1957
IT'LL BE ME * JERRY LEE LEWIS * LONDON 8457 * UK
The B side of Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On Jerry Lee Lewis' first British release - his second in the USA - originally issued on Sun 267. The song reveals his strength of mind and determination; having him inserting himself (metaphorically) in the most unlikely places to grab the intention of the object of his desire. The grammar of both titles on this record show an aspect, small but not insignificant, of the problematising and threatening nature that Rock n' Roll would have presented to the bourgeoisie, pedantic academics and those believing in the authority of Christianity. The youth, who were the majority of the consumers of this music, would have been clocking the spelling and use of 'slang' (everyday words) on these discs and being, invariably, pragmatic identifying with, and adopting those grammatical models. This consumption of a popular and desirable 'official' alternative to grammar, one of the fundamental institutions of control in literary society, would not only act as a corrosive agent on hierarchical institutions of power - academia, the law, parliament, the church, etc., and be a form of unmonitored self empowerment to those who are historically, subtly and perpetually harnessed by the unspoken rules that grammar enforces, but also offer a form of exit. Of course it doesn't go unnoticed that Jerry Lee Lewis' is a practising Christian himself, which in the light of the quote by Friedrich Nietzsche "I suspect that we have not yet gotten rid of God, since we still have faith in grammar." makes his contribution to grammar's decay, however small or unintentional not without irony.
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