A collection of ten 90-minute specials presented by Rich Hall on BBC Four, looking at US cultural history told through t | dHNfeGlVb0dLalp4YVU
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00:00In early 1956, Sam Phillips sold Elvis Presley's contract to RCA Victor for $35,000,
00:07coming up slightly short of his million-dollar profit projection.
00:10Now he needed a new, greasy, chicken-fried, redneck hick to take Elvis' place.
00:16And this time, it wouldn't be so pretty.
00:23Jerry Lee Lewis was a redneck in every sense of the word.
00:27He took hell-raising to a new level.
00:29If people thought Elvis was a bad influence on America's youth,
00:32they had no idea what Jerry Lee was about to stir up.
00:37Somebody said to Elvis, they said,
00:40rock and roll is corrupting America's youth.
00:43Elvis, you're bad.
00:45You're wearing black leather jackets and greased back hair.
00:48Elvis said, I may be corrupting America's youth,
00:51but Jerry Lee the killer is marrying them.
00:58See, Jerry Lee Lewis was to music what William Faulkner was to literature
01:01and what Tennessee Williams was to playwriting.
01:03That is to say, indomitable.
01:06Elvis Presley was a nice boy, but Jerry Lee Lewis was a shit-kicker.
01:10He owns the two biggest-selling rock and roll records of all times
01:13and he always claimed that he could out-drink, out-fuck, out-play
01:15and out-ingest more drugs than any other human being on the face of the planet.
01:18He shot his bass player with a .357 Magnum.
01:21One of his wives ended up floating face-down in the swimming pool in the backyard
01:24and he was thrown out of England for marrying his 13-year-old cousin.
01:26And on top of all this, Jerry Lee Lewis claims to be a deeply religious man.
01:31He's always said that when he dies, he's going straight to hell
01:33and that is probably why Jerry Lee Lewis is not yet dead.