After much debate on on Oct. 8, 1957, Jerry Lee Lewis poured his divided soul into recording “Great Balls of Fire” at Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. The song was released on November 11 of that year, and it went on to enter the top ten on the U.S. country, pop, and R&B charts, as well as number one on the U.K. pop charts.
A “Blasphemous” Song?
But Lewis initially refused to record the song. Lewis grew up in the Assemblies of God church and had attended Southwest Bible College in Texas before getting expelled for playing rock and roll music.
Lewis was tortured about whether or not to record this song. Many in the church considered the southern expression “Great Balls of Fire” to be blasphemous, as it refers to the Holy Spirit appearing as fire.
Argument with Sam Phillips
Before the recording of the song in October 1957, Lewis argued with Sun Studio’s Sam Phillips about whether or not he could bring himself to record the song. Phillips encouraged Lewis, telling him that he could save souls.
Lewis responded, “How can the devil save souls?…I got the devil in me!” The tape was rolling during the argument, so you may hear Lewis and Phillips discussing the song in the clip below:
The argument continued in a dialogue that appears somewhat disjointed. But after awhile, Lewis came around and recorded the song.
After the Recording of “Great Balls of Fire”
Lewis, who is cousins with preacher Jimmy Swaggart, would continue to be tortured by the divide between his upbringing and his rock and roll lifestyle. As recounted in a book and movie about his life, after his rise to fame, audiences deserted him because he married his 13-year-old cousin. Lewis’s career would be resurrected eventually, and he continues to record and perform.
Lewis must have found peace with the blasphemous song, which he continued to perform. But he could not have predicted in 1957 that he would become so associated with the phrase “Great Balls of Fire.” It would become the title for his biography and the movie about his life, starring Dennis Quaid in an interesting, over-the-top performance.
What do you think of the song and the movie “Great Balls of Fire”? Leave a comment.
Ryan Adams has released the first video for his upcoming album Ashes and Fire (Oct. 11) with the song, “Invisible Riverside.” On the CD he plays the song with a band, but you might also run across a raw version with just an acoustic guitar.
The song is a plea to a lover not to leave:
So don’t let go, don’t change your mind; If the stars fall into the oceanside, Someone pull the ribbons from my eyes, Free my soul, Let it roll away On an invisible riverside.
A previous post featured “Lucky Now” from the upcoming album. I liked that song too, so I am looking forward to the new album.
Yesterday on Fox News, Hank Williams Jr. got in some trouble for apparently comparing Pres. Barack Obama to Hitler, resulting in ESPN pulling his opening montage for Monday Night Football (“Are You Ready for Some Football!?”). To be fair, he actually said that Pres. Obama and House Speaker John Boehner getting together would be “like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu.” So even though he showed great disdain for the president in the rest of the conversation, his controversial comment was more about the divide between the Democrats and Republicans. Still, he should have known that comparisons to Hitler are likely to cause problems. I cannot wait to see the “Downfall” video someone makes from this event.
Williams’s comment that provoked the most humor, though, is when he called the president and the vice-president “The Three Stooges.” So, to help Mr. Williams out with his math, today we present “3 is a Magic Number” from Schoolhouse Rock:
Schoolhouse Rock was a series of short animated musical segments that gave me a short burst of education on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. The series originally ran from 1973-1985, but the series was revived in the 1990s. The ABC series covered a range of categories, including Grammar Rock, Multiplication Rock, History Rock, and Science Rock. Several specific videos are forever etched in my memory, including “Conjunction Junction” and “How a Bill Becomes a Law.” But perhaps the one song that has had a significant life of its own among rock artists is “3 is a Magic Number.”
Several of the songs have been recorded by rock artists, including on this compilation CD. But “3 is a Magic Number” seems to be the one that works best outside the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons, perhaps because it is a great song and it works as an independent song about family and love. On the other hand, “Conjunction Junction” cannot be about anything besides conjunctions. “3 is a Magic Number” has been performed by Jeff Buckley, Blind Melon, the Jonas Brothers, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Jack Johnson, and De La Soul.
Now if we could just add Hank Williams Jr. to the list. “Are you ready for some math?”
What is your favorite Schoolhouse Rock song? Who would you like to hear sing it?
[Oct. 6, 2011 Update: Today ESPN announced that Hank Williams Jr. will no longer appear on Monday Night Football. Williams claims that he was the one who decided to part ways.]
Near the end of Thomas Wolfe‘s short story “One of the Girls in Our Party,” Wolfe writes of summer’s end, “flaming maples,” and “frosty stars” — “and of words unspoken and the quiet heart, and nights of the old October that must come again, must come again, while we are waiting, waiting, waiting in the darkness for all our friends and brothers who will not return.”
Even out of the context of the story, which like much of Wolfe’s writing tends more toward poetry than narrative, the repeating lines about how October “must come again” reminds us that winter is approaching and there is nothing we can do to slow down time.
“3rd of October”
By contrast, Matthew Ryan‘s song about today, “3rd of October” off of East Autumn Grin (2000), does not mention October outside the title. But it still evokes an October emptiness as in Wolfe’s words.
I have previously written about how much I like Matthew Ryan’s music. I particularly love his louder songs off of albums like his debut album May Day (1997), the follow-up East Autumn Grin, and his recent album Boxers.
There is no clue in “3rd of October” about the link between the lyrics and the title date. The song is about a troubled relationship or the end of a relationship as the singer wails, “I don’t want to lose you.” But he also notes, “I don’t want to be pummelled by the truth / I can’t hold you now.”
Maybe the song is about one of Ryan’s relationships that ended on October 3, or maybe the date reflects the autumn of a relationship heading for winter. Either way, it remains one of my favorite songs, for the power of both its music and its lyrics.
Disintegration, I don’t understand; Disintegration of the morals, Disintegration of the heart, Disintegration of common sense; Now I’m broken, But ain’t everyone broken?
Like Wolfe’s use of repetition about October coming again, Ryan similarly repeats lines in his song. But while the aching in Wolfe’s words is of a quiet heart, Matthew Ryan’s pain in “3rd of October” roars.
Matthew Ryan’s Explanation
Several years after this post was originally published, Matthew Ryan posted a link to this article on his Facebook page. We were honored he had read this post. But we were even more excited that he was still writing something beautiful about the wonderful album.
In his post, which you should read in its entirety, Ryan explains the important issues he was tackling on the album: “It struck me that in the things that we see between nations and races and classes, we can also see within the intimacies of ourselves in love and hate.” The album is about the challenge to love “despite the darker parts.”
As for the date in “3d of October,” Ryan explains, “I’m not even sure what the date was that brought the revelations that brought that song was, but it felt like The 3rd of October.”
Additionally, he confirms that the date is key as being a transition between summer and autumn: “The beginning of the end leads to Spring. Know what I’m saying? That’s why I love autumn. Because it dares you not to. And it’s so vivid in its march towards winter.”
I especially like his comment about the dare. It reminds me that as bad days or anniversaries of sad dates roll around, we must still choose to accept the dare to continue to live and love life.
For whatever reason Ryan’s song is titled after the start of October, this month is the perfect time to listen to this excellent song (and curl up with a good book by Thomas Wolfe). May you have a good October 3rd, and may you accept the dare to love autumn in the face of the oncoming winter.
Leave your two cents in the comments. (This post was updated in September 2016.)
Reports about Boeing’s Dreamliner jet airplanes reminded me of the Steve Miller Band song “Jet Airliner,” and the author of the song, Paul Pena, who died on October 1 in 2005. Pena had one of the most unique music careers in the last fifty years. If you do not recognize his name, it is because of his bad luck in the music industry. But if you know of him, that was the result of chance too.
Paul Pena and His Unreleased Record
Pena was born on January 26, 1950 with congenital glaucoma and was completely blind by the time he was twenty. He started a music career in the late 1960s. After opening for Jerry Garcia and other musicians, he recorded a self-titled album in 1972. Then, he followed it up with New Train in 1973.
The latter album’s style ranged from R&B to folk to Jimi Hendrix-style blues, and it included a future hit song. But the album was not released. The owner of the record company refused to release the album after a dispute with Pena and his manager. Due to contractual obligations, Pena could not record elsewhere either, so his career stalled.
Steve Miller, however, heard the unreleased New Train and with the Steve Miller Band recorded a hit version of Pena’s song “Jet Airliner” on 1977’s Book of Dreams. The royalties from the Steve Miller Band recording helped Pena, who later suspended his music career to care for his wife, who was suffering from kidney failure.
New Train Is Finally Released
New Train sat in the vaults for almost three decades until it was finally released in 2000. Although not a top-40 hit, the album garnered Pena some attention.
I first heard of Pena when an alternative rock station played songs from the “new” album around this time. Pena toured a bit to support the album, even appearing on Late Night with Conan O’Brien to play his version of “Jet Airliner.”
The first Pena recording I heard was another song from New Train, “Gonna Move.” I loved the song immediately, as did a number of artists.
Several musicians recorded cover versions of “Gonna Move,” including Susan Tedeschi and the Derek Trucks Band.
Pena’s Discovery of Tuvan Throat Singing
In the time between the recording of New Train in the 1970s and the album’s release in 2000, though, Pena was not idle. In the 1980s, while listening to shortwave radio, he accidentally discovered Tuvan throat singing, which is a unique vibrating style of singing used by the Tuva people in southern Siberia.
Fascinated by the discovery, Pena began to study the language and the singing style, eventually traveling to Tuva to perform there. Filmmakers covered Pena’s new singing style and his trip to Tuva in the 1999 documentary Genghis Blues.
The movie was nominated for an Oscar at the 2000 Academy Awards and won the 1999 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. The soundtrack to the film features more music from Pena. Below is the trailer for the movie.
Rediscovery and Death
So in 2000, with the Genghis Blues Oscar nomination and the long-awaited release of New Train, one might think that the story leads to a successful and happy career for Pena. But around this time, Pena was diagnosed with pancreatitis, and he died on October 1, 2005.
His death was a sad ending to a story that waited so long for a happy resolution. It reminded one of the lyrics to “Jet Airliner”: “You know you got to go through hell / Before you get to heaven.”
But few artists get the chance to leave us with such great songs as “Gonna Move” and “Jet Airliner.” On top of that, he also introduced us to another culture’s music legacy.
It is sometimes frustrating and funny how fate works. But it was his work on Tuvan throat singing which led to the 1999 documentary. And that led to the reason why New Train was finally released in 2000.
The release of New Train, then, was the only reason I and many others were introduced to Pena’s music. And all of that came about because of a strange accident.
One night in 1984, a blind man who had a lot of bad luck thought his career was over. After searching for a Korean language lesson on shortwave radio, he accidentally found a new music that intrigued him on Radio Moscow. Had Pena done something else that night or turned the radio dial another way, his life and legacy might have turned out differently. There would have been no Tuvan throat singing, and then no movie. And then New Train might never have been released.
That all would have been a real tragedy.
I found out, not too long, Their rules wouldn’t let me sing my song; I knew in order to be a man, I had to pull up roots once again and move on in this land.
I’m gonna move away from here, You can find me if you want to go there; I’m gonna move away from here, You can find me if you want to go there.
— Paul Pena, “Gonna Move”
What do you think of Paul Pena’s music? Leave a comment.
he plays the song with a band, but you might also run across a raw version with just an acoustic guitar.
. But “3 is a Magic Number” seems to be the one that works best outside the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons, perhaps because it is a great song and it works as an independent song about family and love. On the other hand, “Conjunction Junction” cannot be about anything besides 
album in 1972. Then, he followed it up with 
in 1973.