People my age and older grew up knowing Little Richard as one of the founding fathers of rock ‘n roll—and the genre’s most flamboyant practitioner. Little Richard survived the British Invasion, even encouraged it through his friendship with The Beatles. He ping-ponged between religious conversions and ecstatic fits of unadulterated sin. He was lauded during a run of early ’70s rock revivalism, milking it for all the money white record industry types probably stole from him in his prime.
In the early ’80s he experienced a rebirth playing himself at any given opportunity, through a best-selling memoir, a fine turn in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and numerous commercials and talk-show appearances. By the time the late-’80s rolled into the ’90s, Prince was the high-pitched, keee-RAAAY-zeee dude with make-up and a bouffant hairdo. Hipsters found the need to “discover” Esquerita and countless other outsider loons. All kinds of musicians were fabulous, found sashaying down runways, winking at their sexuality. It was all in good fun, but somehow the guy who started it all seemed to be taken for granted.
Maybe I’m wrong (which I’ve been known to be), but I suspect that a younger generation of hipsters takes Little Richard for granted. It probably goes with the territory of playing one’s self for 60 years, but before he dies (whenever that may be—I’m not suggesting the time is near) I hope we take a few moments to appreciate just what a musical, entertainment, and social dynamo he is. The Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame induction speech/performance for Otis Redding that kicks off this post something special. He’s in character, but he’s also in the moment. The guy is the real-deal rock ‘n roll flake. There’s a natural warmth and pathos to his freak show that account for his status among rock ‘n roll flakes, that appeal to me no matter how much I want to stroke my beard and tamp my pipe at the same-old spectacle. Mach schau, Richard, mach schau!
I’ll tell you what happened to Little Richard – he spent too much time in the 1970s being a “personality” rather than a performer. He wasn’t old enough to claim the excuse of being Elder Statesman yet, and he embraced shameless self-parody a little too much. His TV appearances were frequently camp exercises and his records even in the midst of a ’50s revival were too often embarrassments. He did well when he really tried like on 1970’s The Rill Thing, but much of the time he seemed to be content with coasting on image. Was it his fault or the fault of his handlers and publicists? Who knows? The result was the same – Richard was perhaps unfairly fixed in peoples’ minds as a sometimes-talented but eccentrically goofball loon. Rolling Stone wasn’t particularly kind to him even in 1971:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/little-richard-kings-of-rocknroll-series-19711125?print=true
Listen to the title cut from the reviewed album – it could have been a pretty good song but it’s turned into a sad joke by the self-serving showbiz pap that leads it off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuKrOLeiI5s
Now here’s Richard singing “Freedom Blues” from The Rill Thing. This is him genuinely trying. What a contrast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1KmS5_nehQ
I think you both nailed it in terms of what happened to him: he spent too long cashing checks playing Little Richard instead of being Little Richard. Imagine what Elvis’ legacy might be like if he survived ’77 and spent the ’80s popping up in TV and commercials in full jumpsuited Fat Elvis regalia? On top of that, the only thing he presented of himself musically in a major way during that run was either just him sitting at a piano going “WOOOOO” or him yelling about how the Beatles ripped him off.
I don’t think he comes into play for “hipsters” at all, he’s kind of a non-entity now that we’ve reached a time far enough that kids weren’t even around for “Spies Like Us”-era Little Richard nostalgia. Which is to say, I think your average kid today doesn’t take him for granted so much as may not even know what Tutti Frutti is. There’s no place where you’d hear his music anymore, especially with Oldies radio now essentially starting in 1968. “Hipsters” are probably more likely to be aware of Little Richard than the average young music listener, all things considered, since there’s a greater appreciation of the “create a persona and ride it out” side of showbiz among them.
But I do agree with the idea that he’s become, through whatever fault, sadly underrated. I think the guy was massively talented and is a pretty key piece in the development of rock. I won’t go so far as to say he’s solely responsible for any of it, but a lot of things we talk about like Mach Schau, Look and perhaps most directly, directly cultivating a rock stage persona and playing up a “Rock Superpower” are all part of his legacy, not to mention going pretty full steam into making sex a big lyrical focus for mainstream radio hits.
We had that massive thread a while ago about the origins of “Rock Music”, and of all the people who came up, I don’t know that any of them had that stage presence/theatrical It Factor that Little Richard did, and that’s a huge piece of rock and pop music. Does anyone of the pre-or-early rock era foretell glam more than Little Richard?
And to back up what tonyola says above, when he did manage to get on track and actually focus on the music, the guy was great. I think, among his hits, Long Tall Sally, Miss Molly, Rip It Up, Lucille, Keep A Knockin’ and others are genuinely pretty kick ass rock ‘n roll.
Has anyone heard any of his unreleased country album from 1972? I’ve heard at least one song off there (“If You Pick Her Too Hard (She Comes Out Of Tune)”) and it kind of blew me away. Not at all what you’d expect out of him, but showcasing how great his voice could be in a different context. I think that, somewhere in there, he might have had a chance to reinvent himself in the mold that Ray Charles and Willie Nelson did – in terms of being able to freely jump pretty much every musical genre – if he’d focused on “genuinely trying” instead of becoming victim to his own persona.
My kids have both Lucille and Tutti Frutti on their playlists and they like the songs. They’re only 4 and 6 but I look forward to that Manchurian Candidate moment about 10-15 years from now when their going through a phase of listening to something god awful and the phrase “a wop bop a lula a lop bam boom” snaps them out of it.
Now if I could only get them to pay more attention to the Bo Diddley tracks…
LR is flat-out great. The sheer fury and frenzy of those early records is wonder to behold even after more than 50 years. Oh, my soul!
I was just reading about LR in a book called Temples of Sound. It documents the great American recording studios. The chapter on J&M studios and Cosimo’s in New Orleans focuses on the awesomeness of the early LR recordings. As a drummer, I MUST give props to Earl Palmer, the drummer on Lucille etc. As you know he went on to even more greatness when he was hired by a new little company in Memphis called STAX. That’s some pretty choice lineage there!
Little Richard was hurricane force.
For a guy credited with bringing the glitz, it seems unfair to knock him for camping it up for a few bucks in the ’70 & 80’s. But, it does kind of prevent him from making a “serious” comeback bid. I wouldn’t buy into it; and I’m probably a primary demographic for that kind of thing.
Earlier today I was listening to Springsteen live at the Roxy in 1975 doing the Detroit Medley – Devil With A Blue Dress, CC Rider, etc. and, much as I love Springsteen (and that’s a lot all you Bruce hatas in Rock Town Hall) I thought “Bruce, you’ve never done anything as great as these songs”. That’s no real knock. Think about the songs that came from the ’50s Mount Rushmore of Rock & Roll – Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, etc. Nobody has surpassed that stuff – not the Stones, not the Beatles, not Dylan, not anyone.
WTF? The Otis Redding video has been taken down because of copyright infringement claims by… STEVE LUKATHER?! I assume that faceless studio cat was in the backup band at the event, but still… cheese.
I believe this is now the third time (at least!) that Steve Lukather has forced the removal of a clip posted to RTH since the brutal, multi-Townsman takedown of Lukather in that Signs of Being a Rock Asshole thread.
He’s on to us. He’s watching us.
I think I just bumped Lukather to the top of my Dream RTH Interview Subjects list ahead of Hamish Stuart.
Lukather’s going down for this.