Tag: Rockin’ My Life Away

Jerry Lee wasn’t called The King or The King of Pop. No, his nickname was …The Killer. He took no prisoners, and his fifties live performances are among the best. He was the original punk and did exactly what he wanted. He had that rock and roll spirit like no other. He wasn’t universally loved because of it, but that is the point!

This song came from an interesting period in the career of Jerry Lee Lewis. By 1979, Lewis had already been through the wild Sun Records years, country chart success in the late 1960s and 1970s, and years of heavy touring. That kept him working even when trends changed around him. Elektra Records signed him during that time and released the self-titled album Jerry Lee Lewis in 1979. The record tried to bring Lewis back toward a tougher rock and roll sound while still keeping his country roots. This song fit him perfectly.

The song was written by Mack Vickery. The recording sessions happened in Los Angeles in 1979 with producer Bones Howe. Lewis was backed by a great group of session players that included Elvis’s ex-guitarist James Burton (love the solo in this one by Burton) and drummer Hal Blaine. Instead of smoothing out Lewis’s sound too much, the sessions kept things driving. Lewis attacked the piano hard, and his vocal sounded rough in that Jerry Lee way.

The arrangements mixed rockabilly, country, and straight rock and roll without trying to modernize him too much for the late 1970s. That was probably one reason the track still holds up well today. It didn’t have that late-seventies smooth professional sound that was big in LA. Although the album was not a massive commercial success, it brought a lot of attention, and this song became one of the songs people remembered most from the record.

The song sounds like Lewis singing about himself. Years later, when another genre discovered Jerry Lee Lewis through documentaries and the Great Balls of Fire! movie, this song found a new audience. The song peaked at #18 on the Billboard Country Charts and #34 in Canada in 1979.

Rockin’ My Life Away

Fourteen ninety-five, and nineteen fourty-eight
I threw a rockabilly party on my last birthday
But it was good, rockin’ my life away
I just movin’ and groovin’
And gettin’ it both night and day
I got a gal called Milly, she’s chilly pepper hot
She know how to roll, and she know how to rock
I’m rockin’, rockin’ my life away
Oh, and a boogie woogie baby
I like to do it both night and day
Ah ah oh

Steamliner, fleetliner, military brass
She knows the general’s daughter but the killer’s got brass
I’m rockin’, rockin’ my life away, ah ah
I’m just movin’ and a-groovin’
And rockin’ both night and day

And I’m rockin’, rockin’ my life away
I’m just movin’ and groovin’
And boogyin’ both night and day
I’m just rockin’, rockin’ my life away
I’m just rockin’ and rollin’ my life away
My name’s Jerry Lee Lewis and I’m damn sure here to stay