RIP 66
26 DECEMBER 2004
FIREMAN
FLAME
SNUFFED
"Rockin' My Life Away," by the late, great Mack Vickery, divulged to me (TPA) at one of JERRY LEE LEWIS's,
Nesbit, MS ranch, birthday parties,
in answer to my questioning of the significance of the seemingly random set of numbers with which JLL introduces his anthem:Well, Hoss, i used to play touch football with elvis at graceland, and it's a quarterback play we used to run!
i said,oh...
and smiled!
JUNE 8, 1938
and somewhere inbetween
he wrote the most
carnivorous,
pussy-worshipping
ditty of
all time:
DECEMBER 21, 2004
MACK
AND
THE KILLER
Vickery and Jerry Lee Lewis were kindred spirits in Mack's early days.
The Killer cut many of his songs from ballads like Honky Tonk Wine, Ivory Tears, I Sure Miss Those Good Old Times and That Old Bourbon Street Church to storming rockers Meat Man and Rockin' My Life Away, both of which have remained constants in Jerry Lee's live shows.
Mack was present at legendary 1973 Southern Roots session that Jerry Lee cut using just southern musicians, southern songs and plenty of southern whiskey.
Jerry Lee has an absolute ball with Meat Man - no one on earth was better placed or prepared to shout out the bragging innuendoes of his sexual prowess.
Vickery or Jerry were not talking about animals and butchers.
It was at this session that Jerry Lee also cut That Old Bourbon Street Church - an unusual song for Mack, but again the chemistry between writer and interpreter is spot on, with Jerry Lee delivering a soul-drenched take.
Equally as good was his biographical rocker Rockin' My Life Away.
