Goodness gracious, he’s still alive!

And he’s 79 today. Happy Birthday to Jerry Lee Lewis whose music still sounds as wild and exciting as it must have done in 1958. By this time, he was already on the third of his seven marriages. Wife No.3 was his 13-year old cousin and when the couple arrived in Britain that year, the whole country was outraged. The first date of his UK tour was at the Kilburn State which was at the end of my road. I remember my mum telling me that the place was besieged by demonstrators and Jerry Lee’s career never recovered. What was okay in Louisiana was clearly not okay in devoutly Catholic Kilburn. But because he made records like this, I’m one former Kilburn resident who’d forgive him almost anything.