The Rich Hall BBC Four Specials Collection | show | 2008 | Official Clip - video Dailymotion

A collection of ten 90-minute specials presented by Rich Hall on BBC Four, looking at US cultural history told through t | dHNfeGlVb0dLalp4YVU

Transcript

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.