One thing I've noticed about Little Richard over the years...

This sort of thing has gone mainstream of late, hasn't it?

 

Those Little Richard interviews in a Film about Jimi Hendrix are fantastic , absolutely classic! Just one of several funny lines he has " see Jimi didn't mind looking freaky, just like I don't mind it. See cuz I was doin it before him, and when he seen me, it gave him great confidence, and recompense of reward, my Lord!" Gotta love Little Richard.

 

Iv'e told the story here before but I was literally three feet away from him onstage when he was kicking out one of his songs years ago.
His eyes looked like they were on fire, or he was possessed, from another planet, or all of above.

It kind of made sense to me then about how unique he was/is...or....something.

 

Lord, an evangelical style pep talk... Jesus Christ (no pun intended ) well that was always his way, I guess.

 

Yeah Bo is another one who tells tall tales. I forgot about that. But I believe Richard was more consistent in telling his fables lol

 

He did say "bam boom" at the end though.

 

Yeah I'm not taking anything from him, he deserves his accolades, I'm just saying, the guy knows how to tell a story, is all I'm saying. I just find it fascinating because being a kid who was exposed to THAT Little Richard (and not the one who emerged in the very conservative '50s), you'd think "wow, it MUST be true because he said it, he was there!" so for years, I believed most of it. Especially the Buddy Holly story of him being naked and having his girlfriend (Richard's) "blow him". But his girlfriend denied it and...I believe the girlfriend.

 

I read an appreciation of “Here’s Little Richard” around a year or so ago when the album was getting the deluxe release treatment and was kicking myself for sorta forgetting about him (so I immediately purchased the album - it’s terrific). He was a trailblazer and a founding father of rock and roll, who has led an extraordinary life.

I’ve mentioned this a couple of times on this forum, but when I was 17 and purchased my first CD console player back in 1986 (this was a BIG deal, as we were still mostly a cassette generation), I selected four discs for my new toy, and one of them was Little Richard’s Greatest Hits (Rhino). He was important to me then, and he’s important to me now.

 

Attention seeker.
Not a fan of his shtick.

 

Richard definitely also loves to contradict himself, he'll say he's not gay and then say "I've been gay all my life". He'll claim he started rock and roll but then say the term was "invented by whites". He'll claim folks were "scared" of him because of his outrageous looks, then say he did that to get entry into white clubs and white audiences loved him for his outrageous looks (though this could be true in one form or another; but honestly he didn't look too shocking even in those days in the '50s, now '60s and '70s Little Richard, THAT was an outrageous Little Richard!). Claimed he "broke the race barrier" when other artists like Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Jordan, Nat King Cole, and his R&R contemporaries Chuck Berry and Ike Turner were already doing that lol

 

Might as well post this again - why can't some company like Ace, or Bear, do a multiple label compilation tribute?

 

I love Richard's schtick it's great. If wanna see a clash of personas. Check out the extras on the Hail Hail Rock n Roll DVD. With the unedited conversation of Chuck, Bo and Richard. Chuck's lawyerly way vs Richards stream of bragging is just awesome. Bo inject wisdom of a word or two inbetween. Just a facinating clash of styles.

Richard lived that era of closeted gayness. So, that conflict fuels a lot of his bragging i think. Love his thing. Some great stuff on tv shows through the years. His piano playing is also his personality just all energy. One of the greats on and off stage.

 

My aunt and uncle got to see him on one of his very last tours. He made a spectacle of himself being transferred from his wheelchair to the piano bench, howling in pain with each movement.

The entire audience was mortified, wondering if he would live through the performance or if he was even capable of delivering one. Amid the nervous silence of the crowd, he wept and gathered himself, counted it off and proceeded to rock the house for the next hour as if he were a young man.

Was it part of the act? Genuine pain? Both? No one but Richard and his entourage really knew . . .

 

Wasn't he also passing Bible books to the audience? I remember reading a review of these later shows where he was doing that. This is why it's hard for me to buy into his latest schtick where he wants to go back to evangelism in a world that has changed in ways he didn't anticipate lol

 

I love the guy. It'd be a tragedy for him not to be larger-than-life, that's what he enjoys and a big part of who he was/is. There's always a twinkle in his eye that lets you know not to take his tales at face value, he knows we know what he's like and expect it from him.

His records sound like a man possessed by the spirit of RNR and for my money he exemplified that spirit better than any of the other big guns of the time. There's a joyfulness to his singing as well as a frantic edge that makes those early recordings such perfect RNR. His voice was amazing too, he could wail like no other, and his flamboyance fits the music perfectly. Out of the big boys of early RNR he's by far my favourite, the whole package works for me.

His Evangelic stuff doesn't bother me at all. He's an old fellow now and whatever he wants to do, preach or believe is up to him. He's earned some sort of peace of mind regardless of whatever anyone else believes in and it's not as if there's no precedence for him turning to religion.

He'll be missed when he's gone.

 

One Word;
LUCILLE!

 

In case anyone hasn’t seen it. From the only film that really captured the birth of rock and roll - and in CinemaScope and living color by Deluxe, no less.

 

Not to mention the architect! One of the greatest *Covergirls of all time... Cindy Crawford take a hike Little Richard's coming to town!

*Damn something's not working and I can't post any of Richards album covers. Shut my mouth!

 

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! Dig this... one night I sit down after coming home from a long night of partying, turn on the tube and see The Girl Can't Help It... which I never knew existed. I almost **** myself with joy seeing Richard wail.

 

Classic!

 

I've seen him live three times, and yes, his people were handing out the books you mentioned to the audience, along with a postcard/photo of him.... I first seen him was in 1996 or '97, I can't remember the exact year, (it was called the "Architects of Rock 'n Roll" tour, along with JLL and Johnny Rivers, but Johnny wasn't a good choice for the bill, as he was not a "founding father/architect" like LR and JLL were), and the last time I seen him in concert was 2007 at the "Rockin' 50s Fest" out at the casino... The second time was probably around 2000/2001, I'd have to dig out my ticket stub to get the exact date/year-That one was also at the casino when they held their 'Pavillion Nights" concerts out in a huge tent out in the parking lot of the casino...

All three shows were great, but the first one was my favorite, not because it was the first concert of his that I went to, but because he was in rare form... I don't know if it was part of his schtick, or if he genuinely wanted to keep going, but they almost had to pull him off stage... He did many of his hits, and he also sang The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There", Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock 'n Roll", and I seem to remember him even singing Hank Williams' "Jambalaya"...

 

When I told my sister about seeing Little Richard like this (as he is in the clip you posted) she didn't say he was a sell-out, but her reaction was as good as saying it... She couldn't believe it was him, because all thru the years, we had seen him with wigs and the pancake make-up, etc...

 

I don't mean this to sound derogatory, but I wonder if his cocaine addiction added to it... He was addicted, and I don't know much about what cocaine can do to a person's brain, but I wonder if that caused memories to become even wilder than what they really would have been? Or create things in his mind that never really happened?

 

Richard was crazy before he started to do any drugs.

 

"Richard's always been crazy, but it helped him from going insane" (wait, that was Waylon Jennings...)