little richard - C or D?

http://www.rockabilly.net/littlerichard/main.jpg

this question should not be asked. ever. ever. ever. look at him. oh man.

did you read richard's self analysis in the rolling stone shittiest ever list of greatest rock icons or whatever? noones entry came close to richards. even in chart rundown entries, the man towers over all others.

http://club.discoldies.free.fr/esquerita.jpg

why didnt i know????

what is that famous talk show appearance where he started interrupting people and declaring himself to be the greatest of all time etc.?

have you guys ever heard his (relatively tame) early singles?

well, i think LR has done that every time he's appeared on TV ever. but the one you're thinking of is probably the dick cavett show, as recounted so hilariously in greil marcus's "mystery train."

yep. incidentally, chuck berry's LPs from the 50s sound better and more alive than the cd-remasters.

cossimo's studio, on the other hand...

i adore this man.

i only have comps of the speciality years but theyre so great. everyone talks about his screaming (deservedly) but richard had some really lovely, more delicate vocal performances too that were just as brill.

i keep wanting to check out more of what he did later (even the remakes of the early hits), more of the gospel stuff too, but am worried ill buy something and itll be average.

there was an okayish docu on r2 a few weeks ago but it was pretty much the same ol same ol stuff about race, the 50s, etc etc. all of which is valid but it just seemed reheated old socio-hagios. he deserves much better.

footage of him chillin with bo on the hail chuck berry film is pretty good. he mainly crafts stories in which it will at some point be necessary to go WAAAAAAAA~A~A~AIIIH!, but good watching nonetheless. i've just read this thread and it's way satisfying to see people bringing out i don't know what you've got. so classic! i heard a slightly different take a while ago on some comp which made me wonder whether the version i'd heard before was the famous one.

Just realized that the Little Richard songs I grew up with weren't the original Specialty records, but re-recordings done with Vee-Jay in the mid-60s. Though they're generally dismissed by critics, but I actually prefer these later versions -- faster, odder, slightly hoarser vocals, some sort of James Brown-style horn section. Anyone else heard them?

always been curious about those but everyone seems to say theyre not as good as the original versions. but then they prob would say that wouldnt they?

They're just a little punkier and cheaper-sounding -- clearly they're "worse" than the originals, but I like the aesthetic in this context.

Lucille's a good example -- the faster tempo, horns, and slightly unhinged clumsiness of it all just seems to work better:

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Lucille/10845432 (Re-recording)

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Lucille/4572140 (Original)

I suppose I'd agree with you if I'd grown up with the more echoey, hoarse versions, but I didn't so I don't.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH MY SOUL!!

whoah never realized Bonham's opening drumfill in Rock n Roll is a quote of the opening drumfill of Keep a Knockin

anyway OMG Little Richard

Yes, done by the drummer for Richard's live band, The Upsetters, a guy named Charles Connor.

amazing dude - totally loving the drumming on this early stuff

youkeepaknockingbutchoocantcomein

yes OMG Little Richard! It amazes me continually how we mourn the passing of greats but giants like this still walk among us: I mean, this guy did wild shit with Buddy Holly, and he's still here to tell us about it. And Jerry Lee Lewis too! Elvis has been dead for 30+ years but Little Richard persists, and he was rocking when Elvis was just getting started. Shouldn't there be some way to make good on this while he's still around

The Architect!

Shouldn't there be some way to make good on this while he's still around

― begs the question, when is enough enough (Euler), Wednesday, February 24, 2010 4:40 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

so otm
unfortunately this felt true of bo diddley and i don't know that there's some dramatic change after death

amazing dude - totally loving the drumming on this early stuff

sometimes that's his road drummer, but more often than not it's the great earl palmer.

little richard's specialty recordings are totally deathless.

what's the deal with the man hisself? his autobio not only has him coming out, but discusses certain things in, um, graphic detail. but in other contexts he just plays dumb or even offended when asked about his sexuality.

obviously a complicated man lolz

Hard to summarize his crazy career, but I tried.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6uzaNElJRo

classic and classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4M1W0OPGjM&feature=related

I've got the "Georgia Peach" comp and it's frickin' perfect from start to finish.

"Georgia Peach" is brilliant, but volume 2 of the (two-part) series, "Shag On Down By The Union Hall" is even a little better. If you can believe that!

the vhs wobble on the clip above sounds like some awesome pedal effect

damn the stories about this guy (including those he told)

Lucille?!?!?!

You won't do your sister's will

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHlRa-RPjWE

80 today. Probably still insane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3-OaNevkfg

love him, his nearly unhingedness is just reet.
HAve him popping up on my walkman quite frequently and love it each time.

Also got Esquerita popping up quite a bit, the cd version of his 1st lp. Lovely stuff in places a bit straighter but he's still got that wail which is something else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUvHBirr1PI

Watch the whole thing. You will not regret.

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/719-prayers-for-richard

Hope he had a nice 83rd birthday despite his hip pain since the flawed surgery

i cant really listen to prince today but richard is my replacement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07697wn

this is a great programme.

id love to hear richard on the radio every week.

also feels fitting as without little richard, im not sure there would be a prince, though princes eventual disavowal of his gender-questioning work/image was one of the things that most dissappointed me about his later career.

also feels fitting as without little richard, im not sure there would be a prince

Who would have thought he'd outlive him?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRgnbtePzYE

The beauty is still on duty.

http://assets.rollingstone.com/assets/images/music/2009/galleries/rock-a-likes-dave-grohl-anthony-kiedis-and-other-rockers-strike-familiar-poses/rock-a-like-prince-and-lil-richard-79447/25164365-25164367-large.jpg

i ADORE little richard. why there is no

no richard = no hendrix, prince, and actually, no james brown, cos JB started out as a LR imitator

...as did Otis Redding.

How dare you revive this thread right now, scared the hell out of me. Jerk.

I did wonder.

I'm going to start reviving random old musician threads just to freak everyone out. Jerry Lee Lewis c/d. Chuck Berry c/d. George Clinton c/d ...

RIP Justin Bieber

I have wondered if the manic energy translates to modern ears. Have loved him since i first heard him and do hear echoes of him in the Stooges etc etc.
I remember hearing him being played by a DJ at a bnightclub around 20 years ago and thinking it was healthy but did wonder what the teens in the club thought of it since it was just an alterantive club not a specialist place.

BUt yeah that early Specialty stuff is right off the wall and you can see how it would have been revelatory to those hearing it for the first time as near contemporaries back in the mid 50s on both sides of teh Atlantic. Seems to have been an artist that a lot of the people who go onto the moddish beat stuff in the mid 60s and then possibly the harder rock of the 70s cite quite frequently.
The 60s soully stuff is also good.

As is Esquerita his possibly more outrageous contemporary. Worth checking out anyway.

as far as the early rock guys go - Elvis, Chuck, Buddy, Jerry - I rank Little Richard's early singles over all of them just because they *really* rock, in contemporary sonic terms, in the way the others don't. I mean "Keep a Knockin'" is such a beast, it is so frenetic and loud and raucous. The smaller combo-oriented stuff of the other guys, great as they are, doesn't have the same level of propulsion and volume. Like I have a little bit of a hard time picking out which instruments are doing what in that recording, the piano/horns/guitar all kind of smear together in this jumbling orgiastic rhythm. and that voice! goddamn.

i love all of those guys but i love richard most of all, he really feels like the one early-rock guy who completely transcends his era and will always sound amazing. oddly i feel like he gets much less attention than some of the others, i don't think i've ever seen anyone discuss his early stuff at length the way ppl will dissect elvis's sun singles or a single chuck berry lyric. that said i've never really delved into any of his post-50s work apart from a few singles -- curious if there's any overlooked classics.

More or less agree with last two posts.

Watching the Dortmund 88 video and at 4:20 Prince totally does a Little Richard "shut up," albeit not in Richard's voice.

He says it a little around 8:30 too. Maybe it is more common than I thought, although the only two entertainers I have heard say it a lot are Little Richard and Milton Berle.

Watched the mtv special on the purple rain premiere and Richard is there, saying 'Prince is this generation's version of me'. There's an interview wuote from Prince saying he wouldn't be bought by a label like they might have bought Richard with a new car or whatever. I've seen Richard interviewed about Prince several times. But never known if they met or performed ever. I fantasized secretly about Prince covering something by him on piano. But can't remember if it ever happened.

Just saw some intranetz story on a webboard about Prince snubbing Richard at a Purple Rain afterparty, but not sure of the validity of it.

Maybe he gets less attention because his biggest songs (Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, Good Golly Miss Molly) are not necessarily the truly frantic shit (Jenny Jenny, Keep a Knockin', Rip It Up). Part of that might be overexposure and part might be due to many different versions of these songs he recorded. It's like explaining to people who only know I Feel Good that James Brown is the deepest, rawest music ever.

Hearing 'I don't know what you've got but it's got a hold on me' a few years ago sent me on a huge Little Richard kick.
Of the early guys, I don't really want to pick one, but I do think Little Richard kind of mops the floor with all of them vocally.

the "You! And You! And You! .... Not You!" at the beginning of Hound Dog cracks me up

Happy 84th!

The beauty is *still* on duty!

Or as Chuck Berry calls him, "Youngster".

When I saw this thread got revived I had feared 2016 had one last kick in the teeth for us. Long live Little Richard!

Happy birthday to the Quasar of Rock

85 today. Last man standing?

http://i.pinimg.com/originals/aa/67/cd/aa67cdb20019a81c542cfe35e7fdd08e.jpg

Well there's the guy standing next to him there....

I'm not sure either of them stand much these days.

Bendy--that's what I meant, which one? (You're probably right, Josh.)

Ah gotcha. Lewis has Satan on his side, unfortunately.

people, watch this IMMEDIATELY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Z2rQZeoWk&

Utterly vital performer.
The Specialty stuff is some of the most immediate, visceral music ever isn't it?

Phew, still alive then.

Yes

Phew, still alive then.

Magnificent, thanks for posting.

Did he say he was Jewish? What a character. May have been more terrifying to white folks in 1956 than John Lydon was in 1976.

He is of the same religion as Bob Dylan, Madonna and Marvin Gaye.

And then there was one.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/little-richard-dead-48505/

RIP Little Richard

what a life

aw :(

RIP Richard.

I don't know what you, got but it's got me. RIP

always liked this one, Little Richard in Ray Charles mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LRC6vxem60

he outlived so many rockers. "Long Tall Sally" towers over the 20th century. loved the story of his threesome of Buddy Holly. RIP

This was my intro to little richard, couldn’t have asked for anything better tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWCEG6lV0ek

I thought Little Richard was the coolest when I was 6 years old and still do. RIP

I found this a few years ago, but didn't post it because I didn't want to seem like I was making a joke at his expense.

But I've been wondering what this man has been up to for the past... 20 years? and this answered a few questions.

RIP RP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTXfx4h4iPs

NO WAY

Way

One of the all-time greats.

His gospel voice is super smooth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovz-98UAt8o

A friend met him in Morrison's Cafeteria in North Carolina, which always struck me at the exact spot I'd want to have run into the guy. The first generation of rockers personalities are so faceted, even as the music was blunt. Exemplars of "The South is complicated" shrug.

Like North Carolina just had to amend a law to allow an exception to the rule that you cannot wear a mask in public, which is still on the books to keep the Klan from being anonymous on the street.

In a super eerie concidence I literally just picked up & started reading The Life and Times of Little Richard authorized biography this morning over breakfast, without having read the news yet or anything. 10 pages in and it's already easily among the wildest and most shocking bios I've ever read, cant recommend it enough.

Hard to find the words to even begin to sum up his greatness & influence, one of the giants of the century.

Is that the one that was once called The Quasar of Rock and Roll?

Yeah thats the one

Yeah, some crazy stuff in there

A friend on Twitter a while ago said the opening sounded like a Flannery O'Connor story.

Lol, yeah, probably

must be something in the water in Macon: Little Richard, Otis, Allman Brothers, Capricorn, Mills & Berry, etc.

James Brown worked out of there too.

The thing that astounds me is that <ALL> of his essential Specialty stuff was basically cut in the span of about 2-2 1/2 years, and on top of that, the track that really got him going, "Tutti Frutti", was cut mainly as an afterthought at his first session for them, the only track on the date he played piano on.

https://us-east-1.linodeobjects.com/rea-archive/2006/spring/1959-bob-dylan-high-school-yearbook-2.jpg

"Ohh! My Soul (take 8)" is an all-time rager. RIP you brilliant wild man.

lmao every time I hear the producer pleading with him before take 9 "and please slow it down a little bit more"

When I first started collecting albums in the mid-late '70s, the Specialty stuff was hard to find in Canada. Mostly it was budget-album remakes. I can't remember where exactly--a Toronto store that specialized in imports, I think--but at some point I was able to get Little Richard, Little Richard: His Biggest Hits, and The Fabulous Little Richard. Got the first and third autographed when he was out promoting the Charles White book.

His Sesame Street appearance was so good

That episode of Sesame Street was lit. #LittleRichard #RIPLegend pic.twitter.com/vxuoxypcP2

— Constance Mary (@CondyLand) May 9, 2020

his voice is really irresistible. it jumps out of the record, out of time.

His Sesame Street appearance was so good

🐦[That episode of Sesame Street was lit. #LittleRichard🕸 #RIPLegend🕸 pic.twitter.com/vxuoxypcP2🕸
— Constance Mary (@CondyLand) May 9, 2020🕸]🐦

yes!!

Couldn't see the tub on my phone.

Big fan of "Southern Child"

Please everyone hit me up with the best Little Richard videos you have to hand

I always like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUvHBirr1PI

I'm sure I wasn't the only person who posted this on FB today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZBLt_rcehE

I am watching this and it lives up to the hype

Little Richard has died, aged 87. BBC Archive will never tire of his incredible 1972 interview on Late Night Line-Up. pic.twitter.com/PRbuDSZB1H

— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) May 9, 2020

Not big on posting RIP tweets, but I'll make an exception for this one.

I just heard the news about Little Richard and I’m so grieved. He was my shining star and guiding light back when I was only a little boy. His was the original spirit that moved me to do everything I would do.

— Bob Dylan (@bobdylan) May 9, 2020

RIP, you wonderful man.

Love this performance recorded for British TV in 1963. Also features The Shirelles (fabulous in their own right) - they join him on his gospel song "Joy Joy Joy (Down In My Heart)":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG_lsulgLGU

This earlier upload of the special appears to be a different edit.

i love this 72 interview

you can see the influence he had not just musically but in terms of how to be a Celebrity; be your *own* star, create your own reality: the attitude, the clothes, being in on your own joke & letting everyone else catch up - he was lightyears ahead of what the stars of the day were doing

ugh

link: https://youtu.be/R-Z2rQZeoWk

:-(

I love the '66-67 stuff collected on Get Down With It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzBUxt_aIDU

Anyone else just the right age to have first learned of him from Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme?

the god. got to see him live in 2011; he had bad sciatica and didn't jump around at all but he sounded fucking great!

fwiw john marascalco, who co-wrote a bunch of the big hits, is apparently still alive at age 89 if any of you writers wanna try

Love this, obviously

https://youtu.be/B5mkN45juhs

Fantastic 70s track

https://youtu.be/dlAtjRYvFIY

And wow

https://youtu.be/JpgPS1vMpd0

An amazing FB post from Derrick Martin, who played drums for Little Richard from 1995 till the end:

I’ve had a few requests to tell the story of how I became a member of Little Richard’s band, so here ya go!

It was 1995 and I was in my junior year at Jackson State University majoring in music education. I had sat out for a time after my sophomore year because all I really wanted to do was play music, make records, become rich and famous, you know the drill. I was a member of a really hot band called Infinity which was comprised of myself, Darryl Pete, Tommie “S’VON” Ringo, Gary Scott, Ezra Brown & Robert Lampkin. This unit was amazing! We played around town and were cutting out teeth as song writers and producers. The biggest gig in the city, at the time, was the Jubilee Jamn and man we wanted to get booked on that stage. Linda Jacobs worked for the festival and helped bring big named acts to the festival, one of which was Little Richard. Linda and I were extended family members and she really believed in me and our band. She offered to help us get gigs and offer advice and guidance. She developed a great relationship with Little Richard after he played the festival and they stayed in touch. One day they were having a conversation about his band and Richard was saying that he wanted go back to having two drummers like he did in years past and asked Linda if she knew of a young black drummer that could fill the seat. Well, wouldn’t you know it, she recomended me! So I’m home one morning and I get a call from Linda telling me that Little Richard was looking for a drummer and she gave me a number to call to inquire about the audition. So I called the number expecting to be speaking to a manager or some kind of representative, but low and behold, it was Little Richard himself! He seemed really nice and asked if I had his Specialty Records Greatest Hits record and I told him I didn’t but I could run to the record store to pick it up. He said ok go get it then call me back after you’ve listened to it. So I bought the record, listened and called him back. He asked if I could play this music and of course I said, “Yes sir!”. He said ok I’ll call you back this afternoon. This was on a Monday to Tuesday I think. Later that evening he called back and told me that he had booked me a ticket to fly to Los Angeles on Thursday. It was all set! I was excited and a bit afraid because I didn’t know what to expect but Linda Jacobs never wavered, she was so supportive and encouraging that it helped ease my nerves a bit. The next day I went to school to discuss this opportunity with my professors. Now keep in mind that leaving school for a gig was the cardinal sin but I felt like this was something I had to do and I trusted my teachers and I wanted to hear their input. Once I told them who it was, they all said you have to GO! You can’t miss out on this opportunity, just make sure you have a round trip ticket in case something goes wrong. So with that I was on my way.

On Thursday I arrived at LAX and Richard’s son Danny met me at baggage claim and escorted me outside to a stretch limo with Richard sitting inside. Man you should have seen my face! This was my first official limo ride! Upon first meeting him, I was taken aback by the enormity of his presence and personality, he was a STAR in every since of the word. He held court on the ride to the hotel and told me about himself and his humble begginings in Macon, Georgia. We arrived at the Hyatt on Sunset in West Hollywood and I checked in. This is where he lived! Yes! He lived in a hotel full time! He had the three corner rooms at the end of the third floor. Once we checked in, he took me out for dinner and asked about my family, my life and so forth. he was sizing me up I guess. I stayed for almost a week but we never talked about music or when I was to audition. He took me to a few shows at The House Of Blues, I attended church with him and ran errands. After about a week of this, he said that we were going to go the SIR rehearsal studios for my audition. But in what I would come to know as classic Little Richard fashion, we arrived to late to SIR and missed our time and had to reschedule. Legendary Upsetters guitarist, Roy Gaines, met us there and since we missed our slot, we went to his club on Crenshaw. We go inside and there’s a small stage with a honky tonk piano, guitar amps and an old, old drum set, I mean barely standing. So Richard and Roy began to tell stories and reminisce. During this time we are all sitting at our instruments and we just start to jam as they would tell stories about the good old days. Oh yeah, Charles Glenn was also there too. He was Richard’s bass player and he had played with Ozone, Billy Preston, Sammy Davis Jr. And Debarge, just to name a few. So we are just jamning on tunes, playing nothing but the blues. Now I’m not realizing that THIS is my actual audition. I’m super relaxed, cracking jokes with them and just being my crazy self, I mean wide open. After about an hour or so, Richard says ok I’m getting hungry, lets go. He looks at me and says, “Baby, that’s great! We open for The Temptations next week in Cerritos.” And of course I’m baffled. I asked him what just happened and Charles shakes my hand and says, “Welcome to the band!” I stop Richard and I’m like hey but we didn’t play any of your music. He then turns to me and says, “Baby you know how to play the blues, you have a good foot, a strong back beat and you love your momma I’ll teach you the rest.” I was blown away! He later explained to me that no one could come to his gig knowing what he wanted. He would always have to teach people what he wanted them to do. My true audition began the moment I stepped into the limo. He interacted with me for a week to be sure I was “teachable”. And this was just the beggining of a 17 year ride that taught me so much about everything. I became a man and a better musician under Richard’s watch but not just him, Wayne Chaney, Chalmers Davis, Jesse Boyce, John Helms, Kelvin Holly, Kenny Walker, Harvey Thompson, Charles Glenn, Mark Doyle, Mark Holland, Kenny Ford, Andre Swift, Big Jaye & Guy Higginbotham made up this amazing band and they all were selfless when it came to teaching and helping me grow. So this is the story of how I joined the Little Richard Band. May he Rest in Love & Peace.

Anyone else just the right age to have first learned of him from Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme?

― last updated a group of five done twelve times ago (geoffreyess), Saturday, May 9, 2020 11:04 PM (yesterday)

me! i also remember seeing him sing "itsy bitsy spider" on the disney channel around this time.

i'm bummed about this, richard was my favorite of the original rock-and-rollers by a very long way, and i loved that he was still standing after all these decades.

Anyone else just the right age to have first learned of him from Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme?

I first learned of him from Disney benefit album, For Our Children, was from about the same time as Mother Goose Rock n Rhyme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVZXAXFXHF0

That album was my first exposure to a lot of big classic artists, which in some cases gave me a very strange first impressions since it had stuff like Sting doing a Georgie folk song, Elton John doing an instrumental synth tune and Brian Wilson doing country.

I don't know how to embed a Facebook post, but Bob Dylan expanded a bit on his tweet already posted above:

I just heard the news about Little Richard and I’m so grieved. He was my shining star and guiding light back when I was only a little boy. His was the original spirit that moved me to do everything I would do. I played some shows with him in Europe in the early nineties and got to hang out in his dressing room a lot. He was always generous, kind and humble. And still dynamite as a performer and a musician and you could still learn plenty from him. In his presence he was always the same Little Richard that I first heard and was awed by growing up and I always was the same little boy. Of course he’ll live forever. But it’s like a part of your life is gone.

Has anyone seen the fake ten year old Little Richard video popping up in their social media feed?

He's in fucking outer space in that 1972 interview, I love it

I realize this is very obvious, but watching some of the videos that have been going around has made it clearer than ever how much Prince and Morris Day lifted from Little Richard, image-wise.

Also fine form in A Film About Jimi Hendrix and Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll: Bo Diddly wonders how come some things kept going strange back in the day---Richard: "You was black!" Bo hesitates to respond---Richard: "You was black!" Chuck: "Aw tell him again, he still didn't get it."

<3

I love love love his early 60’s gospel

His voice is so pure, and when he hits the high notes he sounds like Jackie Wilson it’s breathtaking

https://youtu.be/jQxU7gQqar4

Rolling Stone has various tributes. One from John Fogerty is pretty good, one from John Waters is outstanding.

This is the time Waters met Richard

https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2010/nov/28/john-waters-met-little-richard

Thanks, good stuff.

^^^

Little Richard, C or D?
SHUT UP!
― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Thursday, June 3, 2004 6:51 AM (fifteen years ago)

Not seeing it online today, but somewhere I read an interview w Sonny Sharrock: asked about punk, he replies, "I saw Little Richard at the Apollo in 1955." (Or '56?) "You can't get more punk rock than that."

Also, it's a good thing I don't have my copy of Mystery Train at hand---"Why, never in the history!"---or I'd be transcribing the entire saga of his talk show appearance in the crucial first pages---can search for HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED AND LOST WHAT HE HAD, which will take you to Google Books---and YouTube...

Speaking of which, Marcus's Grooviest 17 Original Hits! entry in the Stranded discography is one of my favourites: "Anarchy in the U.S.A., about the time the Sex Pistols were born. This was some kind of unhinged New Orleans R&B, at first anyway, but even Fats Domino must have wondered what the hell was going on."

That Mystery Train transcription took a lot of liberties to say the least, but print the legend, I guess.

Blasting him this morning (I love it when my teenagers yell at me to turn down my music) and "Green Power" came on. Pure funk with Little Richard singing? Amazing! I'm not familiar with this period, I want more!

The Reprise compilation is a great source for that era LR. Funk, country, gospel, funky gospel country. Juicy.

I first read MYSTERY TRAIN forty years ago and I can’t think of anything else burned into my head as permanently as the first three pages. #RIPLittleRichard pic.twitter.com/dRJVYlVXjg

— Chris Barrus (@quartzcity) May 9, 2020

Burned in my brain too, but seems like most of that all-caps part was interpolated from somewhere else.

Here is the more recent John Waters piece: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/john-waters-little-richard-996961/

Operation Powder Room in operation!

My favorite new-to-me trivia

1) as an ordained minister, Little Richard officiated many weddings including (but not limited to)
Demi Moore & Bruce Willis in 1987
Cyndi Lauper & David Thornton in 1991
Tom Petty and Dana York in 2001

2) He lived at the Hyatt on Sunset in the 80’s and 90’s: loads of celebs have posted about brief encounters, everyone from Johnny Knoxville to Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub & Victor deLorenzo of Violent Femmes

Little Richard, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry circa 1987 from Berry’s documentary. Little Richard telling the truth about why Black artists couldn’t perform like they wanted to on American Bandstand. Whole lotta legendary energy and Black Excellence in this conversation. pic.twitter.com/gVxPie5Rwa

— The Funky Educator (@MrKinetik) May 9, 2020

Great scene from a great movie.

Former Chicago Reader critic Bill Wyman wrote an extensive obituary for NY Magazine, and it's the best one published because it doesn't hold ANYTHING back. The direct quotes from the authorized biography alone are pretty stunning:

https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/little-richard-put-wild-sex-into-the-top-40-for-good.html#_ga=2.224055324.603100358.1589089370-1881858677.1492321179

From that piece:

Richard abandoned his band — and headed south. (The band, left stranded, improvised by hiring another wild Georgia singer with a high pompadour, a man who had just been released from prison, to step in and bill himself as Little Richard. His name was James Brown. Amazingly, the group would later use Otis Redding, another Georgia singer, for the same role.)

Killed me when they finally got to the one physical activity that repulsed him and how John Lennon was its worst perpetrator.

his bowels ferried yields for richard

Any views on his early 70s Reprise recordings? Him trying to update his sound further etc.
I see that they've recently been reissued in expanded editions and had an earlier 3lps on 2cds version through BGO. I hadn't payed attention to that later era material by him before.
I know taht the Bo Diddley stuff from the same era has some interesting takes.

Do love the 50s material by him.

The good bits on those records are fantastic, but there are quite a few big misses as well. One of my projects is to cherry pick them and make one excellent album.

Good day for a revive of a Georgia native son.

Looking back on this thread, I'm surprised to realize it was only earlier in 2020 when he died. Feels like years ago.

yeah the reprise albums are all worth a listen. you can tell he was trying to go for something and didnt quite figure it out, but lots of hidden gems spread across those. i posted it somewhere else recently but one of my faves from that bunch is his soulful version of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" from the King of Rock and Roll LP.

I think it was a coincidence, bringing this thread up like
., or at least in as much as I'd just read a review of various of teh lps in Ugly tHings last night in their reissue of a couple of months ago.
Hadn't realised there was a BGO release of these recordings until this morning, was hoping somebody would be able to run comparisons.
NOt sure if getting the lps together for a price roughly equivalent to each of the recent reissues makes sense, if I'm missing a stack of linernotes and photos or anything as well as the outtakes and single edits.

Anyway grabbed teh BGO this morning which will make a nice memorial for sanity prevailing.

Little Richard what an amazing force of energy though. Does punk all consciously refer back to him, probably not but do see him asa manifestation of that spirit for a certain time. Seems like there is a possible line running through him, the Sonics, pretty THings, Stooges and a few others , possibly Birthday Party too which is worth looking into. Bands taht fall upon it are worth checking out and all.
All about harnessing and releasing levels of energy and stuff.

Does punk all consciously refer back to him

A Marcus line I quoted above, referring to Grooviest 17 Original Hits!: "Anarchy in the U.S.A., about the time the Sex Pistols were born."

Forgot that one!

Got into The Rill Thing during last year's RIP. The choogle suits him!

When an interviewer asked him what he thought about punk, Sonny Sharrock said, "I saw Little Richard at the Apollo in 1956. You can't get more punk rock than that."
Haven't heard all the recent Omnivore reissues yet, but here's what I said about one of 'em last fall on What Are You Listening To?, later in comments on my Nashville Scene ballot:
notes just now, trying to wrap brane around what it just experienced:
Little Richard, Southern Child: omg, cert worth mention try to describe finely calibrated sense of pitch, sweetly piercing and sensitive, like Joplin’s "Summertime" all the time while rolling round on the farm vehicles and such, musos no prob as he makes something----something, not nec of nothing but working a few phrases not nec going anywhere but around and around earth and space certainly some robust to muscular phrases, whatever he does with them and voice very clear despite all the screaming he had done press sheet says label was like oh we don’t know about him doing country or was it just that it was so out there how compare to his other new records around then? seemed pretty out there in 70s Hendrix doc Sweet girlish laughter but unsettling as in high school wtf but no complaints after all Out Dec. 4 and always, I def relate him to Joplin at her most intense, also both of them as preceding, for instance, Robert Plant, Axl Rose, the Nazareth dude, and that whole school of pre-Cookie Monster screamy hard rock-to-metal vocals (as Ellen Willis pointed out about Joplin).

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81oe0e9cqIL._SL1500_.jp

yeah if you want to draw threads back from punk, no arguing that little richard is ground zero for the idea of playing rock songs as hard fast & loud as you can imo. on that complete specialty sessions set there are insane takes where theyre blasting through tunes in like 65 seconds.

I asked my friends about her
But all their lips was tight

“Shut up!”

my mom won me and my brother an expenses-paid trip to disneyworld to see superbowl 25. as we were checking out of the hotel we noticed little richard, who had played a pre-event party, checking out in the line next to us. we said hi and he was a sweetheart. he had one of his people give us some little religious texts.

tangentially related: here's a christgau fave from buffalo who named their band after superbowl 25:
http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=wide+right

So the beauty really was still on duty?

for 6:30 in the morning he was looking ok.

Turn on your fan, it’s just began.

I had my day and I had my say and I had my way! So, nay nay nay!

:)

Who's that girl on the cover with him? I thought Janis Martin, but (he don't look so little next to her) https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/oct/21/alis-lesley-the-female-elvis-who-takes-centre-stage-on-bob-dylans-new-book-cover Good comments about cover overall at end.

Would you like to know where those quotes from me and TSF came from, dow?

https://waynerobins49.substack.com/p/lunch-with-little-richard-whoo?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

Deke Dickerson liked the new doc, I haven't seen it yet. Debuted in some theatres April 11, will hit streaming April 21 I think.

Hmm. It's playing at the Quad in NYC right now.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YC8WUrWtZY

A sad but great line: "He was very, very good at liberating other people. He was not good at liberating himself."

Also, if you ever get the chance, definitely go see a screening of William Klein's The Little Richard Story. Klein was a great filmmaker and it's arguably his best (along with his movie on Muhammad Ali). Anthology Film Archives in NYC screened a 16mm print last year, which looked far better than the VHS rip that's floating around out there.

^word

https://spectrumculture.com/2023/04/12/little-richard-i-am-everything-review/

A review that says the doc didn’t quite explain how all of Little Richard’s different aspects fit together; but the review then notes that even those close to Richard couldn’t quite explain him

Terrifying to white parents, hero to millions!

...and fucking Pat Boone is still around. smh.

https://www.facebook.com/1591314471/posts/pfbid0Zw7Hk7NGa9zu8PadCCxxgAXwj6jQhSK8kdqjUX6hz23kuDNw2N5HBLjXY8JHqVb7l/?mibextid=cr9u03

Elijah Wald public Facebook post— he loves the doc and how it also shows Richard’s influence on Otis Redding , his gospel periods, his queerness, and he likes the guest speakers chosen to talk

Bono free?!

SHUT UP!

B-b-but has anyone weighed in on the question of whether the beauty is still on duty?

Tutti fruiti , beauty on duty

Saw the documentary at a rep theatre today. Thought it was good, not great. I knew of his one famous retreat back to the church during the late '50s, but didn't know he'd do it again a couple more times. His reaction to getting some lifetime achievement thing from Dick Clark is a good example, I think, of why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has value to older artists. (Little Richard missed his HOF induction because of a car accident, so the Clark thing took on added significance for him.) They missed the Geico commercial in the Little-Richard-in-the-culture collage near the end.

Hope to see this doc soon. Just realized the director is someone I used to know.

I saw the 2nd half of a doc on him on i think Sky Arts a couple of weeks back. Is that going to be the same one being talked about here a few months ago.
Thought it a pain id missed the beginning anyway.

It is streaming on channel 4 atm

Would have been 91 today. I was in a middle school, so was able to talk about him and play a clip for three different grade 7 classes. This is my fifth year of supplying since retiring. I think money is about 60% of why I keep going (even though I'm fortunate enough to not depend on it), 30% is that I'd go stir crazy if I didn't, and--not to flatter myself, but I really do feel this way--10% is that if I stop, no one will ever tell them about Little Richard.

Shut up!

(Sorry, couldn’t resist)

Preach on, brother!

Saw the "I Am Everything" docu recently, quite liked it - especially because a good portion of it is directly from Richard over the years.

FWIW, I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning Little Richard once when I was in school. I only learned about his music through the Beatles and as much as I love Little Richard now, I can’t imagine what else would have led me to his work - maybe the obituaries surrounding his death or maybe William Klein’s film, but that would mean many years later. (I didn’t see Klein’s film until sometime during the 2010s.)

John Waters maybe

aw, Little Richard was the first artist i really loved, along with James Brown maybe.

He had a big feature in the Life mag Dec 92 "40 years of rock n roll" special edition that i swiped from my grandfather. I got into music using that pub as a guide to the library's AV collection, which also featured lots of Richard.

i actually made my own Little Richard figurine out of polymer clay, since i couldn't find one in any stores.

Also wanted to say something about the beauty still being on duty

The doc is good