An album of Jerry Lee Lewis doing duets Neil Young, Mick Jagger, Willie Nelson and Bruce Springsteen sounds like a good idea on one level—it’ll sure get attention and maybe sell—but on another, it sounds horrible. As contributor Michael Hurtt said when he heard about the project, “Jerry Lee doesn’t need help from anybody.” In ways, Last Man Standing is pretty great. Lewis’ vocals are as full of piss and vinegar as ever, and he pounds his piano as if that’s the thing that’ll keep him alive. Some fills and parts feel a bit chopped or truncated, but they never feel like gestures.

 

Still, Lewis is not someone you’d expect would share the spotlight easily, and that’s the case here. It’s not that he doesn’t want to, but he is sui generis, and his phrasing is so personal he and his duet partners simply co-exist instead of gelling in a meaningful way. Those who contributed instrumental parts fared better, but they had to get with the Jerry Lee Lewis program or they’d be left behind. Jimmy Page restructures the signature guitar riff of Led Zep’s “Rock and Roll” as Lewis moved the beat and feel to one closer to his heart. The results are pretty rockin’, but Page is accorded little space and if you didn’t read the liner notes, you’d never know it was him on guitar.

 

Lewis’ most successful pairing is with Robbie Robertson on a cover of the Band’s “Twilight.” As a player, Robertson’s accustomed to making his presence known with a fill here and discreet touch there, and because the song suits Lewis’ autumnal time of life more than his musical profile, he doesn’t take it over or swagger through it. Hearing him be the increasingly fragile man he is today in the midst of the album makes the song all the more powerful.