damned- The motherfucker is still kicking and that was 30 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! you heard me!
SON of a bitch!
It describes Jerry Lee's existence in a manner that is both brutal and other worldly- The best thing about this book is that it was written in like 1980 and they talk about him as if he will be dead any day because how could you be him and live and - I'll be damned- The motherfucker is still kicking and that was 30 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! you heard me!
SON of a bitch!
Spiros
rated it
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review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone looking for a picture from life's other side
An epic tale of religion, ecstasy, and insanity, told as only Nick Tosches can tell it. One isn't sure if it's the inbreeding, or something in the water, but that is one messed up set of people Mr. Tosches describes. This book bears a strong family resemblence to his biography of Arnold Rothstein, King of the Jews; in both, he extrapolates a whole weltanschauung from one outsized individual. The difference between the two books is that in Rothstein, his subject wasn't large enough to engage his ...more
nick tosches has an obscene gift for the biopic. more precisely: he has a gift for intuiting the precise fold of human flaws and foibles, and distilling them into language and narrative so compelling and rapturous that you mistake tragedy, disaster and personal failing as some kind of holy grail truth. and maybe it is, at least the way nick tosches writes it.
there were so many things i did not know about jerry lee lewis before i read this (number one: that the man is even still alive...more
there were so many things i did not know about jerry lee lewis before i read this (number one: that the man is even still alive...more
"Jerry Lee did as he was bid that night; he went on before Chuck Berry. He had the crowd screaming and rushing the stage, and when it seemed that the screams had grown loudest and the rushing most chaotic, he stood, kicked the piano stool away with violence, and broke into 'Great Balls Of Fire.' As the screaming chaos grew suddenly and sublimely greater, he drew from his jacket a coke bottle full of gasoline, and he doused the piano with one hand as the other hand banged out the song; and...more
Not only one of the best music books I've read, but one of the best books period. Absolutely stunning. I picked it up (it had been sitting next to the bed for months) and didn't put it down until I was done. An extraordinary feat. It functions, of course, as a detailed time-line of Lewis' life, but also on the much deeper plane of spiritual poetry. Hellfire. The book could carry no other title. It's a monster book about America, god, music, and degradation. Run, don't walk.
This was a rollicking good read about how the dirt poor Jerry Lee from the bible bashing south piana hammered his name into the seminal iconography of rock and roll. Tosches splendidly evokes the stubborn, cursed and cursing Lewis as he drives hard through honky tonks bars and anything that stands in the way of his self directed career. A life touched by death and excess and obsession, this story of the Killer is one very much worth reading.
The book adapts a high literary tone which is at times overdone but generally feels nice and grapes of wrathian. The story of Jerry Lee Lewis is sordid colorful rollercoaster, and it is well told and entertaining. Things peter out towards the end, unfortunately, but I prefer that to an attempt to stretch things out into something resembling a satisfying conclusion. Definitely worth reading, fan of Jerry Lee Lewis or not.
This is an awesome book, I love the way Nick Tosches writes. It's a little confusing though, because he is literally invoking the spirit of Jerry Lee Lewis through his telling of this story. Maybe don't read this if your drinking a lot, because you start feeling like your eyes are small and milky and your about to marry your 14 year old cousin. In my experience.
Tiresome and self-indulgent -- Tosches exposes Lewis as a cruel narcissist, but has no stomach for any real exploration of the damage he did to family and friends. Instead he falls back on easy patter about "demons" deep within Jerry's soul.
This isn't a "rock n' roll bio," it's a literary wonder.
Tosches turns his torch on "The Killer" and the results are classic (yes, classic).
One of my all time favorite books.
Read it NOW!
Tosches turns his torch on "The Killer" and the results are classic (yes, classic).
One of my all time favorite books.
Read it NOW!
PENTECOSTAL! The writing is fire and brimstone, as deft as any snake handler, and potent as a glass of strychnine. Jerry Lee Lewis talked about salvation, but could never get pass the sins of the flesh. Tosches is writing more about the American psyche than he is about a musical icon. One of the best biographies I've ever read.
The is the story of Jerry & Jimmy (and cousin Mickey, too) and their battles with Satan. They're perfect subjects for the skewed mind of Nick Tosches. It's a wild ride.
Perhaps it's just that this book seems dated. I did learn a few interesting facts, but, overall, it seemed basically a recitation in debauchery.
Brilliantly written and full of insights into psyche of The Killer. One of the best biographies I've ever read.
Terrific book about early rock and roll's wild man by a truly unique writer.
Thought this was incredibly well written and told a fascinating story. I've always had an interest in Jerry Lee Lewis, but I think anyone could find this to be a great read. It's dark, but with the descriptive writing style of Tosches, it sometimes read like poetry.
Honestly the best bio book I have ever read!!
A very different sort of biography, but an electrifyingly written one. Certainly among the best rock bios I've read.
Marty
marked it as to-read
Not in AVL
.
At the risk of sounding redundant, this is another book that I'll have to finish sometime. I read nearly half of it for my biography/autobiography writing class, and it's a great read. Tosches has a writing voice all his own, part Ecclesiastical Bible-thumper, part rock-n-roll aficionado, it has a cadence that carries the reader through the life of what turns out to be not a nice man. But oh, that music. I look forward to reading the rest--after this semester at the soonest.
Today is the first anniversary of this endeavor and as I awoke, i was tinged with ambition. I then began to read Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis story by Nick Tosches. In almost a single sitting i read the book, enjoying six double espressos, a large cigar, two eggs (w/ bread) and several hours of outstanding music, including Bix, Blind Boys of Alabama, George Jones, James Carter, Charlie Parker and Ryan Adams. I am finished, refreshed, bewildered by the world in its torrent.
Life story of Jerry Lee Lewis. I bought this at Sun Studios during a recent trip to Memphis. All I can say is The Killer is one crazy hillbilly. Mentions a lot of Memphis sites and it dishes a lot. The author speaks in an almost biblical tone about Jerry Lee and at least four generations of his family.
Did you know that Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley, and Jimmy
Swaggart are all cousins? Neither did I. You can pick your friends but you can't pick your family.
G.
Did you know that Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley, and Jimmy
Swaggart are all cousins? Neither did I. You can pick your friends but you can't pick your family.
G.
Two things I never tire over:
Nike Tosches' non-fiction work, especially when music related, and crazy stories about Jerry Lee Lewis.
This may be the greatest music book/biography i've ever read. It's sort of a strange read for a while, b/c of the whole Tosches fictional non-fiction thing. However, the last section of the book is just amazing, and the ending is just stupefying. I've never had an experience like I had upon finishing this book.
Nike Tosches' non-fiction work, especially when music related, and crazy stories about Jerry Lee Lewis.
This may be the greatest music book/biography i've ever read. It's sort of a strange read for a while, b/c of the whole Tosches fictional non-fiction thing. However, the last section of the book is just amazing, and the ending is just stupefying. I've never had an experience like I had upon finishing this book.
Southern Gothic/Rocknroll biography/Awesome book.
Fantastic -- one of the best musician-related books I've ever touched.
Most music writing is just terrible, horrible stuff -- platitudes heaped upon often very ugly people by panting sycophants.
But this is literature all the way.
Most music writing is just terrible, horrible stuff -- platitudes heaped upon often very ugly people by panting sycophants.
But this is literature all the way.
A perfect companion to It Came From Memphis, and the single best music bio I have ever read and probably ever will read. Even if you have no interest in Jerry Lee, you can still be amazed on every page.
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Nick Tosches was born in Newark, New Jersey, and raised by wolves from the other side. Through nepotism he became a barroom porter at the age of fourteen. Casting this career to the wind in his quest for creative fulfillment, he became a paste-up artist for the Lovable Underwear Company in New York City. On January 12, 1972, he went to lunch and never came back, drifting south to Florida, where, a...more
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