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Welcome to Sound Projections
I'm your host Kofi Natambu. This online magazine features the very best in contemporary creative music in this creative timezone NOW (the one we're living in) as well as that of the historical past. The purpose is to openly explore, examine, investigate, reflect on, studiously critique, and take opulent pleasure in the sonic and aural dimensions of human experience known and identified to us as MUSIC. I'm also interested in critically examining the wide range of ideas and opinions that govern our commodified notions of the production, consumption, marketing, and commercial exchange of organized sound(s) which largely define and thereby (over)determine our present relationships to music in the general political economy and culture.
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Saturday, August 3, 2019
Little Richard (b. December 5, 1932): Legendary, iconic, and innovative musician, composer, singer, songwriter, arranger, ensemble leader, producer and teacher.
SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
SUMMER, 2019
VOLUME SEVEN NUMBER TWO
HOLLAND DOZIER HOLLAND
(L-R: Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland, Brian Holland)
One of the original rock & roll greats, Little Richard
merged the fire of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano
and wailing with gleeful abandon. While numerous other R&B greats of
the early '50s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them
matched the sheer electricity of Richard's
vocals. With his bullet-speed deliveries, ecstatic trills, and the
overjoyed force of personality in his singing, he was crucial in upping
the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different,
guise of rock & roll. Although he was only a hitmaker for a couple
of years or so, his influence upon both the soul and British Invasion
stars of the 1960s was vast, and his early hits remain core classics of
the rock repertoire.
Heavily steeped in gospel music while growing up in Georgia, when Little Richard began recording in the early '50s he played unexceptional jump blues/R&B that owed a lot to his early inspirations Billy Wright and Roy Brown. In 1955, at Lloyd Price's suggestion, Richard
sent a demo tape to Specialty Records, who were impressed enough to
sign him and arrange a session for him in New Orleans. That session,
however, didn't get off the ground until Richard
began fooling around with a slightly obscene ditty during a break. With
slightly cleaned-up lyrics, "Tutti Frutti" was the record that gave
birth to Little Richard
as he is now known -- the gleeful "woo!"s, the furious piano playing,
the sax-driven, pedal-to-the-metal rhythm section. It was also his first
hit, although, ridiculous as it now seems, Pat Boone's cover version outdid Richard's on the hit parade.
Boone would also try to cover Richard's
next hit, "Long Tall Sally," but by that time it was evident that
audiences black and white much preferred the real deal. In 1956 and
1957, Richard
reeled off a string of classic hits -- "Long Tall Sally," "Slippin' and
"Slidin'," "Jenny, Jenny," "Keep a Knockin'," "Good Golly, Miss Molly,"
"The Girl Can't Help It" -- that remain the foundation of his fame.
While Richard's
inimitable mania was the key to his best records, he also owed a lot of
his success to the gutsy playing of ace New Orleans session players
like Lee Allen (tenor sax), Alvin Tyler (baritone sax), and especially Earl Palmer (drummer), who usually accompanied the singer in both New Orleans and Los Angeles studios. Richard's
unforgettable appearances in early rock & roll movies, especially
The Girl Can't Help It, also did a lot to spread the rock & roll
gospel to the masses.
Richard
was at the height of his commercial and artistic powers when he
suddenly quit the business during an Australian tour in late 1957,
enrolling in a Bible college in Alabama shortly after returning to the
States. Richard
had actually been feeling the call of religion for a while before his
announcement, but it was nonetheless a shock to both his fans and the
music industry. Specialty drew on unreleased sessions for a few more
hard-rocking singles in the late '50s, but Richard
virtually vanished from the public eye for a few years. When he did
return to recording, it was as a gospel singer, cutting a few
little-heard sacred sides for End, Mercury, and Atlantic in the early
'60s.
By 1962, though, Richard
had returned to rock & roll, touring Britain to an enthusiastic
reception. Among the groups that supported him on those jaunts were the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, whose vocals (Paul McCartney's especially) took a lot of inspiration from Richard's. In 1964, the Beatles cut a knockout version of "Long Tall Sally," with McCartney on lead, that may have even outdone the original. It's been speculated that the success of the Beatles, and other British Invaders who idolized Richard,
finally prompted the singer into making a full-scale comeback as an
unapologetic rock & roller. Hooking up with Specialty once again, he
had a small hit in 1964 with "Bama Lama Bama Loo." These and other
sides were respectable efforts in the mold of his classic '50s sides,
but tastes had changed too much for Richard
to climb the charts again. He spent the rest of the '60s in a continual
unsuccessful comeback, recording for Vee-Jay (accompanied on some sides
by Jimi Hendrix, who was briefly in Richard's band), OKeh, and Modern (for whom he even tried recording in Memphis with Stax session musicians).
It was the rock & roll revival of the late '60s and early '70s, though, that really saved Richard's
career, enabling him to play on the nostalgia circuit with great
success (though he had a small hit, "Freedom Blues," in 1970). He had
always been a flamboyant performer, brandishing a six-inch pompadour and
mascara, and constant entertaining appearances on television talk shows
seemed to ensure his continuing success as a living legend. Yet by the
late '70s, he'd returned to the church again. Somewhat predictably, he
eased back into rock and show business by the mid-'80s. Since then, he's
maintained his profile with a role in Down and Out in Beverly Hills
(the movie's soundtrack also returned him to the charts, this time with
"Great Gosh a-Mighty") and guest appearances on soundtracks,
compilations, and children's rock records. At this point it's safe to
assume that he never will get that much-hungered-for comeback hit, but
he remains one of rock & roll's most colorful icons, still capable
of turning on the charm and charisma in his infrequent appearances in
the limelight. In 2017, his debut album, 1957's Here's Little Richard, was given a long-overdue reissue, accompanied by a bonus disc of demos and alternate takes.
The flamboyant icon that blazed a trail for rock and roll.
Little Richard exploded the Fifties music scene with his thunderous
piano and electrifying stage presence, setting the tone for the future
of rock and roll. His unrestrained performances and visceral rhythms
were unlike anything audiences had ever seen. He claims to be the “architect of rock and
roll,” and history would seem to bear out Little Richard’s boast. More
than any other performer—save, perhaps, Elvis Presley—Little Richard
blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the foundation for rock and roll
with his explosive music and charismatic persona.
On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His frantically
charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such classics as
“Tutti Frutti,” “Long Tall Sally” and “Good Golly, Miss Molly” defined
the dynamic sound of rock and roll. Onstage, he’d deliver wild,
piano-pounding epistles while costumed in sequined vests, mascara,
lipstick and a pompadour that shook with every thundering beat. His road
band, the Upsetters, has been credited by James Brown and others with
first putting the funk in the rock and roll beat. In a 1990 interview, Little Richard offered this explanation for the
birth of rock: “I would say that boogie-woogie and rhythm & blues
mixed is rock and roll.” His frenzied approach to music was fueled by a
genuinely outrageous personality. He was born Richard Penniman during
the Depression in Macon, Georgia, one of twelve children who grew up in
poverty in the Deep South. As a youngster, he soaked up music—blues,
country, gospel, vaudeville—which was part of the fabric of life in the
black community. He learned to play piano from an equally flamboyant
character named Esquerita (who also recorded rock and roll early on for
Capitol Records). Little Richard first recorded in a bluesy vein in 1951, but it was
his tenure at Specialty Records beginning in 1955 that made his mark as a
rock and roll architect. Working at Cosimo Matassa’s now-legendary
J&M Studio in New Orleans with producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell and
some of the Crescent City’s finest musicians, Little Richard laid down a
stunning succession of rock and roll sides over the next several years,
including “Rip It Up,” “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” “Lucille,” “Jenny,
Jenny” and “Keep a Knockin’,” in addition to the songs previously
mentioned. He also appeared in rock and roll-themed movies such as Don’t Knock the Rock and The Girl Can’t Help It (both from 1956). The bubble burst in late 1957 when, succumbing to the rigors of fame
and personal conflicts engendered by his religious upbringing, Little
Richard abruptly abandoned rock and roll to enroll in Bible college.
However, he was lured back by the British Invasion in 1964, regaining
his popularity as a concert performer and a living embodiment of the
music’s roots in the Fifties. He has launched successful comebacks in
every decade since and remains an active performer and inimitable
reminder of the joyful frenzy that galvanized rock and roll into being
more than forty years ago. Little Richard (vocals, piano; born December 5, 1932)
Career spaning six decades influenced R&B, rock and
Hip Hop; Charismatic songwriting and performance style inspired The
Beatles, Elvis and David Bowie, among others
Little Richard, the originator, the emancipator, the architect
of rock and roll exploded into the American consciousness in the
mid-50's and single handedly laid the foundation and established the
rules for a new musical form: rock and roll.
Born and raised in Macon, Georgia, the third of twelve children, Richard
Wayne Penniman began singing in his local church choir while still a
youngster. He signed with RCA Records in 1951 after winning a talent
contest and released two singles, neither receiving prominent notice.
Returning to his job washing dishes in a Greyhound bus station, Richard
sent a demo to Specialty Records, a fledgling Los Angeles label. The
song, "Tutti Frutti," was his catalyst for success and led to an
uninterrupted run of smash hits: "Tutti Frutti," "Long Tall Sally," "Rip
It Up," "Lucille," "Jenny, Jenny," "Keep A Knockin"', "Good Golly, Miss
Molly," "Ooh, My Soul." By 1968, Little Richard had sold over 32
million records internationally.
When, at the peak of his career, Little Richard left the industry
spotlight for a self-imposed hiatus, legions of fans worldwide
confidently awaited his return. In 1985, he charged back with rave
reviews for a memorable appearance in the box-office smash Down and Out in Beverly Hills, which also launched his hit single, "Great Gosh A Mighty."
In 1986, Richard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and
began a non-stop series of performances and appearances, including live
concerts worldwide, recording projects, television, film, soundtracks
and commercials. His performance of a rock 'n' roll version of the
children's tune "Itsy Bitsy Spider" was a standout track on the
star-studded Disney Records' benefit album, For Our Children. The record went gold and earned millions for the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Richard followed up with the Disney album Shake It All About,
featuring children's songs redone in his own inimitable style. Thanks
to these projects and guest starring appearances on such children's
shows as "Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme" and "Sesame Street," Richard
garnered a new generation of young fans.
Richard was honored with a star on the world-renowned Hollywood Walk of
Fame in 1990 and soon afterward returned to his hometown of Macon for
the unveiling of "Little Richard Penniman Boulevard." In 1993, he
received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences and the following year accepted the Rhythm
& Blues Foundation's prestigious Pioneer Award. In 1997, in
recognition of his contributions to music history, Richard was presented
with the American Music Award's distinguished Award of Merit. Most
recently, he was inducted into the NAACP Image Awards' Hall of Fame.
Musical legends Jimi Hendrix and Billy Preston toured as members of
Richard's band early in their careers, and entertainers ranging from The
Beatles and Elvis Presley to David Bowie and Keith Richards
have cited Richard as their inspiration. Contemporary performers
continue to pay homage to this trailblazing performer who contributed so
much to music history.
After six decades as a performer, Little Richard continues to be in
demand for live concert dates and guest star spots for film and
television projects-still delighting fans worldwide with his
one-of-a-kind blend of music, humor and boundless energy.
What is there left to say about Little Richard
that he hasn’t already said better himself? “I am the innovator! I am
the originator! I am the emancipator! I am the architect! I’m rock &
roll!” he once exclaimed to an interviewer, before adding, “Now I am
not saying that to be vain or conceited.” No, Little Richard – born Richard Penniman in Macon, Georgia, in 1932
– was just being honest. His influence is incalculable. The Beatles
learned their ecstatic falsetto shouts from him; James Brown said he was
“the first to put the funk in rhythm.” In his yearbook, Bob Dylan
listed that his ambition was “to join Little Richard,” and nine-year-old
David Bowie bought a saxophone hoping to do that as well. Bowie’s glam
period, the prancing and strutting of Mick Jagger, the psychosexual
convolutions of Prince – all are hard to imagine without Richard’s
androgynous flamboyance leading the way. Little Richard was the freakiest of all the great rock & rollers –
his sexual expressiveness was untempered by Elvis Presley’s down-home
charm, Chuck Berry’s sly wit, Jerry Lee Lewis’s wolfish malevolence,
Buddy Holly’s pop sensibility or Fats Domino’s avuncular geniality.
Richard’s feral woo conflated the spiritual and the orgasmic in a
way that changed the way musicians communicated desire forever. As Jimi
Hendrix put it, ‘I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does
with his voice.”
“Tutti-Frutti” (1955)
A-wop-bom-a-loo-mop-a-lomp-bom-bom. Little Richard wrote
the greatest (maybe the first) rock & roll lyric to describe a drum
fill he wanted. Or – depends when you asked him – it was how he talked
back to his boss as a dishwasher at the Macon Greyhound station. Hearing
a hit in the frustrated number Richard pounded out during a break in an
unproductive recording session, producer Bumps Blackwell hired
songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to temper the original lyrics' lip-smacking
celebration of "good booty" and helpful butt-sex instructions ("If it
don't fit, don't force it/You can grease it, make it easy").
"Tutti-Frutti" may have been modified from "explicit" to "suggestive,"
but Richard's lustfully tumbling onomatopoeia still voiced a carnal glee
far beyond the reach of any dictionary words – when he lands on the
last two syllables you can practically hear the bodies slapping against
each other.
“Long Tall Sally (The Thing)” (1956)
"Tutti Frutti" specialized in lascivious nonsense but its sequel
"Long Tall Sally" barrelled forth on lusty innuendo. Little Richard
spots Uncle John sneaking Sally through the alley then claims he's gonna
tattle to Aunt Mary but the way he sings the song, it's clear he's on
the side of the revelers, not the scold. What the two are doing isn't
clear, but the subterfuge and Sally's bald head suggests something
illicit, even freaky: It's not a place where good guys go. This wildness
earned Richard his first R&B chart-topper – and first Top 10 pop
hit – and it proved irresistible for generations of rockers, chief among
them the Beatles. John Lennon said, "When I heard it, it was so great I
couldn't speak," and Paul McCartney studied it, turning it into a
showcase during early performances for the Fab Four.
“Slippin’ and Slidin'” (1956)
"Another cat put 'Slippin' and Slidin'' out before I did, Eddie Bo, and it was a hit by him in New Orleans," Richard told Rolling Stone
in 1970. "They put mine out the following week, and it killed him,
because he didn't have the rhythm, you see, he didn't have that thing I
have." Comparing this rock & roll fireball to Bo's cool New Orleans
R&B shuffle (titled "I'm Wise") lets us identify Richard's peculiar
"thing" – his je ne sais woo. Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry
sideman Johnnie Johnson may have been more melodically ingenious
piano-pounders, but Little Richard's percussive key smashing is what a
Little Richard song requires, taking on the heavy rhythmic lifting so
that master drummer Earl Palmer can get fancy underneath.
“Ready Teddy” (1956)
"Ready, set, go man go." That opening lyric is a starter pistol and
Richard's voice is the blast signaling that the race is on, sending
singer and musicians sprinting past one another toward the end of the
chorus. Each verse is essentially an a cappella shout punctuated by
bursts of percussion that build up to the sexual excitement of the
chorus, making Richard's claim that he's just headed to a sock hop sound
like the kind of lie you tell your parents to get out of the house when
you've got some much less wholesome activities on your agenda. John
Marascalco and Robert Blackwell "brought me the words and I made up the
melody and at the time I didn't have sense enough to claim so much
money, because I really made them hits," Richard told Rolling Stone in 1970. "I didn't get the money, but I still have the freedom."
“Heeby-Jeebies” (1956)
Little Richard's songs epitomized rock & roll's commitment to speed
and, typically, all the optimism, enthusiasm and restlessness that came
along with it. But on this frantic burst of a song (not to be confused
with the Louis Armstrong classic), Richard somehow seemingly sings
faster than the beat, as though his need to accelerate is beyond his
control – fittingly, since he complains about the "jinx" his "bad luck
baby" placed on him. It's no surprise that the rawest and most rocking
of the Sixties soul greats, Otis Redding, who called Richard "my
inspiration" and actually performed with Richard's band, the Upsetters,
got his professional start performing "Heeby-Jeebies" at a talent show.
Otis went on to win it for 15 weeks straight.
“All Around the World” (1956)
Little Richard's definition of "rock & roll" was pretty simple: fast
R&B. "Played uptempo, you call it rock & roll; at a regular
tempo, you call it rhythm & blues." Jumpy, light-bottomed and horn
driven, "All Around the World" stands apart rhythmically from Richard's
more frantically adrenaline-powered hits, but if it's a little slower,
it's no less exuberant and definitely no less rock & roll. "Rock
& roll is here to stay" was a pervasive message by 1956, but "All
Around the World" ups the stakes by insisting that the new sound is a
global phenomenon as well – a point Richard would soon help prove by
touring as far away as Australia in the next few years.
“The Girl Can’t Help It” (1956)
Usually, Little Richard needed no support: He provided enough vocal
power for an entire quartet. "The Girl Can't Help It" is the exception
that proves the rule. On this title tune for the 1956 Jayne Mansfield
movie, Richard indulges in a call-and-response with anonymous support,
shouts that only ratchet up the madness of a two-and-a-half-minute-long
catcall. The beat swings – the roll tips a hat to the fact that it was
originally slotted for Fats Domino – but Richard pushes his vocals into
the red and it's this full-throated wail that lends the record the air
of unbridled sexuality.
“Rip It Up” (1956)
There's an implied violence lying within the title of "Rip It Up,"
Little Richard's second R&B chart-topper. Despite this promise of
mayhem, "Rip It Up" actually contains a little bit of breathing room.
Richard doesn't scream his vocal – the opposite, actually; he floats his
falsetto on the chorus – and the band swings with ease, turning this
into a single that actually grooves. His peers took a different tack
– Elvis Presley's version rocks harder, the Everly Brothers turned it
into a hop – but Little Richard's swing shows his facility with jump
blues, an endearing trait for a rocker who always seemed to operate at
full tilt.
“Send Me Some Lovin'” (1957)
Little Richard's impact on rock & roll is so unmistakable that
his role in the development of soul is sometimes overlooked. "He has
done so much for our music," Sam Cooke said in 1962, and Otis Redding
(as we've seen) was every bit as much of a fan. Comparing this
performance to the versions of "Send Me Some Lovin'" that both soul
greats would cut, in their own distinctive styles, shows the different
directions that Little Richard's influence could lead. You can hear
traces of his caressed consonants and curlicued vowels in Cooke's
velvety smooth delivery, and when he notches up the intensity it's like
he's sketching a blueprint for the style of soulfully raggedy pleading
that Redding would perfect.
“Jenny Jenny” (1957)
Not to slight the dynamic interplay between Lee Allen's tenor sax and
Alvin "Red" Tyler's baritone, but "Jenny Jenny" is a less a song than a
miracle of modern American engineering, a hyperkinetic streamlined
delivery system for the most precious of all postwar commodities: Little
Richard woos. That sound traveled across the ocean to Liverpool.
"I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming
thing, it's like an out-of-body experience," said Paul McCartney, who
was indeed one of the man's best imitators. "You have to leave your
current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it."
“Lucille” (1957)
"Lucille" is pure madness – the drums pound and the horns wail, driving
their refrain into submission. In the hands of a guitarist, this brassy
blare would be called a riff, and that's precisely what resulted when
the song was covered over and over again, by the likes of such heavy
rockers as Status Quo, AC/DC and the Sonics, but it sounded plenty heavy
in the hands of the Beatles, too. Nothing topped the original, though,
and that's all due to Little Richard, who cries like a man possessed
with carnal yearning that, no matter how much he begs and pleads, he
knows will never be fulfilled.
“Keep A-Knockin'” (1957)
John Bonham ripped off Earl Palmer's intro to "Keep A-Knockin'" for Led
Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" – a tacit acknowledgement that this 1957
single is rock & roll. Purportedly an answer song to Smiley
Lewis' laid-back 1955 shuffle "I Hear You Knockin'," "Keep A-Knockin'"
is nothing but noise. After Palmer backs into a hard-driving shuffle,
Little Richard yells for his guest to just go away, and after that, it's
a competition between Richard and his saxophonist to make the loudest
racket. Rock & roll never sounded louder, better or more pure than
this.
“Good Golly, Miss Molly” (1958)
Illustrating T.S. Eliot's maxim that mature artists steal rather than
imitate, Little Richard lifted a catchphrase that a Southern DJ named
Jimmy Pennick used to exclaim for his song title, and nicked Ike
Turner's piano intro from Jackie Brenston's "Rocket 88." "I always liked
that record," Richard recalled, "and I used to use the riff in my act,
so when we were looking for a lead-in to 'Good Golly, Miss Molly,' I did
that and it fit." But of course, "Good Golly, Miss Molly" never sounds
like anything less than Little Richard, his voice pushing dangerously
into the red on each line, and each time he exclaims the title you'd
think he just thought it up on the spot.
“Ooh! My Soul” (1958)
"Elvis may be the King of Rock & Roll," Little Richard once
declared. "But I am the Queen." He could be cagey or frank about his
sexuality, sometimes in the same breath – "I believe I was the founder
of gay," he once told John Waters, while admitting nothing. But from his
towering, sculpted pompadour and fluttering mascara-enhanced peepers to
his orgasmic whoops and un-macho physical exuberance, Richard was an
unmistakable pioneer of rock & roll androgyny, and "Ooh! My Soul"
may be his most flirtatiously gender-bent frolic on wax. He barrels
through the verses like a hot-dogging star running-back, then cutely
squeals the title like a coquettish cheerleader. "Ooh! My Soul" is the
sound of Little Richard seducing himself, its post-climactic giggle
confirming that he finds his own charms irresistible.
“Kansas City”/”Hey Hey Hey Hey” (1959)
Little Richard cut two versions of the Lieber/Stoller classic in
1955. The conventional first take tracks closely to the original Little
Willie Littlefield recording, but on the latter he stamps the song with
his personality, breaking into a shout of "hey hey hey hey" that's
echoed by an enthusiastic chorus. Before the second take was released in
1959 (around the same time Wilbert Harrison scored a hit with his own
coolly strolling version), Richard would record a song called "Hey Hey
Hey Hey," about "goin' back to Birmingham," with the same introductory
seven-note guitar lick and drum roll as "Kansas City." And that's how
Little Richard not only made "Kansas City" into a Little Richard song,
but collected royalties from the Beatles when they covered it.
“By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1959)
In 1956, Fats Domino started to have hits with revivals of old
popular tunes, taking the 1940 song "Blueberry Hill" toward the top of
the R&B and pop charts. Little Richard followed his lead in 1959,
reaching back 50 years for the Tin Pin Alley chestnut "By the Light of
the Silvery Moon." It's a limber, nimble thing, goosed along by honking
horns and propelled by an insistent shuffle. As fun as the rhythm is,
the single is all about the singing. Grinning and mincing, Richard walks
right along the edge of camp: He's not sending up a beloved chestnut,
but he is giving it a sly wink.
“Bama Lama Bama Loo” (1964)
"Bama Lama Bama Loo" is the first of Little Richard's attempts to
get back to where he once belonged. After a spell hopping between labels
in the early Sixties, he returned to Specialty in 1964 and released
this bit of raving nonsense. With its gibberish and screams, the song
was clearly intended to evoke "Tutti Frutti" and it misses that mark
because he's a little bit older and a little less wild. Canny guy that
he is, Richard turns aging into an asset, letting the rhythms slow
slightly so they settle into a thick shuffle that grooves.
“I Don’t Know What You’ve Got but It’s Got Me” (1965)
It didn't cross over to the pop charts, but "I Don't Know What You've
Got but It's Got Me" became Little Richard's last major R&B hit in
late 1965 – and fittingly, the song's sensibilities belong to Sixties
soul, not Fifties R&B. A church-y slow-burner so languid it was
split in two for its single release, "I Don't Know" finds Little Richard
tackling the deep soul emanating from such Southern outposts as
Stax/Volt. Not surprisingly, this earthy milieu brings out the best in
Richard. He connects to his gospel roots in a way he never quite did on
his seminal Specialty sides, proving that he could testify with powerful
passion.
“I Need Love” (1967)
Little Richard was pretty much exiled during his mid-Sixties stint
at Okeh, attempting to navigate the shifting tides of soul. He eked out
a meager hit with "Poor Dog (Who Can't Wag His Own Tail)" but much
better was the electrifying "I Need Love." It went nowhere, failing even
to crack the R&B charts, but the seven-inch finds Richard riding an
uptempo Southern soul groove in the vein of Otis Redding. He makes this
splashy sound his own, giving it a snazzy showbiz spin as he modulates
his delivery, building to choruses so explosive they're cathartic.
“Freedom Blues” (1970)
Like many old-time rock & rollers, Little Richard was given an
opportunity to connect to a new audience at the turn of the Seventies.
When he signed to Reprise in 1970, he declined to revive the spirit of
his old hits – a temptation Fats Domino did not resist – and dove
headfirst into the thick, funky mess of the era. Deeply Southern in its
groove, "Freedom Blues" is part civil-rights rallying cry, part
paisley-colored sign of the times. What's striking isn't simply
Richard's impassioned performance, but how he marshaled counterculture
signifiers into a single that still packs a wallop.
Little Richard: ‘I Am the Architect of Rock & Roll’
The Georgia Peach, the Living Flame, the Southern Child, the King
of Rock & Roll: Little Richard is all of these, and he’ll be the
first to tell you so
This story originally appeared in the April 19th, 1990 issue of Rolling Stone dedicated to the 1950s. More than any performer, Little Richard
blew the lid off the Fifties. With his mascara-smeared face twisted in a
midscream paroxysm of rapture and dementia, hair piled high in a proud
pompadour, he was an explosive and charismatic performer who laid the
foundation of rock & roll. His outrageous personality captured the
music’s rebellious spirit, and his frantically charged piano playing and
raspy, shouted vocals defined its sound.
Little Richard was born Richard Penniman on December 5th, 1932, in
Macon, Georgia. His father, Charles “Bud” Penniman, sold moonshine and
ran a tavern called the Tip In Inn. His mother, Leva Mae Penniman,
raised Richard and 11 brothers and sisters in a small house in the
Pleasant Hill section of Macon. As a youngster, Richard soaked up music,
which was part of the fabric of life in the black community. He heard
acts of all kinds at the Macon City Auditorium – blues, country,
vaudeville – where he sold Cokes. He also went to church, not so much
for the message as for the music: the fervid, unrestrained style of
black gospel singing lit a fire in him.
Little Richard learned to play gospel piano from an equally flamboyant
character named Esquerita, combining it with his own love of
boogie-woogie in what became a blueprint for rock & roll. By his
late teens he was a veteran of several traveling vaudeville revues,
where he got schooled in the theatrical side of performing He cut his
first sides for RCA Camden in 1951, followed by a string of singles for
Peacock. But it was at Specialty Records that the wild rock & roller
within was turned loose.
“One day a reel of tape, wrapped in a piece of paper looking as
though someone had eaten off it, came across my desk,” Specialty AALR
man Robert “Bumps” Blackwell told Charles White, Little Richard’s
biographer. Richard was scrubbing pots and pans at the Greyhound bus
station in Macon while waiting to hear from Specialty about his
submission In 1955 he got the green light, entering J&M Studio in
New Orleans with Blackwell and some of the Crescent City’s finest
musicians. After a slow start, Blackwell grasped the untapped potential
of Richard’s singing and playing, and they switched gears from
conventional urban blues to something that was raw, uptempo and
undeniably new. The rest was rock & roll history, as Little
Richard laid down a stunning succession of sides over the next several
years, including “Tutti Frutti,” “Slippin’ and Slidin’,” “Miss Ann,”
“Long Tall Sally,” “Rip It Up,” “Good Golly, Miss Molly,” “Lucille” and
“Keep a Knockin’.” Specialty recently issued a box set including every
song Richard cut for the label.
Little Richard scaled the heights of fame as he toured the world with
his peerless band the Upsetters. But his success, and the hypersexual
lifestyle that went with it, came to an abrupt halt late in 1957 when he
abandoned rock & roll for religion. He attended Bible college and
recorded gospel music until the early Sixties, when he made a triumphant
and unexpected realm to rock from the stage of a British concert hall.
The second chapter of Little Richard’s career as a rock & roller saw
him recapture his popularity as a live performer and cut some
well-received albums for Reprise. By 1975, however, a substance-abuse
problem drove him to abandon rock & roll for the Rock of Ages once
more.
“I think that if Elvis had been black, he wouldn’t have been as big as he was”
In recent years, Little Richard has begun testing the waters again,
performing and recording occasionally. The following interview was
conducted in the mobile environs of a limousine cruising the freeways of
Los Angeles, a city he has called home since 1956. We broke her a lunch
of fried chicken, pork chops and collard greens at a favorite soul-food
eatery. During the meal a braided and bespangled entertainer calling
herself “Afrodyete, the African Goddess of Love” presented him with a
signed picture of herself; which was inscribed, “Stay
Chocolate.” With characteristic color-blind wit, Little Richard
quipped, “Stay chocolate? Suppose I feel like being pineapple tonight?” – Let’s start with a simple question. Did you invent rock & roll? Well,
let’s say it this way: When I first came along, I never heard of any
rock & roll. I only heard Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy
Williamson, Ruth Brown and Roy Brown. Blues. Fats Domino at the time was
playing nothing but low-down blues. When I started singing [rock &
roll], I sang it a long time before I presented it to the public,
because I was afraid they wouldn’t like it. I had never heard nobody do
it, and I was scared. I was inspired by Mahalia Jackson, Roy Brown and a gospel group
called Clara Ward and the Ward Singers and a guy by the name of Brother
Joe May. I got the holler that you hear me do – “woo-ooh-ooh” – from a
lady named Marion Williams. And this thing you hear me do – “Lucille-uh” – I got that from Ruth Brown I used to like die way she’d sing, “Mama-uh, he treats your daughter mean.” I put it all together. I really feel from the bottom of my heart that I am the inventor. If
there was somebody else, I didn’t know than, didn’t hear them, haven’t
heard them. Not even to this day. So I say I’m the architect.
Where were you hearing music – on records, jukeboxes or the radio? We
didn’t have nothing to play records on, ’cause we were real poor. My
mother had 12 children, so we didn’t have nothing. We had an old radio
we would play late at night We would listen to WLAC out of Tennessee.
Back in that time boogie-woogie was very popular. I would say that
boogie-woogie and rhythm & blues mixed is rock & roll. Also,
back in that time black people were singing a lot of country music. You
didn’t see this separation of music as you do today. I’m a country-music
lover. I think it’s a true music. It’s from the heart. Can you remember the first time you sang for people and got a reaction? Yes. I sung a song called “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. [Sings] “Oh, you hear church people say/We are in this holy way/ There are strange things happening every day…” And I’d just but this [taps rhythm on car seat] and sing,
“There are strange things happening every day.” People used to give me
quarters and dimes and nickel to sing that song.
How did you choose the stage name Little Richard? Was there a Big Richard? No [laughs].
At the time, they had Little Esther, Little Willie John, Little Walter.
Everybody was using the title Little. And most people used to call me
“Penny-man,” and nobody would say “Penniman” They couldn’t pronounce my
name. Another thing – my family did not approve of what I was doing, and
I felt that if I didn’t use my name, people wouldn’t know I was a part
of them. I didn’t want to hurt them. Music was not respected back then.
To them, it was down. Everybody was down on it.
As a teenager, you went on the road with several vaudeville revues. What was your role in those shows? I
just wanted to tear up the house. I would pick up tables and chairs in
my mouth and dance with them. I would let somebody stand on the table
and dance while holding up the table in my mouth.
That sense of competition stayed. You just weren’t going to let anyone upstage you. That’s
right. I still have that. I think you have to have that in life. I
would go onstage, and we didn’t have stages like Michael and Prince or
Bruce. We had to do with what they had. If they had spotlights, they had
them, but now they carry everything.
You had to do it all with charisma. Yeah, and that’s when I wore the colors, the sequins, the shoes made of stone, so they had something to light up.
In the 43 years you’ve been playing, has anybody upstaged you, taken a show away from you?Uh,
yes, Jimi Hendrix. He was my guitar player, and you know, we didn’t
know he could play with his mouth. One night I heard this screamin’ and
hollerin’ for him! I thought they were screamin’ for me. But he
was back there playin’ the guitar with his mouth. He didn’t do it again,
’cause we made sure the lights didn’t come on that area no more. We
fixed that! We made sure that was a black spot!
How did you wind up signing with Specialty Records? Lloyd
Price came through my hometown. He had this black-and-gold Cadillac, and
I wanted a car like that. I said, “How’d you get famous?” He told me
about Specialty and gave me the address. I did a tape, and I sent this
to Specialty. A year later they got in touch with me.
Did Art Rupe, the owner of Specialty, match you up with Bumps Blackwell? No.
Bumps was the A&R man for Specialty Records. He was in charge of
everything. Art Rupe didn’t know anything about music. Bumps had been
with Quincy Jones and Ray Charles and all those people. Ray Charles did
his first tour with us. He didn’t have a band. It was my band that played
behind him. And he had “I Got a Woman” and sung that on the tour, with
my band backing him up. Am I tellin’ the truth, Ray? You used to come by
my room and tell me, “That’s the prettiest suit you got on. I like that
suit, that green suit.” [Laughs]
Did you enjoy recording in New Orleans? Oh, yes. You’ve got
to remember that the same band recorded with me, Fats Domino, Smiley
Lewis, Shirley and Lee, Professor Longhair. It was the same band: Lee
Allen, Red Tyler, Earl Palmer, all those guys. When they played for me, I
played the piano. When they played for Fats, Fats played the piano.
How would you compare recording in the Fifties with recording today? I
enjoyed recording back then better ’cause it was real. You had to play.
It wasn’t no machines, you couldn’t just mash buttons and sound like a
band. If you couldn’t play, you didn’t have no music.
Were your songs based on real characters? Was there a Miss Molly, a Lucille, Miss Ann, Long Tall Sally? There
was a Miss Ann. She was a white lady I used to work for. She had a club
in Macon filled Ann’s Tick Tock. She and her husband, Johnny, were like
a to me. They had been good to me when a lot of people hadn’t. I really
appreciated them, so when I got famous, I made up a song. That’s the
only real person.
What do you think it was about your music that helped bridge the gap between the races? “Tutti
Frutti” really started the races being together. Because when I was a
boy, the white people would sit upstairs. They called it “white
spectators,” and the blacks was downstairs And the white kids would jump
over the balcony and come down where I was and dance with the blacks.
We started that merging all across the country. From the git-go, my
music was accepted by whites. Pat Boone covered “Tutti Frutti,” made it
broader, ’cause they played him more on the white stations.
You could argue it both ways, but overall do you think Pat Boone’s cover versions helped or hurt your career? I
believe it was a blessing. I believe it opened the highway that would
have taken a little longer for acceptance. So I love Pat for that.
That said, what did you honestly think of his recording of “Tutti Frutti”? He
did the best he could. I think mine was the best, but Pat Boone’s
version was all right. I think he was forced to record it. He was a
balladeer and not a rock singer. I believe his record company saw a
chance for him to get bigger.
Is it true you sang “Long Tall Sally” so fast that he’d have difficulty covering it? Yes. I figured that since he outsold me with “Tutti Frutti,” I’d put so many tricks in “Long Tall Sally” he couldn’t get it.
How do you think the Beatles did with it? Fantastic. I think the Beatles did one of the best versions of “Long Tall Sally” I’ve ever heard. My family didn’t approve of what I was doing. Music wasn’t respected.” You toured with them in England before they broke over here, didn’t you? Oh, before they ever recorded, before anybody ever heard of a record company. Did you see potential in them? I
saw it in Paul McCartney. Paul was the one who was so crazy about me.
Paul and George. I believe they had it – they were gifted.
They were gifted, but they also did their homework. They
knew who we recorded with, they knew what doorsteps we walked up, they
knew what saxophone we played. They knew more about it than me! Do you see in Prince a young version of yourself? Yes, I do.
Do you like his music? Oh, I really like Prince a lot. I
like Michael Jackson. I like Bon Jovi. I like Bruce Springsteen. I like a
lot of them. I get that old thing from them – I think that’s the reason
I like them.
Have you worked with any producer since Bumps Blackwell who have been able to capture your sound? It
has to be someone who feels that type of music. I think the problem
today is that a lot of black entertainers don’t feel the old music. A
lot of white entertainers still use the music, while black people have
gone to another type of thing, the synthesized thing that you hear, like
[sings], “My, my, my/Once bitten, twice shy babe …
“Once Bitten Twice Shy,” by Great White. Now, that’s the
old way. See, the blacks have gotten so that’s not what they want. They
like this other thing, with the synthesizer, and the whites are still
with the old music. So that’s the reason when you play for them, you
feel comfortable. They appreciate the type of music, the old music, that
you play.
Especially in the Seventies, your audience became really lopsided toward whites over blacks. With
the black audience, if you don’t have a hit record, they don’t support
you. If you’ve got a hit record, it’s all right, but if you don’t,
you’re in trouble
Do you think the black audience at large will ever get interested in black music from a more historical perspective? They should.
I believe that Michael Jackson’s generation will be more up on it than
my generation. I believe black people love me, and I believe they
appreciate me. But I’m not recording the kind of music they want to hear
in this generation. I am where I am, so that’s it.
You’ve claimed that your band the Upsetters was the best show band in the country. Oh,
they were. They were choreographed by me and by Grady [Gaines, the
tenor saxophonist]. They wore makeup. They wore beautiful colors. It was
the only band with a makeup kit. You thought they were showgirls, but
they were showboys. They were very good. Until this day, I haven’t seen
another band surpass them.
Would you have preferred to cut your Specialty sides with the Upsetters instead of the New Orleans guys? I did do one song with them, “Keep a Knockin’.” We did that in Washington, D.C. You can’t tell the difference, can you?
No, you can’t. Led Zeppelin nicked the drum intro on “Rock and Roll.” Have you heard that? No.
Did you know Led Zeppelin’s manager used to be my chauffeur? Peter
Grant was my chauffeur for about three years! I used to argue with him
all the time. I saw him in Miami later on, and he said: “Little Richard,
I’m wealthy now. I’m a millionaire. You want me to buy you dinner?” I
said, “No, Peter.” He said: “I’m gonna buy it anyway. I have a group
called Led Zeppelin. I don’t have to take your abuse anymore.” [Laughs loudly]
Old Peter! And you know, Sonny Bono used to drive me, too. That’s
before Cher. That was about 1958. He was working for Specialty Records,
and they used to send him to ride me around.
As far as your live shows, which are considered to be some of the
most incendiary performances in the history of rock & roll, where
did the energy come from? I don’t know, and it still comes. We
just did Palm Springs, and it was unbelievable. People was crying,
screaming. You wouldn’t believe I was the age that I am. It was just
like a power, and you felt like crying. When I touched the piano, the
house just went insane.
In the Fifties you’d scream, pound the piano and toss clothes into the crowd. How did you rise to that level every night? I
didn’t drink or smoke at the time. I didn’t take any dope or nothing.
The music turned me on. The music still does it! If the music is good,
you got me.
Were you ever concerned that you’d taken an audience too far? Has it ever gotten to a point where it became dangerous? I
have seen ’em go a long way. I have seen people worked into frenzies.
I’ve seen ’em foaming at the mouth, I’ve seen ’em fall out. I’ve seen
people screamin’, cryin’, can’t stop. I’ve seen girls who just wanted to
touch me, just screamin’, lookin’ at me, screamin’ and fallin’ out.
Wasn’t there a night when the stage actually caved in? Collapsed.
That was at the Olympic Auditorium [in Los Angeles]. The piano fell.
The stage fell. One guy broke his leg. It was pandemonium: The crowd was
screaming, and they kept screaming. I was on top of the piano, and I
was screamin’, too, ’cause I was fallin’. Everybody was screamin’.
Screamin’ and screamin’!
Did you ever get into what the jazz people call cutting contests,
where you’d be on the bill with someone and you’d each be trying to top
the other? Oh, I’ve been on plenty of those. Me and Chuck Berry,
for instance, have done it plenty of times. He’d say that he’s the star
and I’d say that I’m the star. He’d say, “I’m gonna close the show.” I’d
say, “No, you’re not” I’ve been on a bill with Jerry Lee Lewis like
that ,too. And I’d say, “Okay, you can close the show.” And I’d go on
first and sing for about two hours, and then can’t nobody come on the
stage. We were all of us vain back in that time. It’s a shame. The young
and crazy often need a-spankin’ and a-plankin’.
What was it like after a show? What would you do to wind down? I would go to clubs just to hear girls scream. I would go to clubs to have a good time and then bring girls back to the hotel.
We have an impression of the Fifties as being a very staid and
conservative era, but to hear you talk, it sounds a lot more sexually
liberated than people might imagine. Oh, it was liberated all
right! It was experimental, too, ’cause we were young and hadn’t done a
lot of things. Being a country boy from the South, I had been held back.
My family was religious. Sometimes you couldn’t toe-tap or tap a toe or
ask for mo’, and that’s for sure! And that’s the way it go! And we was
po’!
I used to like a lot of girls back in that time. But I wasn’t into anything out of the ordinary. Just regular do’s.
Where do you stand on homosexuality now? You made some pretty strong statements against it in your book. I’m
not against it I believe God gives every man a choice. Every man has a
choice to do what he will, bad or good, right or wrong, black or white,
rich or poor. I was just saying that from where I stand, a lot of people
think different things because of the way you look. Some people will
judge you, and they don’t even know you. I played the piano, I wore the hair, I wore the makeup, and everybody classified me without asking me anything.
But didn’t you want to he “the Living Flame,” “the bronze Liberace”? I am
the Living Flame. Not so much the bronze Liberace, but I am the Living
Flame. I just wanted to be a musician that spread joy to people. I’m not
down on any lifestyle, any shape, form or fashion. Whether God has
sanctioned our lifestyle or not, we still have a right to do what we
want So I’m not putting anything down. Neither am I picking anything up!
[Chuckles] And I’ll leave it right there.
When you had your first religious conversion in 1957, what
persuaded you to walk away from the phenomenal popularity you’d worked
so hard for as a rock & roller? I wish I knew then what I
know today. I was young and didn’t have anybody to talk to. I’ve always
been religious, basically. I wanted to do God’s will. I’ve always wanted
to do his wil. But at the time I had nobody no really counsel with.
Touring must have taken a toll. No, I enjoyed touring, but I
had a bad dream. I think the dream kind of disturbed me, the thoughts
kind of shook my mind. The dream was “Prepare for eternal life.” That
was it.
And you went to Bible school. Yes. Let me let down this window and say hello to these people [rolls down the window of the limousine and greets a couple on the sidewalk]. I just wanted to make their day. Excuse me. I feel all right! [Laughs]
When you quit rock & roll for the second time, in 1975, you were coming out of a period of heavy cocaine and alcohol use. Yes,
yes, yes. My nose was big enough to put diesel trucks in. I was payin’
almost $10,000 a month for cocaine. I was into it. I was eatin’ it. I
was snortin’ it, I was freezin’ everything that could be frozen. I was
screamin’ and hollerin’. It was a terrible time for me. I’ve never had
this drug they have today, crack. By the grace of God, I don’t drink or
smoke now, haven’t done it in years. I’m just glad to be alive and show
the young people that it doesn’t pay, that you can live above it and
that it don’t make you famous, it makes you dead. It steals life from
mankind, and we need God in our life. And that’s what it’s about.
Are you getting more comfortable with the idea of playing rock & roll again? Well,
what I feel about music now is that I love God, I will always love God,
and I feel that I’m a messenger for him. To me, rock & roll music
is the only way I know how to make a living. I’m making people joyful,
and I still spread my love for God. So I’m still the person that God has
placed, but the music is my job.
Did you think Elvis did anything as far as opening the door for the white audience to listen to black singers? I
think the door opened wider, but the door may have already been opened
by “Tutti Frutti.” I think that Elvis was more acceptable being white
back in that period. I believe that if Elvis had been black, he wouldn’t
have been as big as he was. If I was white, do you know how huge I’d
be? If I was white, I’d be able to sit on top of the White House! A lot
of things they would do for Elvis and Pat Boone, they wouldn’t do for
me. It’s like they won’t even give me a Lifetime Achievement Award, and
look at Paul McCartney. [McCartney was given a Lifetime Achievement
Award at the Grammys on February 21st.] I was the first famous person he
ever met, the first famous person he ever traveled with. They give him a
Lifetime Achievement Award, and they won’t give me one. They won’t even
mention me! They give Dick Clark an award, but they don’t give me
nothing! Don’t even mention my existence! It’s a shame, but that’s what
it is. Do you think McCartney should have mentioned you in his acceptance speech? Yes. I just don’t understand some things sometimes. I was sitting there in front of him, and he didn’t say nothing. It makes you feel like crying, you know?
I was surprised about that myself. I was shocked. I should
have run up on the stage and did one of my outrageous numbers and said,
“Listen, Paul, let’s face it, now you know that I’m the one that
bought the hamburgers.” I should have done that. But I think that when
you’re in love with God, your reward is what he says it is – eternal
life. So I think I’m going to have to settle for that .And I’m not
dismayed or disarrayed. I will settle for that. In fact, I’d rather have a crown of gold than to lose my soul.
Let’s all sing Happy Birthday to the legendary Georgia-born artist Little Richard Penniman, who turns an amazing 81 years old on Thursday, Dec. 5. Penniman, who was born in Macon, previously this year told a writer for Rolling Stone that he was retiring from show business because of health issues. “I am done, in a sense,” he was quoted as saying. “I don’t feel like doing anything right now.” His medical problems reportedly include sciatica and a degenerating hip. Either
way, he has outlasted his contemporaries including Georgia’s other
soul-music giants Otis Redding, Ray Charles and James Brown. Like Charles and Brown, Penniman’s hit-making career began in the 1950s. His success with Tutti-Frutti led to Long Tall Sally, The Girl Can’t Help It, Lucille, Rip It Up and Jenny Jenny. He
was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1984 and, two years
later, was among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in Cleveland, along with Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats
Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley
and James Brown. The only time I’ve crossed paths with him was at
the grand opening of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame building in Macon
in September of 1996. He told me then, “Everybody says, ‘Richard,
you shouldn’t work so much,’ but I work because it keeps me young,
because it’s the only exercise I get and because it makes me feel good
about ME as I get older. It keeps my legs moving and my hands on the
piano, and I’m blessed.”
That night at the building’s grand opening, all of the other
stars who arrived in a heavy rain dashed from their limos to an awning
leading into the building. Except for some quick waves and smiles
they basically ignored several hundred fans huddling under umbrellas.
Most had waited several hours behind waist-high metal rails for the
stars to arrive. Little Richard, however, wasn’t about to
disappoint his hometown crowd, even if it meant for his expensive,
glittery red and black outfit to get wet. He went to the rails and worked the crowd, shaking hands and exchanging greetings as if he were a presidential candidate. He remembered the days when he washed dishes at the bus station in
Macon and set up pins in the bowling alley next to Macon’s City
Auditorium. It was in Macon that he started stirring up audiences
at the Young Men’s Club on Cotton Avenue and Ann Howard’s Tick Tock Club
on Broadway with his outlandish performing antics, wild piano playing
and falsetto singing. “I’m grateful to the Lord that I’m alive to
see it,” he told me of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame’s grand opening.
“That’s what I’m grateful for. Most people don’t even get to smell the
roses in their lifetime. I’ve been able to smell the flowers and plant
them, too!
“Listen,” he said turning serious for a moment, “if I had to
choose my life over to be born, I’d still want to be born in Macon.
There is no place like Macon. When you tour the world like I do, you
appreciate a place like Macon.”
From Little Richard to James Brown to Amiri Baraka
It's almost strange to say, but there's really a discernible link
between Little Richard and Amiri Baraka. So much of what's written about
Little Richard is over there in Rock n' Roll, and much of what's
written about Baraka is over here in poetry. Still, there are links
between the two, and one of those links is James Brown.
Little Richard (b. 1932), James Brown (b. 1933 - 2006), and Amiri Baraka
(b. 1934) share a common generational connection; all of them came of
age during really dramatic years for black folks and the nation as a
whole. Recently, I was reading an interview with musician and writer Greg Tate, and he was talking about how Little Richard influenced Brown:
If you listen to Little Richard, outside of the most well known hits, if
you listen to his body of work, outside of that stuff, you can hear his
impact on James Brown and Otis Redding. I mean, James is screaming,
and, in fact, at a certain period, Little Richard had left the area and
went to LA to record, and he left behind all these performance dates,
and Little Richard’s manager hired James Brown to impersonate Little
Richard. So there’s a period of time when James spent a couple of weeks
just screaming like Little Richard,
Tate goes on to note that Brown was "the real father of fusion—of jazz
fusion—" because "James is the person who really took all of this
information and this way of putting together this music from jazz, and
then combining it with R&B and Soul in a really sophisticated way."
Baraka's writings and the writings about him tend to focus on his
relationship to jazz, with little said about how his work relates to the
fusion of gopsel and R&B and to someone like Little Richard. Still,
Baraka does develop that scream in his recordings and performances, and
though his scream is linked to jazz folk like Coltrane and Albert
Ayler, we can also connect that far out vocal delivery to Brown.
The literary scholarship on Baraka hasn't really caught up with and
accounted for his expansive discography and performance history, in part
because literary scholars, understandably perhaps, tend to concentrate
primarily on printed texts. But when and if we start examining the long
and evolving histories of Baraka's sound, we'll discover how his
works--his performed works--correspond to distinct African American
musical histories.
Richard, also known as "the Georgia Peach," declares himself "the
innovator and the architect of rock and roll." In the mid-1950s, his
wildly energetic rhythm-and-blues
records crossed over to the pop charts and made him one of the first
rock stars. His pounding piano, screaming vocals, and exuberant stage
persona have been emulated but rarely matched by several generations of
rock musicians.
Born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon on December 5, 1932, Little Richard was one of twelve children. His father, Bud, worked as a brickmason, sold moonshine,
and operated a juke joint called the Tip In Inn. Despite the business
interests of Penniman's father, the family was deeply involved in the
church. Penniman's mother, Leva Mae, met his father at a church revival,
and Penniman's grandfather and uncle were preachers. Penniman first
performed in a family gospel group that often competed against other
quartets in local contests. A part-time job at the Macon City Auditorium
gave him the opportunity to study many leading rhythm-and-blues and
gospel acts.
Penniman was a manic, unruly youngster whose flamboyant
mannerisms and gay friends often put him in conflict with his father. He
was fascinated by the traveling medicine shows that came through town,
and at fourteen he left home with one. By the age of fifteen he was
performing with a minstrel show and had adopted the stage name Little
Richard.
Little Richard soon gravitated to Atlanta,
a focal point for the national rhythm-and-blues scene. At the 81
Theater, Little Richard met and was influenced by the singer Billy
Wright, whose big hair, heavy stage makeup, and gospel-styled blues
shouting made him a local favorite. Through WGST disc jockey Zenas
Sears, Wright helped Little Richard secure a record contract with RCA,
and at age eighteen he had his first recording session. While the
results were undistinguished, the song "Every Hour" sold well in Atlanta
and Macon. Another RCA session was a commercial failure.
Little Richard's music career came to a halt after his
father was murdered. To support his family, he took a job washing dishes
at a Greyhound bus station in Macon. Eventually, he was back on stage,
dominating the Macon rhythm-and-blues scene with a new band, the
Upsetters. Bumps Blackwell at Specialty Records in Los Angeles,
California, heard a demo tape of the band and felt that Little Richard's
dramatic, "churchy" voice might compete with Atlantic Record's latest
hit-maker, Ray Charles.
In September 1955 Little Richard met Blackwell for a
recording session, in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he attempted several
typical blues
numbers with studio musicians. Blackwell was puzzled by the discrepancy
between Little Richard's flamboyant appearance—his six-inch-high
pompadour, eyeliner, and loud clothes—and his low-key singing. The
frustrated producer called a lunch break, during which Little Richard
began clowning around at the piano, energetically singing and shouting.
Blackwell instructed Little Richard to repeat this performance once the
session resumed, which resulted in the song "Tutti Frutti."
In 1956 "Tutti Frutti" made it to number two on the
rhythm-and-blues chart and, surprisingly, number seventeen on the pop
chart. The song's explosive rhythm, powerful vocals, and crazy humor set
the pattern for an eighteen-month run of hits. "Slippin' and Slidin'
(Peepin' and Hidin')," "Long Tall Sally," "Ready Teddy," "Rip It Up,"
"Lucille," and "Keep a Knockin'" were all crossover successes, and his
live shows and movie appearances established Little Richard as the
wildest of the rock pioneers.
In 1957, in the middle of a tour of Australia, Little
Richard walked away from rock and roll. Troubled by his excessive
lifestyle and embittered by song-royalty conflicts with his record
company, he left show business to enter the seminary. A short-lived
evangelical career met with limited success, and in 1962 he returned to
rock music, touring Great Britain and Germany with the Beatles, who
idolized him and performed their own versions of many of his songs.
Further hit recordings eluded Little Richard, but
throughout the 1960s and 1970s he regained momentum as a live performer,
starring on rock-and-roll-revival bills, selling out shows in Las
Vegas, Nevada, and making television
appearances. Following a period of drug abuse, he turned again to the
church and became a preacher and Bible salesman. In 1984 the publication
of a startlingly frank biography of him prompted yet another musical
comeback.
Little Richard was among the first inductees into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. In 1993 he received a Grammy
Lifetime Achievement Award and performed at U.S. president Bill
Clinton's inaugural gala. Having seemingly reconciled his religious
beliefs with his love of rock and roll, he remains an exciting live
performer.
Further Reading:
Charles White, The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock (New York: Harmony Books, 1984).
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932),[1] known as Little Richard, is an American musician, singer and songwriter.
An influential figure in popular music and culture for seven
decades, Penniman's most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950s, when
his dynamic music and charismatic showmanship laid the foundation for rock and roll. His music also played a key role in the formation of other popular music genres, including soul and funk. Penniman influenced numerous singers and musicians across musical genres from rock to hip hop; his music helped shape rhythm and blues
for generations to come, and his performances and headline-making
thrust his career right into the mix of American popular music. Penniman has been honored by many institutions. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of its first group of inductees in 1986. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" (1955) was included in the National Recording Registry
of the Library of Congress in 2010, which stated that his "unique
vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music."
In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music[2]
honored Little Richard with a Rhapsody & Rhythm Award for his
pivotal role in the formation of popular music genres and in helping to
shatter the color line[clarification needed] on the music charts, changing American culture significantly.
Early life
Little Richard was born Richard Wayne Penniman on December 5, 1932, in Macon, Georgia. He was the third of twelve children of Leva Mae (née Stewart) and Charles "Bud" Penniman. His father was a church deacon who sold bootleggedmoonshine on the side and owned a nightclub, the Tip In Inn.[3][4] His mother was a member of Macon's New Hope Baptist Church.[5] Initially, Penniman's first name was supposed to have been "Ricardo" but an error resulted in "Richard" instead.[3][6] The Penniman children were raised in a neighborhood of Macon called Pleasant Hill.[5]
In childhood, he was nicknamed "Lil' Richard" by his family, because of
his small and skinny frame. A mischievous child who played pranks on
neighbors, Penniman began singing in church at a young age.[7][8] Possibly as a result of complications at birth, Penniman had a slight deformity that left one of his legs shorter than the other. This produced an unusual gait; he was mocked for his allegedly effeminate appearance.[9] Penniman's family was very religious, joining various A.M.E., Baptist and Pentecostal
churches, with some family members becoming ministers. Penniman enjoyed
the Pentecostal churches the most, because of their charismatic worship
and live music.[10] He later recalled that people in his neighborhood during segregation sang gospel songs throughout the day to keep a positive outlook, because "there was so much poverty, so much prejudice in those days".[11] He had observed that people sang "to feel their connection with God" and to wash their trials and burdens away.[12]
Gifted with a loud singing voice, Penniman recalled that he was "always
changing the key upwards" and that they once stopped him from singing
in church for "screaming and hollering" so loud, earning him the
nickname "War Hawk".[13]
As a child, Penniman would "beat on the steps of the house, and on tin
cans and pots and pans, or whatever", while singing, annoying neighbors.[14] Penniman's initial musical influences were gospel performers such as Brother Joe May, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia Jackson and Marion Williams.
May, who as a singing evangelist was known as "the Thunderbolt of the
Middle West" because of his phenomenal range and vocal power, inspired
the boy to become a preacher.[15][16] Penniman attended Macon's Hudson High School,[17] where he was a below-average student. Penniman eventually learned to play alto saxophone joining his school's marching band while in fifth grade.[14] While in high school, Penniman obtained a part-time job at Macon City Auditorium for local secular and gospel concert promoter Clint Brantley. Penniman sold Coca-Cola to crowds during concerts of star performers of the day such as Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder and his favorite singer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe.[18]
Music career
Beginnings (1947–1955)
In October 1947, 14-year-old Penniman performed with Tharpe at the Macon City Auditorium. After the show Tharpe paid him, inspiring him to become a professional performer.[18][19]
A year later he began performing in Doctor Nubillo's traveling show.
Penniman was inspired to wear turbans and capes in his career by
Nubillo, who also "carried a black stick and exhibited something he
called 'the devil's child' - the dried-up body of a baby with claw feet
like a bird and horns on its head." Nubillo told Penniman he was "gonna
be famous" but that he would have to "go where the grass is greener."[20]
Before entering the tenth grade, Penniman left his family home and joined Dr. Hudson's Medicine Show in 1949, performing Louis Jordan's "Caldonia".[20]
Penniman recalled the song was the first secular R&B song he
learned, since his family had strict rules against playing R&B
music, which they considered "devil music."[21] Penniman also performed in drag during this time, performing under the name "Princess LaVonne".[22] In 1950, Penniman joined his first musical band, Buster Brown's Orchestra, where Brown gave him the name Little Richard.[23] Performing in the minstrel show
circuit, Penniman, in and out of drag, performed for various vaudeville
acts such as Sugarfoot Sam from Alabam, the Tidy Jolly Steppers, the
King Brothers Circus and Broadway Follies.[24]
Having settled in Atlanta, Georgia at this point, Penniman began
listening to rhythm and blues and frequented Atlanta clubs, including
the Harlem Theater and the Royal Peacock where he saw performers such as
Roy Brown and Billy Wright
onstage. Penniman was further influenced by Brown's and Wright's flashy
style of showmanship and was even more influenced by Wright's
flamboyant persona and showmanship. Inspired by Brown and Wright,
Penniman decided to become a rhythm and blues singer and after
befriending Wright, began to learn how to be an entertainer from him,
and began adapting a pompadour hairdo similar to Wright's, as well as
styling a pencil mustache, using Wright's brand of facial pancake makeup and wearing flashier clothes.[25] Impressed by his singing voice, Wright put him in contact with
Zenas Sears, a local deejay. Sears recorded Penniman at his station,
backed by Wright's band. The recordings led to a contract that year with
RCA Victor.[26]
Penniman recorded a total of eight sides for RCA Victor, including the
blues ballad, "Every Hour," which became his first single and a hit in
Georgia.[26]
The release of "Every Hour" improved his relationship with his father,
who began regularly playing the song on his nightclub jukebox.[26]
Shortly after the release of "Every Hour", Penniman was hired to front
Perry Welch and His Orchestra and played at clubs and army bases for
$100 a week.[27]
After a year with RCA Victor, Penniman left the label in February 1952
after his songs there failed to become national hits. That same month,
Penniman's father Bud was killed after a confrontation outside his club.
Penniman continued to perform during this time and Clint Brantley
agreed to manage Penniman's career. Moving to Houston, he formed a band
called the Tempo Toppers, performing as part of blues package tours in Southern clubs such as Club Tijuana in New Orleans and Club Matinee in Houston. Penniman signed with Don Robey's Peacock Records in February 1953, recording eight sides, including four with Johnny Otis and his band that were unreleased at the time.[28]
Like his venture with RCA Victor, none of Penniman's Peacock singles
charted despite Penniman's growing reputation for his high energy antics
onstage.[29]
Penniman began complaining of monetary issues with Robey, resulting in
Penniman getting knocked out by Robey during a scuffle. Disillusioned by
the record business, Penniman returned to Macon in 1954 and, struggling
with poverty, settled for work as a dishwasher for Greyhound Lines.
That year, he disbanded the Tempo Toppers and formed a harder-driving
rhythm and blues band, the Upsetters, which included drummer Charles Connor and saxophonist Wilbert "Lee Diamond" Smith and toured under Brantley's management.[30][31][32]
The band supported R&B singer Christine Kittrell on some
recordings, then began to tour successfully, even without a bass
guitarist, forcing drummer Connor to thump "real hard" on his bass drum
in order to get a "bass fiddle effect."[30] Around this time, Penniman signed a contract to tour with fellow R&B singer Little Johnny Taylor.
At the suggestion of Lloyd Price, Penniman sent a demo to Price's label, Specialty Records, in February 1955. Months passed before Penniman got a call from the label.[33] Finally in September of that year, Specialty owner Art Rupe loaned Penniman money to buy out of his Peacock contract and set him to work with producer Robert "Bumps" Blackwell.[34] Upon hearing Penniman's demo, Blackwell felt Penniman was Specialty's answer to Ray Charles, however, Penniman told him he preferred the sound of Fats Domino. Blackwell sent him to New Orleans where he recorded at Cosimo Matassa's J&M Studios, recording there with several of Domino's session musicians, including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Lee Allen.[35]
Initially, Penniman's recordings that month failed to produce much
inspiration or interest. Frustrated, Blackwell and Penniman went to
relax at the Dew Drop Inn nightclub. According to Blackwell, Penniman
then launched into a risqué dirty blues he titled "Tutti Frutti". Blackwell said he felt the song had hit potential and hired songwriter Dorothy LaBostrie to replace some of Little Richard's sexual lyrics with less controversial words.[36][37] Recorded in three takes in September 1955, "Tutti Frutti" was released as a single that November.[38]
Initial success and conversion (1955–1962)
A lot of songs I sang to crowds first to watch their reaction. That's how I knew they'd hit.
"Tutti Frutti" became an instant hit, reaching No. 2 on Billboard magazine's Rhythm and Blues Best-Sellers
chart and crossing over to the pop charts in both the United States and
overseas in the United Kingdom. It reached No. 21 on the Billboard Top 100 in America and No. 29 on the British singles chart, eventually selling a million copies.[29][40]
Penniman's next hit single, "Long Tall Sally"
(1956), hit number one on the R&B chart and number 13 on the Top
100 while reaching the top ten in Britain. Like "Tutti Frutti", it sold
over a million copies. Following his success, Little Richard built up
his backup band, The Upsetters, with the addition of saxophonists
Clifford "Gene" Burks and leaderGrady Gaines, bassist Olsie "Baysee" Robinson and guitarist Nathaniel "Buster" Douglas.[41]
Penniman began performing on package tours across the United States.
Art Rupe described the differences between Penniman and a similar
hitmaker of the early rock and roll period by stating that, while "the
similarities between Little Richard and Fats Domino for recording
purposes were close", Penniman would sometimes stand up at the piano
while he was recording and that onstage, where Domino was "plodding,
very slow", Penniman was "very dynamic, completely uninhibited,
unpredictable, wild. So the band took on the ambience of the vocalist."[42]
Penniman's performances, like most early rock and roll shows, resulted in integrated
audience reaction during an era where public places were divided into
"white" and "colored" domains. In these package tours, Penniman and
other artists such as Fats Domino and Chuck Berry
would enable audiences of both races to enter the building, albeit
still segregated (e.g. blacks on the balcony and whites on the main
floor). As his bandleader at the time, H.B. Barnum, explained, Penniman's performances enabled audiences to come together to dance.[43] Despite broadcasts on TV from local supremacist groups such as the North Alabama White Citizens Council
warning that rock and roll "brings the races together," Penniman's
popularity was helping to shatter the myth that black performers could
not successfully perform at "white-only venues," especially in the South
where racism was most overt.[44]
Penniman's high-energy antics included lifting his leg while playing
the piano, climbing on top of his piano, running on and off the stage
and throwing his souvenirs to the audience.[45]
Penniman also began using capes and suits studded with multi-colored
precious stones and sequins. Penniman said he began to be more
flamboyant onstage so no one would think he was "after the white girls".[46]
Penniman claims that a show at Baltimore's Royal Theatre in June 1956 led to women throwing their undergarments
onstage at him, resulting in other female fans repeating the action,
saying it was "the first time" that had happened to any artist.[47]
Penniman's show would stop several times that night due to fans being
restrained from jumping off the balcony and then rushing to the stage to
touch Penniman. Overall, Penniman would produce seven singles in the
United States alone in 1956, with five of them also charting in the UK,
including "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "The Girl Can't Help It" and "Lucille".
Immediately after releasing "Tutti Frutti", which was then protocol for
the industry, "safer" white recording artists such as Pat Boone
re-recorded the song, sending the song to the top twenty of the charts,
several positions higher than Penniman's. At the same time, fellow rock
and roll peers such as Elvis Presley and Bill Haley also recorded Penniman's songs later in the year. Befriending Alan Freed, Freed eventually put him in his "rock and roll" movies such as Don't Knock the Rock and Mister Rock and Roll. In 1957, Penniman was giving a larger singing role in the film, The Girl Can't Help It.[48] That year, he scored more hit success with songs such as "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'"
the latter becoming his first top ten single on the Billboard Top 100.
By the time he left Specialty in 1959, Penniman had scored a total of
nine top 40 pop singles and seventeen top 40 R&B singles.[49][50]
"Good Golly, Miss Molly", 45 rpm recording on Specialty Records
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Penniman relocated to Los Angeles.
After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer,
Penniman settled at a wealthy, formerly predominantly white
neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis.[53] Penniman's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in May 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks.[54] In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Penniman embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry.[55]
Penniman would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from
Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and
he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were
"holding it up".[56]
At the end of his Sydney performance, Penniman saw a bright red
fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply
shaken".[56] Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satelliteSputnik 1, Penniman claimed he took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.[55] Returning to the States ten days earlier than expected, Penniman read news of his original flight having crashed into the Pacific Ocean as a further sign to "do as God wanted".[57] After a "farewell performance" at the Apollo Theater and a "final" recording session with Specialty later that month, Penniman enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, to study theology.[58][59]
Despite his claims of spiritual rebirth, Penniman admitted his reasons
for leaving were more monetary. During his tenure at Specialty, despite
earning millions for the label, Penniman complained that he did not know
the label had cut the percentage of royalties he was to earn for his
recordings.[60] Specialty continued to release Penniman recordings, including "Good Golly, Miss Molly" and his version of “Kansas City”, until 1960. Finally ending his contract with the label, Penniman agreed to relinquish any royalties for his material.[61] In 1958, Penniman formed the Little Richard Evangelistic Team, traveling across the country to preach.[62]
A month after his conversion, Penniman met Ernestine Harvin, a
secretary from Washington, D.C., and the couple married on July 11,
1959.[63] Penniman ventured into gospel music, first recording for End Records, before signing with Mercury Records in 1961, where he eventually released King of the Gospel Singers, in 1962, produced by Quincy Jones, who later remarked that Penniman's vocals impressed him more than any other vocalist he had worked with.[64] His childhood heroine, Mahalia Jackson, wrote in the liner notes of the album that Penniman "sang gospel the way it should be sung".[65]
While Penniman was no longer charting in the US, some of his gospel
songs such as "He's Not Just a Soldier" and "He Got What He Wanted",
reached the pop charts in the US and the UK. [66]
Return to secular music (1962–1979)
I heard so much about
the audience reaction, I thought there must be some exaggeration. But it
was all true. He drove the whole house into a complete frenzy ... I
couldn't believe the power of Little Richard onstage. He was amazing.
In 1962, concert promoter Don Arden persuaded Little Richard to tour Europe after telling him his records were still selling well there. With fellow rock singer Sam Cooke as an opening act, Penniman, who featured a teenage Billy Preston
in his gospel band, figured it was a gospel tour and, after Cooke's
delayed arrival forced him to cancel his show on the opening date,
performed only gospel material on the show, leading to boos from the
audience expecting Penniman to sing his rock and roll hits. The
following night, Penniman viewed Cooke's well received performance.
Bringing back his competitive drive, Penniman and Preston warmed up in
darkness before launching into "Long Tall Sally", resulting in frenetic,
hysterical responses from the audience. A show at Mansfield's Granada Theatre ended early after fans rushed the stage.[68] Hearing of Penniman's shows, Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles,
asked Don Arden to allow his band to open for Penniman on some tour
dates, to which he agreed. The first show for which the Beatles opened
was at New Brighton's Tower Ballroom that October.[69] The following month they, along with Swedish singer Jerry Williams and his band The Violents,[70] opened for Little Richard at the Star-Club in Hamburg.[71] During this time, Little Richard advised the group on how to perform his songs and taught Paul McCartney his distinctive vocalizations.[71] Back in the US, Little Richard recorded six rock and roll songs with the Upsetters for Little Star Records, under the name "World Famous Upsetters", hoping this would keep his options open in maintaining his position as a minister. In the fall of 1963, Penniman was called by a concert promoter to rescue a sagging tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley and The Rolling Stones. Penniman agreed and helped to save the tour from flopping. At the end of that tour, Penniman was given his own TV special for Granada Television titled The Little Richard Spectacular. The special became a ratings hit and after 60,000 fan letters, was rebroadcast twice.[72]
In 1964, now openly re-embracing rock and roll again, Penniman released
"Bama Lama Bama Loo" on Specialty Records. Due to his UK exposure, the
song reached the top twenty there but only climbed to number 82 in his
native country.[73] Later in the year, he signed with Vee-Jay Records, then on its dying legs, to release his "comeback" album, Little Richard Is Back. Due to the arrival of the Beatles and other British bands as well as the rise of soul labels such as Motown and Stax Records and the popularity of James Brown, Penniman's new releases were not well promoted or well received by radio stations . In November, 1964, Jimi Hendrix joined Penniman's Upsetters band as a full member.[74][75] In the Spring of 1965, Penniman took Hendrix and Billy Preston to a New York studio where they recorded the Don Covay soul ballad, "I Don't Know What You've Got (But It's Got Me)", which became a number 12 R&B hit.[76][nb 1]
Hendrix and Penniman clashed over the spotlight, Hendrix's
tardiness, wardrobe and Hendrix's stage antics. Hendrix also complained
over not being properly paid by Penniman. In July 1965, Richard’s
Brother Charles fired Jimi. Hendrix's then rejoined The Isley Brothers' band, the IB Specials.[78] Penniman later signed with Modern Records, releasing a modest charter, "Do You Feel It?" before leaving for Okeh Records
in early 1966. Two poorly produced albums were released over time ,
first a live album , cut at the Domino , in Atlanta, Georgia. Okeh
paired Penniman with his old friend, Larry Williams, who produced two albums on Penniman, including the studio release, The Explosive Little Richard, which produced the modest charters "Poor Dog" and "Commandments of Love". His second Okeh album, Little Richard's Greatest Hits Recorded Live!, returned him to the album charts.[79][80][81] In 1967, Penniman signed with Brunswick Records but after clashing with the label over musical direction, he left the label that same year.
Little Richard in 1967
Penniman felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting
his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to
push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with
appropriate respect.[82]
Little Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little
support from his label. While Penniman managed to perform in huge venues
overseas such as England and France, Penniman was forced to perform in
the Chitlin' Circuit.
Penniman's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to
help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers.[83] Penniman later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings.[84]
Making matters worse, Penniman said, was his insistence on performing
in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation
movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers prevented many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to play his music.[85]
Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Penniman to focus
on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new
backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show,
"Where It's At". Penniman was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Penniman shows in Las Vegas
casinos and resorts, leading Penniman to adapt a wilder flamboyant and
androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing
guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Penniman was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Penniman produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.[86]
Responding to his reputation as a successful concert performer, Reprise Records signed Penniman in 1970 where he released the album, The Rill Thing,
with the philosophical single, "Freedom Blues", becoming his biggest
charted single in years. In May 1970, Penniman made the cover of Rolling Stone
magazine. Despite the success of "Freedom Blues", none of Penniman's
other Reprise singles charted with the exception of "Greenwood,
Mississippi", a swamp rock original by guitar hero, Travis Wammack, who
incidentally played on the track. It charted only charted briefly on the
Billboard Hot 100
and Cash Box pop chart, also on the Billboard Country charts; made a
strong showing on WWRL in New York, before disappearing. Penniman became
a featured guest instrumentalist and vocalist on recordings by acts
such as Delaney and Bonnie, Joey Covington and Joe Walsh and was prominently featured on Canned Heat's
1972 hit single, "Rockin' with the King". To keep up with his finances
and bookings, Penniman and three of his brothers formed a management
company, Bud Hole Incorporated.[87] By 1972, Penniman had entered the rock and roll revival circuit, and that year, he co-headlined the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley Stadium with fellow peer Chuck Berry
where he'd come onstage and announce himself "the king of rock and
roll", fittingly also the title of his 1971 album with Reprise and told
the packed audience there to "let it all hang out"; Penniman however was
booed during the show when he climbed on top of his piano and stopped
singing; he also seemed to ignore much of the crowd. To make matters
worse, he showed up with just five musicians, and struggled through low
lighting and bad microphones. When the concert film documenting the show
came out, his performance was considered generally strong, though his
fans noticed a drop in energy and vocal artistry. Two songs he performed
did not make the final cut of the film. The following year, he recorded
a charting
soul ballad , "In the Middle of the Night", released with proceeds
donated to victims of tornadoes that had caused damage in 12 states.[88] In 1976, Penniman re-recorded eighteen of his classic rock and roll hits in Nashville for K-Tel Records,
in high tech stereo recreations, with a single featuring live versions
of "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Rip It Up" reaching the UK singles chart.[89]
Penniman's performances began to take a toll by 1973, however,
suffering from voice problems and quirky marathon renditions. Penniman
later admitted that he was heavily addicted to drugs and alcohol at the
time. By 1977, worn out from years of abuse and wild partying as well as
a string of personal tragedies, Penniman quit rock and roll again and
returned to evangelism, releasing one gospel album, God's Beautiful City, in 1979.[90]
Comeback (1984–1999)
In 1984, Penniman filed a $112 million lawsuit against Specialty Records; Art Rupe and his publishing company, Venice Music; and ATV Music for not paying royalties to him after he left the label in 1959.[91] The suit was settled out of court in 1986.[92] According to some reports, Michael Jackson allegedly gave him monetary compensation for his work when he co-owned (with Sony-ATV) songs by the Beatles and Little Richard.[93] In 1985, Charles White released the singer's authorized biography, Quasar of Rock: The Life and Times of Little Richard, which returned Penniman to the spotlight.[94] Penniman returned to show business in what Rolling Stone would refer to as a "formidable comeback" following the book's release.[94]
Reconciling his roles as evangelist and rock and roll musician
for the first time, Penniman stated that the genre could be used for
good or evil.[95] After accepting a role in the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Little Richard and Billy Preston penned the faith-based rock and roll song "Great Gosh A'Mighty" for its soundtrack.[95] Little Richard won critical acclaim for his film role, and the song found success on the American and British charts.[95] The hit led to the release of the album Lifetime Friend (1986) on Warner Bros. Records, with songs deemed "messages in rhythm", including a gospel rap track.[96]
In addition to a version of "Great Gosh A'Mighty", cut in England, the
album featured two singles that charted in the UK, "Somebody's Comin'"
and "Operator". Penniman spent much of the rest of the decade as a guest
on TV shows and appearing in films, winning new fans with what was
referred to as his "unique comedic timing".[97] In 1989, Penniman provided rhythmic preaching and background vocals on the extended live version of the U2–B.B. King hit "When Love Comes to Town".
That same year, Little Richard returned to singing his classic hits
following a performance of "Lucille" at an AIDS benefit concert.[98] In 1990, Penniman contributed a spoken-word rap on Living Colour's hit song, "Elvis Is Dead", from their album Time's Up. [99][100] That same year he appeared in a cameo for the music video of Cinderella's "Shelter Me". The following year, he was one of the featured performers on the hit single and video "Voices That Care" that was produced to help boost the morale of US troops involved in Operation Desert Storm. He also recorded a rock and roll version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" that year that led to a deal with Disney Records, resulting in the release of a hit 1992 children's album, Shake It All About.
In 2000, Penniman's life was dramatized for the biographical film Little Richard,
which focused on his early years, including his heyday, his religious
conversion and his return to secular music in the early 1960s. Penniman
was played by Leon, who earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for his performance in this role. In 2002, Penniman contributed to the Johnny Cashtribute album, Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash.
In 2004-2005, he released two sets of unreleased and rare cuts, from the
Okeh label 1966/67 and the Reprise label 1970/72. Included was the full
“Southern Child” album, produced and composed mostly by Richard,
scheduled for release in 1972, but shelved. 2006, Little Richard was
featured in a popular advertisement for the GEICO brand.[102] A 2005 recording of his duet vocals with Jerry Lee Lewis on a cover of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" was included on Lewis's 2006 album, Last Man Standing. The same year, Penniman was a guest judge on the TV series Celebrity Duets. Penniman and Lewis performed alongside John Fogerty at the 2008 Grammy Awards in a tribute to the two artists considered to be cornerstones of rock and roll by the NARAS. That same year, Penniman appeared on radio host Don Imus' benefit album for sick children, The Imus Ranch Record.[103] In June 2010, Little Richard recorded a gospel track for an upcoming tribute album to songwriting legend Dottie Rambo. In 2009, Penniman was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame in a concert in New Orleans, attended by Fats Domino.
Throughout the first decade of the new millennium, Penniman kept
up a stringent touring schedule, performing primarily in the United
States and Europe. However, sciatic nerve pain in his left leg and then
replacement of the involved hip began affecting the frequency of his
performances by 2010. Despite his health problems, Penniman continued to
perform to receptive audiences and critics. Rolling Stone reported that at a performance at the Howard Theater
in Washington, D.C., in June 2012, Penniman was "still full of fire,
still a master showman, his voice still loaded with deep gospel and
raunchy power."[104] Little Richard performed a full 90-minute show at the Pensacola Interstate Fair in Pensacola, Florida, in October 2012, at the age of 79, and headlined at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas during Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend in March 2013.[105][106] In 2014, actor Brandon Mychal Smith received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Penniman in the James Brown biographical drama film Get on Up.[107][108][109] Mick Jagger co-produced the motion picture.[110][111]
In June 2015, Penniman appeared before a paying audience, clad in
sparkly boots and a brightly colored jacket at the Wildhorse Saloon in
Nashville to receive the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award from and raise
funds for the National Museum of African American Music. It was reported
that he charmed the crowd by reminiscing about his early days working
in Nashville nightclubs.[112][113]
In May 2016, the National Museum of African American Music issued a
press release indicating that Penniman was one of the key artists and
music industry leaders that attended its 3rd annual Celebration of
Legends Luncheon in Nashville honoring Shirley Caesar, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff with Rhapsody & Rhythm Awards.[114] In 2016, a new CD was released on Hitman Records, California (I'm Comin')
with released and previously unreleased material from the 1970s,
including an a cappella version of his 1975 single release, "Try To Help
Your Brother". On September 6, 2017, Penniman participated in a long
television interview, for the Christian Three Angels Broadcasting Network, dressed conservatively and unrecognizable from his stage persona.[citation needed]
Personal life
Relationships and family
Around 1956, Penniman became involved with Audrey Robinson, a 16-year-old college student, originally from Savannah, Georgia.[115][116][117]
Penniman and Robinson quickly got acquainted despite Robinson not being
a fan of rock and roll music. Penniman claimed in his 1984
autobiography that he invited other men to have sexual encounters with
her in groups and claimed to have once invited Buddy Holly to have sex with her; Robinson denied those claims.[115][118]
Penniman proposed marriage to Robinson shortly before he converted but
Robinson refused. Robinson later became known under the name Lee Angel
and became a stripper and socialite.[119]
She reconnected with Penniman in the 1960s though Robinson left him
again after Penniman's drug abuse worsened, before reuniting for good in
the 1980s.[98] Robinson was interviewed for Penniman's 1985 BBC documentary on the South Bank Show
and denied Penniman's claims as they went back and forth. According to
Robinson, Penniman would use her to buy food in white-only fast food
stores since Penniman could not get in due to the color of his skin
despite the fact that Robinson herself was black, she had a very light complexion.
Penniman met his only wife, Ernestine Harvin, at an evangelical
rally in October 1957. They began dating that year and wed on July 12,
1959, in California. According to Harvin, she and Little Richard
initially enjoyed a happy marriage with "normal" sexual relations.
Harvin claimed when the marriage ended in divorce in 1964, it was due to
her husband's celebrity status, noting that it had made life difficult
for her. Penniman would claim the marriage fell apart due to his being a
neglectful husband and his sexuality.[120]
Both Robinson and Harvin denied Penniman's claims that he was gay and
Penniman believed they did not know it because he was "such a pumper in those days".[120] During the marriage, Penniman and Harvin adopted a one-year-old boy, Danny Jones, from a late church associate. [115] Little Richard and his son remain close, with Jones often acting as one of his bodyguards.[121] Ernestine later married Mcdonald Campbell in Santa Barbara, California on March 23, 1975.
Sexuality
Penniman said in 1984 that he played with just girls as a child and felt feminine. He was subjected to homophobic jokes and ridicule because of his manner of walk and talk.[122] His father brutally punished him whenever he caught his son wearing his mother's makeup and clothing [123] The singer claimed to have been sexually involved with both sexes as a teenager.[124] Because of his effeminate mannerisms, his father kicked him out of their family home at 15.[4] In 1985, on The South Bank Show, Penniman explained, "my daddy put me out of the house. He said he wanted seven boys, and I had spoiled it, because I was gay."[125] Penniman first got involved in voyeurism
in his early twenties, when a female friend would drive him around and
pick up men who would allow him to watch them have sex in the backseat
of cars. Penniman's activity caught the attention of Macon police in
1955 and he was arrested after a gas station attendant in Macon reported
sexual activity in a car Penniman was occupying with a heterosexual couple. Cited on a sexual misconduct charge, he spent three days in jail and was temporarily banned from performing in Macon, Georgia.[126]
In the early 1950s, he became acquainted with openly gay musician Billy Wright,
who helped in establishing Penniman's look, advising him to use pancake
makeup on his face and wear his hair in a long-haired pompadour style
similar to his.[25]
As Penniman got used to the makeup, he ordered his band, the Upsetters,
to wear the makeup too, to gain entry into predominantly white venues
during performances, later stating, "I wore the make-up so that white
men wouldn't think I was after the white girls. It made things easier
for me, plus it was colorful too."[127] In 2000, Richard told Jet magazine, "I figure if being called a sissy would make me famous, let them say what they want to."[128] Penniman's look, however, still attracted female audiences, who would send him naked photos and their phone numbers.[129][130] Groupies began throwing undergarments at Penniman during performances.
During Penniman's heyday, his obsession with voyeurism carried on
with his girlfriend Audrey Robinson. Penniman later wrote that Robinson
would have sex with men while she sexually stimulated Penniman.[129] Despite claiming to be born again after leaving rock and roll for the church in 1957, Penniman left Oakwood College after exposing himself to a male student. After the incident was reported to the student's father, Penniman withdrew from the college.[131] In 1962, Penniman was arrested for spying on men urinating in toilets at a Trailways bus station in Long Beach, California.[132]
Audrey Robinson disputed Penniman's claims of homosexuality in 1985.
After re-embracing rock and roll in the mid-1960s, he began
participating in orgies and continued to be a voyeur. In his 1984 book,
while demeaning homosexuality as "unnatural" and "contagious", he told
Charles White he was "omnisexual".[133] In 1995, Little Richard told Penthouse that he always knew he was gay, saying "I've been gay all my life".[115] In 2007, Mojo Magazine referred to Little Richard as "bisexual".[134]
In October 2017, Penniman once again denounced homosexuality in an
interview with Three Angels Broadcasting Network, calling homosexual and
transgender identity "unnatural affection" that goes against "the way God wants you to live".[135]
Drug use
During his initial heyday in the 1950s rock and roll scene, Penniman was a teetotaler
abstaining from alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Penniman often fined
bandmates for drug and alcohol use during this era. By the mid-1960s,
however, Penniman began drinking heavy amounts of alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana.[136] By 1972, he had developed an addiction to cocaine. He later lamented during that period, "They should have called me Lil Cocaine, I was sniffing so much of that stuff!"[137] By 1975, he had developed addictions to both heroin and PCP,
otherwise known as "angel dust". His drug and alcohol use began to
affect his professional career and personal life. "I lost my reasoning,"
he would later recall.[138]
He said of his cocaine addiction that he did whatever he could to use cocaine.[139] Penniman admitted that his addictions to cocaine, PCP and heroin were costing him as much as $1,000 a day.[140] In 1977, longtime friend Larry Williams
once showed up with a gun and threatened to kill him for failing to pay
his drug debt. Penniman later mentioned that this was the most fearful
moment of his life because Williams's own drug addiction made him wildly
unpredictable. Penniman did, however, also acknowledge that he and
Williams were "very close friends" and when reminiscing of the
drug-fueled clash, he recalled thinking "I knew he loved me – I hoped he
did!"[141]
Within that same year, Penniman had several devastating personal
experiences, including his brother Tony's death of a heart attack, the
accidental shooting of his nephew that he loved like a son, and the
murder of two close personal friends – one a valet at "the heroin man's
house."[140]
The combination of these experiences convinced the singer to give up
drugs including alcohol, along with rock and roll, and return to the
ministry.[142]
Religion
Penniman's family had deep evangelical (Baptist and African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)) Christian roots, including two uncles and a grandfather who were preachers.[13] He also took part in Macon's Pentecostal churches, which were his favorites mainly due to their music, charismatic praise, dancing in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.[10] At age 10, influenced by Pentecostalism, Little Richard would go around saying he was a faith healer,
singing gospel music to people who were feeling sick and touching them.
He later recalled that they would often indicate that they felt better
after he prayed for them and would sometimes give him money.[10] Little Richard had aspirations of being a preacher due to the influence of singing evangelist Brother Joe May.[13] After he was born again in 1957, Penniman enrolled at Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama, a mostly black Seventh-day Adventist college, to study theology. Little Richard returned to secular music in the early 1960s.[143]
He was eventually ordained a minister in 1970 and resumed evangelical
activities in 1977. Penniman represented Memorial Bibles International
and sold their Black Heritage Bible, which highlighted the Book's many
black characters. As a preacher, he evangelized in small churches and
packed auditoriums of 20,000 or more. His preaching focused on uniting
the races and bringing lost souls to repentance through God's love.[144]
In 1984, Penniman's mother, Leva Mae, died following a period of
illness. Only a few months prior to her death, Penniman promised her
that he would remain a Christian.[95] During the 1980s and 1990s, Penniman officiated at celebrity
weddings. In 2006, Little Richard wedded twenty couples who won a
contest in one ceremony.[145]
The musician used his experience and knowledge as a minister and elder
statesman of rock and roll to preach at funerals of musical friends such
as Wilson Pickett and Ike Turner.[146] At a benefit concert in 2009 to raise funds to help rebuild children's playgrounds destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Penniman asked guest of honor Fats Domino
to pray with him and others. His assistants handed out inspirational
booklets at the concert, which was a common practice at Penniman's
shows.[147]
Penniman told a Howard Theatre, Washington, D.C. audience in June 2012,
"I know this is not Church, but get close to the Lord. The world is
getting close to the end. Get close to the Lord."[104]
In 2013, Penniman elaborated on his spiritual philosophies, stating
"God talked to me the other night. He said He's getting ready to come.
The world's getting ready to end and He's coming, wrapped in flames of
fire with a rainbow around his throne." Rolling Stone reported
his apocalyptic prophesies generated snickers from some audience members
as well as cheers of support. Penniman responded to the laughter by
stating: "When I talk to you about [Jesus], I'm not playing. I'm almost
81 years old. Without God, I wouldn't be here."[148] In 2017, he came back to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and was rebaptized. 3ABN interviewed Penniman, and later he shared his personal testimony at 3ABN Fall Camp Meeting 2017.[149][150][151]
Health problems
In October 1985, Penniman returned to the United States from England, where he had finished recording his album Lifetime Friend, to film a guest spot on the show, Miami Vice. Following the taping, he accidentally crashed his sports car into a telephone pole in West Hollywood, California. He suffered a broken right leg, broken ribs and head and facial injuries.[152] His recovery from the accident took several months.[152] His accident prevented him from being able to attend the inaugural Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in January 1986 where he was one of several inductees. He instead supplied a recorded message.[79] In 2007, Little Richard began having problems walking due to sciatica in his left leg, requiring him to use crutches.[153][154]
In November 2009, he entered a hospital to have replacement surgery on
his left hip. Despite returning to performance the following year,
Penniman's problems with his hip continued and he has since been brought
onstage by wheelchair. He has told fans that his surgery has his hip "breaking inside" and refuses to have further work on it.[citation needed] On September 30, 2014, he revealed to CeeLo Green at a Recording Academy fundraiser that he had suffered a heart attack at his home the week prior and stated he used aspirin and had his son turn the air conditioner on, which his doctor confirmed had saved his life. Little Richard stated, "Jesus had something for me. He brought me through".[148] On April 28, 2016, Little Richard's friend, Bootsy Collins, stated on his Facebook
page that, "he is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers
to lift him up." Reports subsequently began being published on the
internet stating that Little Richard was in grave health and that his
family were gathering at his bedside. On May 3, 2016, Rolling Stone
reported that Little Richard and his lawyer provided a health
information update in which Richard stated, "not only is my family not
gathering around me because I'm ill, but I'm still singing. I don't
perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I
had hip surgery a while ago but I'm healthy.'" His lawyer also
reported: "He's 83. I don't know how many 83-year-olds still get up and
rock it out every week, but in light of the rumors, I wanted to tell you
that he's vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and
he's still very active in a daily routine."[155] Penniman is now wheelchair bound after his failed hip surgery and after injuries from a fall.[citation needed]
Legacy
Music
He claims to be "the
architect of rock and roll", and history would seem to bear out Little
Richard's boast. More than any other performer – save, perhaps, Elvis
Presley, Little Richard blew the lid off the Fifties, laying the
foundation for rock and roll with his explosive music and charismatic
persona. On record, he made spine-tingling rock and roll. His
frantically charged piano playing and raspy, shouted vocals on such
classics as "Tutti Frutti", "Long Tall Sally" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" defined the dynamic sound of rock and roll.
Penniman's music and performance style had a pivotal effect on the
shape of the sound and style of popular music genres of the 20th
century.[29][37][156] As a rock and roll pioneer, Penniman embodied its spirit more flamboyantly than any other performer.[157]
Penniman's raspy shouting style gave the genre one of its most
identifiable and influential vocal sounds and his fusion of
boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and gospel music blazed its rhythmic
trail.[157][158] Combining elements of boogie, gospel, and blues, Little Richard introduced several of rock music's most characteristic musical features, including its loud volume and vocal style emphasizing power, and its distinctive beat and rhythm. He departed from boogie-woogie's shuffle rhythm and introduced a new distinctive rock beat, where the beat division is even at all tempos.
He reinforced the new rock rhythm with a two-handed approach, playing
patterns with his right hand, with the rhythm typically popping out in
the piano's high register. His new rhythm, which he introduced with "Tutti Frutti" (1955), became the basis for the standard rock beat, which was later consolidated by Chuck Berry.[159] "Lucille" (1957) foreshadowed the rhythmic feel of 1960s classic rock in several ways, including its heavy bassline, slower tempo, strong rock beat played by the entire band, and verse–chorus form similar to blues.[160] Penniman's voice was able to generate croons, wails, and screams unprecedented in popular music.[29] He was cited by two of soul music's pioneers, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke,
as contributing to that genre's early development. Redding stated that
most of his music was patterned after Penniman's, referring to his 1953
recording "Directly From My Heart To You" as the personification of
soul, and that he had "done a lot for [him] and [his] soul brothers in
the music business."[161] Cooke said in 1962 that Penniman had done "so much for our music".[162] Cooke had a top 40 hit in 1963 with his cover of Penniman's 1956 hit "Send Me Some Loving".[163] James Brown
and others credited Little Richard and his mid-1950s backing band, The
Upsetters, with having been the first to put the funk in the rock beat.
This innovation sparked the transition from 1950s rock and roll to 1960s
funk[164][165][166] Penniman's hits of the mid-1950s, such as "Tutti Frutti", "Long
Tall Sally", "Keep A-Knockin'" and "Good Golly Miss Molly", were
generally characterized by playful lyrics with sexually suggestive
connotations.[29]AllMusic
writer Richie Unterberger stated that Little Richard "merged the fire
of gospel with New Orleans R&B, pounding the piano and wailing with
gleeful abandon", and that while "other R&B greats of the early
1950s had been moving in a similar direction, none of them matched the
sheer electricity of Richard's vocals. With his high-speed deliveries,
ecstatic trills, and the overjoyed force of personality in his singing,
he was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the
similar, yet different, guise of rock and roll."[37] Due to his innovative music and style, he's often widely acknowledged as the "architect of rock and roll".[79] Ray Charles
introduced him at a concert in 1988 as "a man that started a kind of
music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today."[167] Rock and roll pioneer Bo Diddley called Penniman "one of a kind" and "a show business genius" that "influenced so many in the music business".[162] Penniman's contemporaries, including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, all recorded covers of his works.[168]
Taken by his music and style, and personally covering four of Little
Richard's tunes on his own two breakthrough albums in 1956, Presley told
Little Richard in 1969 that his music was an inspiration to him and
that he was "the greatest".[169]Pat Boone noted in 1984, "no one person has been more imitated than Little Richard".[170]
As they wrote about him for their Man of the Year – Legend category in
2010, GQ magazine stated that Little Richard "is, without question, the
boldest and most influential of the founding fathers of rock'n'roll".[133] R&B pioneer Johnny Otis
stated that "Little Richard is twice as valid artistically and
important historically as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and the Rolling
Stones put together."[162]
Society
In addition to his musical style, Penniman was cited as one of the first crossover black artists, reaching audiences of all races. His music and concerts broke the color line,[171] drawing blacks and whites together despite attempts to sustain segregation. As H.B. Barnum explained in Quasar of Rock, Little Richard "opened the door. He brought the races together." [172] Barnum described Little Richard's music as not being "boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy things, they were fun records, all fun. And they had a lot to say sociologically in our country and the world."[46]
Barnum also stated that Penniman's "charisma was a whole new thing to
the music business", explaining that "he would burst onto the stage from
anywhere, and you wouldn't be able to hear anything but the roar of the
audience. He might come out and walk on the piano. He might go out
into the audience." Barnum also stated that Penniman was innovative in
that he would wear colorful capes, blouse shirts, makeup and suits
studded with multi-colored precious stones and sequins, and that he also
brought flickering stage lighting from his show business experience
into performance venues where rock and roll artists performed.[173]
In 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored
Penniman for helping to shatter the color line on the music charts
changing American culture forever.[113][174]
"Little Richard was always
my main man. How hard must it have been for him: gay, black and singing
in the South? But his records are a joyous good time from beginning to
end." – Lemmy, Motörhead[175]
Influence
Penniman influenced generations of performers across musical genres.[48]James Brown and Otis Redding both idolized him.[170][176] Brown allegedly came up with the Famous Flames debut hit, "Please, Please, Please", after Richard had written the words on a napkin.[177][178] Redding started his professional career with Little Richard's band, The Upsetters.[179] He first entered a talent show performing Penniman's "Heeby Jeebies", winning for 15 consecutive weeks.[180]Ike Turner claimed most of Tina Turner's
early vocal delivery was based on Little Richard, something Penniman
himself reiterated in the foreword of Turner's biography, Takin' Back My Name.[181]Bob Dylan
first performed covers of Penniman's songs on piano in high school with
his rock and roll group, the Golden Chords; in 1959 when leaving
school, he wrote in his yearbook under "Ambition": "to join Little
Richard".[182]Jimi Hendrix
was influenced in appearance (clothing and hairstyle/mustache) and
sound by Penniman. He was quoted in 1966 saying, "I want to do with my
guitar what Little Richard does with his voice."[183] Others influenced by Penniman early on in their lives included Bob Seger and John Fogerty.[184][185]Michael Jackson admitted that Penniman had been a huge influence on him prior to the release of Off the Wall.[186] Rock critics noted similarities between Prince's androgynous look, music and vocal style to Little Richard's.[187][188][189] The origins of Cliff Richard's name change from Harry Webb was seen as a partial tribute to his musical hero Little Richard and singer Rick Richards.[190] Several members of The Beatles were heavily influenced by Penniman, including Paul McCartney and George Harrison. McCartney idolized him in school and later used his recordings as inspiration for his uptempo rockers, such as "I'm Down.".[191][192] "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public.[193]
McCartney would later state, "I could do Little Richard's voice, which
is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing. It's like an out-of-body
experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a
foot above your head to sing it."[194]
During the Beatles' Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, Harrison
commented, "thank you all very much, especially the rock 'n' rollers,
an' Little Richard there, if it wasn't for (gesturing to Little
Richard), it was all his fault, really."[195] Upon hearing "Long Tall Sally" in 1956, John Lennon later commented that he was so impressed that he "couldn't speak".[196] Rolling Stones members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
were also profoundly influenced by Little Richard, with Jagger citing
him as his introduction to R&B music and referring to him as "the
originator and my first idol".[67] Penniman was an early vocal influence on Rod Stewart.[197]David Bowie called Little Richard his "inspiration" stating upon listening to "Tutti Frutti" that he "heard God".[198][199] After opening for him with his band Bluesology, pianist Reginald Dwight was inspired to be a "rock and roll piano player", later changing his name to Elton John.[200]Farrokh Bulsara performed covers of Little Richard's songs as a teen, before finding fame as Freddie Mercury, frontman for Queen.[201]Lou Reed
referred to Penniman as his "rock and roll hero", deriving inspiration
from "the soulful, primal force" of the sound Penniman and his
saxophonist made on "Long Tall Sally." Reed later stated, "I don't know
why and I don't care, but I wanted to go to wherever that sound was and
make a life."[202]Patti Smith
said, "To me, Little Richard was a person that was able to focus a
certain physical, anarchistic, and spiritual energy into a form which we
call rock 'n' roll ... I understood it as something that had to do with
my future. When I was a little girl, Santa Claus didn't turn me on.
Easter Bunny didn't turn me on. God turned me on. Little Richard turned
me on."[203] The music of Deep Purple and Motörhead was also heavily influenced by Little Richard, as well as that of AC/DC.[204][205] The latter's early lead vocalist and co-songwriter Bon Scott idolized Little Richard and aspired to sing like him, its lead guitarist and co-songwriter Angus Young was first inspired to play guitar after listening to Penniman's music, and rhythm guitarist and co-writer Malcolm Young derived his signature sound from playing his guitar like Penniman's piano.[206][207][208][209][204][205] Later performers such as Mystikal, André "André 3000" Benjamin of Outkast and Bruno Mars
were cited by critics as having emulated Penniman's style in their own
works. Mystikal's rap vocal delivery was compared to Penniman's.[210] André 3000's vocals in Outkast's hit, "Hey Ya!", were compared to an "indie rock Little Richard".[211] Bruno Mars admitted Little Richard was one of his earliest influences.[212] Mars' song, "Runaway Baby" from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was cited by The New York Times as "channeling Little Richard".[213] Prior to his passing in 2017, Audioslave's and Soundgarden's frontman Chris Cornell traced his musical influences back to Penniman via The Beatles.[214]
Awards and honors
Little Richard, interviewed during the 60th Annual Academy Awards, 1988
Penniman received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.[215] In 1984, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, being a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.[79] In 1990, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994.[216] In 1993, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[217] In 1997, he was given the American Music Award of Merit.[218] In 2002, along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, Little Richard was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.[219] That same year, he was inducted into the NAACPImage Award Hall of Fame.[220] A year later, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.[221] Four years afterwards, he received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.[222] In 2008, he received a star at Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.[223] In 2009, he was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.[224] The UK issue of GQ named him its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.[225] Penniman appeared in person to receive an honorary degree from his hometown's Mercer University on May 11, 2013.[226]
The day before the doctorate of humanities degree was to be bestowed
upon him, the mayor of Macon announced that one of Little Richard's
childhood homes, an historic site, will be moved to a rejuvenated
section of that city's Pleasant Hill district. It will be restored and
named the Little Richard Penniman – Pleasant Hill Resource House, a
meeting place where local history and artifacts will be displayed as
provided by residents.[227][228][229] Penniman was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame on May 7, 2015.[230] On June 6, 2015, Penniman was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame[231]
On June 19, 2015, the National Museum of African American Music honored
Penniman with the Rhapsody & Rhythm Award for his key role in the
formation of popular music genres, influencing singers and musicians
across genres from Rock to Hip-Hop, and helping to shatter the color
line on the music charts changing American culture forever.[113][174] In 2010, Time Magazine listed Here's Little Richard as one of the 100 Greatest and Most Influential Albums of All Time.[54] Included in numerous Rolling Stone listed his Here's Little Richard at number fifty on the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[232] He was ranked eighth on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.[233]Rolling Stone listed three of Little Richard's recordings, "The Girl Can't Help It", "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti", on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[234] Two of the latter songs and "Good Golly, Miss Molly" were listed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[235] The Grammy Hall of Fame inducted several of Little Richard's recordings including "Tutti Frutti", "Lucille", "Long Tall Sally" and Here's Little Richard.[236] In 2007, an eclectic panel of renowned recording artists voted "Tutti Frutti" number one on Mojo's The Top 100 Records That Changed The World, hailing the recording as "the sound of the birth of rock and roll."[237][238] In April 2012, Rolling Stone magazine declared that the song "still has the most inspired rock lyric on record."[239] The same recording was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010, with the library claiming the "unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music".[240] In early 2019, Maggie Gonzalez, a resident of Macon, Georgia,
began an online campaign proposing that a statue of Little Richard be
erected in downtown Macon, taking the place of a Confederate memorial
that currently occupies the space. Georgia law forbids the tearing down
of Confederate statues, though they can be relocated; Gonzalez has
proposed that it could be moved to nearby Rose Hill Cemetery.[241]
Catalina Caper[242] (aka Never Steal Anything Wet, 1967), Richard lip-syncs an original tune, "Scuba Party", still unreleased on record by 2019.
Little Richard: Live at the Toronto Peace Festival[242] (1969) – released on DVD in 2009 by Shout! Factory
The London Rock & Roll Show[242](1973),
performing "Lucille", "Rip It Up", "Good Golly Miss Molly", "Tutti
Frutti", "I Believe" [a capella, a few lines], and "Jenny Jenny"
Let the Good Times Roll
(1973) featured performances and behind-the-scenes candid footage of
Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Bill Haley, the
Five Satins, the Shirelles, Chubby Checker, and Danny and the Juniors.[243]
Notes
Three
other songs were recorded during the sessions, "Dance A Go Go" aka
"Dancin' All Around The World", "You Better Stop", and "Come See About
Me" (possibly an instrumental), but “You Better Stop” was not issued
until 1971 and “Come See About Me” , has yet to see the light of day.[77]
Citations
Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues - A Regional Experience. Santa Barbara: Praeger Publishers. p. 275. ISBN978-0313344237.
Pegg 2002, p. 50: "Although they still had the audiences together in the building, they were there together. And most times, before the end of the night, they would be all mixed together".
White 2003, p. 102: "Richard had such a unique voice and style that no one has ever matched it – even to this day".
White 2003,
p. 103: "He sang gospel the way it should be sung. He had that
primitive beat and sound that came so naturally ... the soul in his
singing was not faked. It was real".
McDermott 2009, p. 12: Hendrix recording with Little Richard; Shadwick 2003, pp. 56–57: "I Don't Know What You Got (But It's Got Me)" recorded in New York City.
Ewbank 2005, p. 7: "He also had an impact on the young Rod Stewart: 'I remember trying to sound like Little Richard'".
White 2003,
p. 228: "After hearing Little Richard on record, I bought a saxophone
and came into the music business. Little Richard was my inspiration".
Blackwell 2004,
p. 65: "when I saw Little Richard standing on top of the piano, all the
stage lights, sequins and energy, I decided then and there that I
wanted to be a rock and roll piano player".
Berry, Jason (September 30, 2009). Up from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music since World War II. University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press. ISBN978-1-887366-87-8.
Nite, Norm N. (1984). Rock
on:The solid gold years – Volume 1 of Rock on: The Illustrated
Encyclopedia of Rock N' Roll, Rock on: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of
Rock N' Roll. Harper & Row. ISBN978-0-06-181642-0.
Pegg, Bruce (October 1, 2002). Brown Eyed Handsome Man: The Life and Hard Times of Chuck Berry: An Unauthorized Biography. Psychology Press. ISBN978-0-415-93748-1.
THE MUSIC OF LITTLE RICHARD: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH LITTLE RICHARD
Kofi Natambu, editor of and contributor to Sound Projections, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He has written extensively about music as a critic and historian for many publications, including the Black Scholar, Downbeat, Solid Ground: A New World Journal, Detroit Metro Times, KONCH, the Panopticon Review,Black Renaissance Noire, the Village Voice, the City Sun (NYC), the Poetry Project Newsletter (NYC), and the African American Review. He is the author of a biography Malcolm X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: The Melody Never Stops (Past Tents Press) and Intervals (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of Solid Ground: A New World Journal, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology Nostalgia for the Present (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.
It's almost strange to say, but there's really a discernible link
between Little Richard and Amiri Baraka. So much of what's written about
Little Richard is over there in Rock n' Roll, and much of what's
written about Baraka is over here in poetry. Still, there are links
between the two, and one of those links is James Brown.
Shortly after the release of "Tutti Frutti", Penniman relocated to Los Angeles.
After achieving success as a recording artist and live performer,
Penniman settled at a wealthy, formerly predominantly white
neighborhood, living close to black celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis.[53] Penniman's first album, Here's Little Richard, was released by Specialty in May 1957 and peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Top LPs chart. Similar to most albums released during that era, the album featured six released singles and "filler" tracks.[54] In early 1958, Specialty released his second album, Little Richard, which didn't chart. In October 1957, Penniman embarked on a package tour in Australia with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. During the middle of the tour, he shocked the public by announcing he was following a life in the ministry.[55]
Penniman would claim in his autobiography that during a flight from
Melbourne to Sydney that his plane was experiencing some difficulty and
he claimed to have seen the plane's red hot engines and felt angels were
"holding it up".[56]
At the end of his Sydney performance, Penniman saw a bright red
fireball flying across the sky above him and claimed he was "deeply
shaken".[56] Though it was eventually told to him that it was the launching of the first artificial Earth satellite Sputnik 1, Penniman claimed he took it as a "sign from God" to repent from performing secular music and his wild lifestyle at the time.[55]
Penniman felt that producers on his labels worked in not promoting
his records during this period. Later, he claimed they kept trying to
push him to records similar to Motown and felt he wasn't treated with
appropriate respect.[82]
Little Richard often performed in dingy clubs and lounges with little
support from his label. While Penniman managed to perform in huge venues
overseas such as England and France, Penniman was forced to perform in
the Chitlin' Circuit.
Penniman's flamboyant look, while a hit during the 1950s, failed to
help his labels to promote him to more conservative black record buyers.[83] Penniman later claimed that his decision to "backslide" from his ministry, led religious clergymen to protest his new recordings.[84]
Making matters worse, Penniman said, was his insistence on performing
in front of integrated audiences at the time of the black liberation
movement shortly after the Watts riots and the formation of the Black Panthers prevented many black radio disk jockeys in certain areas of the country, including Los Angeles, to play his music.[85]
Now acting as his manager, Larry Williams convinced Penniman to focus
on his live shows. By 1968, he had ditched the Upsetters for his new
backup band, the Crown Jewels, performing on the Canadian TV show,
"Where It's At". Penniman was also featured on the Monkees TV special 33⅓ Revolutions per Monkee in April 1969. Williams booked Penniman shows in Las Vegas
casinos and resorts, leading Penniman to adapt a wilder flamboyant and
androgynous look, inspired by the success of his former backing
guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Penniman was soon booked at rock festivals such as the Atlantic City Pop Festival where he stole the show from headliner Janis Joplin. Penniman produced a similar show stealer at the Toronto Pop Festival with John Lennon as the headliner. These successes brought Little Richard to talk shows such as the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the Dick Cavett Show, making him a major celebrity again.[86]
In 1994, Penniman sang the theme song to the award-winning PBS Kids and TLC animated television series The Magic School Bus based on the book series created by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen and published by Scholastic Corporation. He also opened Wrestlemania X from Madison Square Garden on March 20 that year miming to his re worked rendition of "America the Beautiful".
Penniman received the Cashbox Triple Crown Award for "Long Tall Sally" in 1956.[215] In 1984, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, being a member of the initial class of inductees chosen for that honor.[79] In 1990, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994.[216] In 1993, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[217] In 1997, he was given the American Music Award of Merit.[218] In 2002, along with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, Little Richard was honored as one of the first group of BMI icons at the 50th Annual BMI Pop Awards.[219] That same year, he was inducted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame.[220] A year later, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2006, he was inducted into the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame.[221] Four years afterwards, he received a plaque on the theater's Walk of Fame.[222] In 2008, he received a star at Nashville's Music City Walk of Fame.[223] In 2009, he was inducted to the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.[224] The UK issue of GQ named him its Man of the Year in its Legend category in 2010.[225]
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