little richard - C or D?

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.

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