Dec 15

Little Richard

Greatly Appreciated

LITTLE RICHARD
 
 
Little Richard  (born Richard Wayne Penniman; December 5, 1932) is an American recording artist, songwriter and musician.  An influential figure in popular music and culture for more than six decades, Little Richard’s most celebrated work dates from the mid-1950’s, 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.  Little Richard has been honored by many institutions; his song “Tutti Frutti” (1955) was included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2010, claiming the “unique vocalizing over the irresistible beat announced a new era in music”.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

You can talk about your pioneers of rock and roll – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, James Brown, just to name a few – and you can even bring up your British Invasion greats – the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, the Yardbirds, the Kinks, just to name another few.  All of them are already in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and deservedly so.  However, you can play a lot of more modern rock records all day long and not really discern more than a hint of their direct influence; no question it’s in the DNA, but actual Elvis Presley-style vocals or Chuck Berry guitar licks or James Brown wails are elusive. 

 

That is not so with Link Wray:  His influence is front and center on a good 50% of the records that I play, because he is credited with introducing the “power chord” on electric guitar to rock and roll, a technique whose effect is often enhanced by distortion. 

 
(February 2013)
 
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For the Bob Dylan album Shot of Love, Bumps Blackwell, who produced most of Little Richard’s most indelible songs, produced the title song “Shot of Love”. 

 

(August 2014)

 

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Before Cliff Richard and the Shadows recorded their first hit single “Move It”, Harry Greatorex – known as “Mr. Entertainment” in the UK during this period – prevailed upon Harry Webb to change his name to Cliff Richard.  The “Cliff” was meant to suggest “rock”, and “Richard” was taken from the 1950’s American rock sensation Little Richard. 

 

(November 2014)

 

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When a young band or musician is just starting out, they would often come to the recording studio with a handful of finished songs and others that were only partially written.  The more experienced record producer or arranger would then help the band flesh out the other songs and, as a result, frequently receive partial credit for having written the songs.  

 

This was also used as a device to compensate the producer.  On many of Buddy Holly’s records, their producer Norman Petty is listed as one of the songwriters; and the same is true of Robert ‘Bumps’ Blackwell on those by Little Richard.  

 

Sometimes Buddy Holly himself isn’t credited as a songwriter; that happened with one of his best known recordings, “Peggy Sue”, but at Jerry Allison’s insistence, his name was added to the credits after his death. 

 

(April 2015/1)

 

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But before I get into all of that, let me share this appreciation for Prince that was posted by Nick Gillespie on reason.com as part of the best commentary on the PMRC that I have been able to find online. It is quite a bit more barbed than the mainstream accolades that you and I have been reading of late. 
“In the wake of the social progress of the past several decades, it’s hard to recapture how threatening the Paisley One once seemed, this gender-bender guy who shredded guitar solos that put Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton to shame while prancing around onstage in skivvies and high heels. He was funkier than pre-criminality Rick James and minced around with less shame and self-consciousness than Liberace. Madonna broke sexual taboos by being sluttish, which was no small thing; but as a fey black man who surrounded himself with hotter-than-the-sun lady musicians, [Prince] was simultaneously the embodiment of campy Little Richard and that hoariest of White America boogeymen, the hypersexualized black man.” 
(June 2016)
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Mark Deming in Allmusic states: “Although the band had been solid before, the new lineup evolved into a powerhouse; [Bob] Bennett wasn’t afraid to hit the drums hard, Larry [Parypa]’s guitar work had become sharper and more ferocious with time, and when [Gerry] Roslie was encouraged to sing, they discovered he could wail like a leather-lunged Little Richard, and the Sonics quickly became the most talked-about band in the Northwest.”  
(December 2016)
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In point of fact, ground-breaking music often doesn’t sell all that well.  For artists who catch the zeitgeist at just the right moment, like Elvis Presley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the sky’s the limit.  Although they are household names now, however, none of the other rock and roll pioneers – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Bill Haley, etc. – made it nearly that big.  That will likely be the subject of a future UARB post. 
 
(December 2017)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021