Jim McBride
Great balls of fire! - Vampate di fuoco

With the new year, I resume the meticulous work of analyzing films from some years ago, taking inspiration from my writing posted on Debaser last month. Specifically, in relation to my mention of the photo of Maneskin with Mick Jagger, it wasn't the dissenting comments on the importance of the photo itself that stimulated me (debate is always legitimate). What actually aroused my perplexity, besides inducing a healthy laugh, was the general objection that, in the end, rock is a cooked and dead music. My amusement stems from the fact that, since its inception, there has always been someone confident of the validity of this theory. It's unfortunate that, punctually, they were contradicted and we still talk today about the longevity of this (albeit hybrid) musical style.

Is there possibly a reason for all this? Well, just to get a clearer idea in this regard, one might dig up "Great Balls of Fire! - Vampate di fuoco". Made by Jim McBride in 1989 and strangely undervalued at the time, the film is a cheeky biopic about a rocker still alive like Jerry Lee Lewis. Perhaps here in Italy, when thinking of 1950s rock and roll, people more easily remember Elvis Presley or Chuck Berry (whom the Beatles and Rolling Stones were inspired by at the start). Jerry Lee Lewis is less easy to recall hereabouts, yet someone who knows his stuff like Keith Richards defined him as "the first true delinquent of rock and roll." And given such imprimatur, revisiting his story in the distant 1950s can be useful for understanding a certain quintessence of such a tenacious musical genre as rock.

In the film, Jerry is portrayed by an effervescent Dennis Quaid (who may seem a bit over the top, but the original character was anything but restrained). Possessing a brilliant pianistic technique born from a mix of styles like rhythm and blues, rockabilly, boogie-woogie, Jerry aims high, as he intends to get signed by Sun Records (the same that discovered and launched Elvis Presley). And the contract is signed, Jerry's tracks receive their well-deserved success. In fact, since Elvis is about to leave for military service in 1958, Lewis could become the new king of rock and roll. But fate can be mocking, and at that very moment, our hero falls in love, reciprocated, with his cousin Myra Gale Brown (well rendered by a virginal and mischievous Winona Ryder). Moreover, she is only 13 years old but this does not hinder the two from intending to marry. And negative consequences won't take long to arrive: it won't so much be the objections of her parents, but the scandal caused in Great Britain where Jerry Lee Lewis will go on tour. Consequently, not only will the planned English concerts be canceled, but it will result in damage to his image that will affect record sales even in the USA and the decline of his own celebrity.

In short, these are the facts represented in the film. What stands out undoubtedly is Lewis's over-the-top character. Consistent and aware of his actions, he does not back down from his lifestyle and if someone advises him to admit his mistake, he remains undeterred on his path. In short, he doesn't compromise for vile money or dazzling success. He doesn't let himself be toned down to a reassuring pop phenomenon as happened to Elvis "the Pelvis": not for nothing was he defined as "the first true delinquent of rock and roll". One might say he was a man of principle, even if marrying a thirteen-year-old is not something I consider exactly commendable and irreproachable...

Certainly not a person to mince words. Among the most enjoyable scenes of the film are those in which, returning crestfallen from England, he tells the entire nation to get lost ("England, you can kiss my ass!"). And, in the face of the invitation from his preacher cousin (played by Alec Baldwin, of all people) who urges him to lead a Christian life, he retorts that "if I have to go to hell, I'll go there playing my piano". And what about his concert where he sets fire to the piano itself, leaving even Chuck Berry stunned? A true forerunner of many subsequent rock heroes (Jimi Hendrix would set his guitar on fire and certain acrobatics on the piano keyboard by Elton John were not so novel after all...).

But it's not just about giving the right emphasis to a rock and roll pioneer like Lewis and his lifestyle. What, in my opinion, emerges even more from this film is precisely the nature of rock music itself. When Jerry, still an anonymous boy, goes to a notorious venue in the African American neighborhood (due to racial segregation times) to listen to that certain music loved and performed by people of color, one grasps the original peculiarity of what would later become rock. That is, its exquisitely African American, tribal roots, pertaining to that dark, somber, and sensual side which, no matter how much it is kicked out the door, sneaks in again through the window. An unsinkable way of being, yet another confirmation of art (music in this case) as a vector of the Dionysian element which, as Nietzsche reminded us, upends everything that is Apollonian. And so it makes me think that even today, nothing is more Dionysian than rock. If for someone it is still the music of Satan and therefore they don't listen to it, they don't know what they're missing.