Little Richard talks Beatles
JNash...@aol.com
Little Richard . . . big, big ego
He gave us Tutti Frutti, rejected the Beatles and advised Hendrix. Michael
Shelden meets a star keen to say he's done it all
AT the Hollywood hotel where he lives all year round, Little Richard twists
excitedly in his chair, does a few dance steps, thrusts an arm heavenwards
and squeals: "O Lord, honey, you tell those English people to come see their
Little Richard do his stuff on the concert stage. I will ah-maze and astound.
They will see history come to life."
Trained, as a boy in Macon, Georgia, to sell snake oil in Dr Hudson's
Travelling Medicine Show, Richard Penniman can still do a very convincing
sales pitch. He will tell you that God Almighty so blessed this poor boy, the
son of a bootlegger, that he rose from rural obscurity to become the Father
of Rock, the Master Blaster, the Innovator, the Emancipator, the Black Angel
of Soul.
And, good golly Miss Molly, he will tell you from the bottom of his heart: "If
only I had been born white, there never would have been an Elvis Presley."
When this holy rolling spirit is in full flight, Little Richard will burst
into song: a little Tutti Frutti here, a bit of Long Tall Sally there. In a
voice that is still amazingly smooth and perfectly pitched, he launches into
Slippin' and Slidin' (Peepin' and Hidin'), and then abruptly stops to hold
out his arms and announce triumphantly: "The world never heard nothing like
that until I came along. They was all singing slow things like Pennies from
Heaven, and you know there weren't no pennies falling from heaven in my
neighbourhood. I was singing a different tune, darling."
Yes, at 66, Little Richard is still crazy after all these years, and boasting
that he will leave everyone in awe when he brings his act to Britain in May.
As he sees it, the new tour will be 1962 all over again, when the Reverend
Little Richard caused riots in London and Bristol and headlined a bill
featuring some eager lads from Liverpool named John, Paul, George and Ringo.
"That's right, those boys wanted to be just like Little Richard, and they was
hoping to do his music better than he did it; but I couldn't let that happen.
I showed them that there is only one Little Richard.
"The only mistake I made was when Brian Epstein offered to give me a half
interest in the group if I took some of their records back to America and got
them a recording deal. I turned him down."
How could you do that, Richard?
"Well, with all those harmonies they were doing, I thought they sounded like
the Everly Brothers. And I just figured the last thing the world needed was
four more Everly Brothers."
In love with his own magnificence, Richard has often been underwhelmed by the
promising talents who have gathered at his feet over the years. He remembers
a skinny guy with a tambourine who used to follow him to parties in London,
and says: "So, one day, I told this kid that he could stand at the side of
the stage and play along with us on his little tambourine. And now, you look
at him, my old friend Mick Jagger, and what do you see? You see him strutting
down the stage just like I used to do. Isn't it obvious that he's doing my
old act?"
Then, there was the young soul singer he met in a Georgia prison: "That's
right, I discovered James Brown when nobody knew him but the warden." And the
limo driver whose looks left him cold: "I thought Sonny Bono had a face that
only a mother could love, and I wasn't even sure of that."
And the young black guitarist who kept pestering him for advice. "What was
Jimi Hendrix calling himself in those days? Oh, yeah, it was Maurice James. I
never thought he would amount to anything. He was always mumbling something
about trying to make his guitar sound like my voice, and then I saw him
trying to play the guitar with his mouth. That boy was wild."
When Hendrix later confided to his reluctant hero that he was hoping to have
a hit with a song called Purple Haze, a bewildered Richard asked: "And how
purple is it?"
Of the four Beatles, he liked Paul best and fondly remembers the young man's
ambition to become a star in America. "Paul was always the nicest one, and
when we were playing the Star Club in Hamburg, he used to hang out with me
and ask questions about America. He'd say, 'Richard, is it a very big
country?' and 'Tell me what American girls are like.' "
But John Lennon was nothing but a thorn in Richard's side. "Heavens, that John
was pure misery. If I would have had a stick, I think I might have beat him
with it. He would do horrible things, like get you in a little room, pass gas
and run out and lock you in. Oh my, I can still smell it."
You mean he liked to play a lot of practical jokes?
"Practical? What do you mean practical? There wasn't anything practical about
them. They were terrible."
So how did the star of the great and glorious Richard become eclipsed by all
these younger rivals? Why doesn't everyone agree that he is the grand
architect of rock?
"Now, that's an easy one to answer, because you know a lot of people don't
want to give Little Richard the credit he deserves. Some of it is just plain
racism. They resent a good-looking black man who goes from having nothing to
being rich and famous.
"My oh my, I was so poor that I couldn't have afforded a turkey sandwich if
the turkey had brought it to me. And then, because I was a little flamboyant,
some people thought I was Alice instead of Richard."
Alice? You mean, they didn't like you because you're gay?
"Well, I may have acted like Alice, but I was still Richard. I had to be
Alice or the white folks wouldn't have let me play their clubs back in the
Fifties. They were afraid that all the young white girls would take one look
at this beautiful suntan and fall in love. If the older folks thought I was
Alice, then it was safe to have me around.
"But the girls fell in love with me anyway. They took one look at this bronzed
beauty and lost control. Whoa! They had to tie the socks on me. Otherwise,
those girls would have stripped me clean."
In his golden years, Richard has apparently decided that he was never really
homosexual, and that neither sex nor drugs interest him today. He says: "I'm
clean now, totally clean. Of course, I was never really dirty. But now, I
don't even drink wine. Can you imagine that some folks even drink it for
Communion?"
Richard appears to be shocked by this fact, but at the peak of his
popularity, a sip of wine would have been the least of his vices. He had a
reserved spot in the fast lane, cruising Los Angeles in his custom-made gold
and white Cadillac, with its leopard skin interior and a boot full of loose
cash.
He struggled with cocaine and alcohol problems, and never seemed to lack
companions of both sexes. For a short time, he was married to a woman named
Ernestine, but the most interesting of his girlfriends was a stripper who
called herself Angel.
"Oh, I was out and about with her, but I wouldn't say she was ever my girl.
She was a lot of people's girl. She went out with everybody. She was a
clothes- dropper. She liked to get naked."
When I ask whether the rumour is true that Angel was blessed with a 50-inch
chest, Richard looks at me mischievously and says: "I never measured it. But
I guess every bit of it must have been real in those days. These days, people
got a lot of things they put up there to make themselves look big. But, you
know, Richard always says, 'Watch out: every hill isn't necessarily a
mountain.' "
The singer's own appearance is still rather youthful. He's lean and his face
is almost wrinkle-free. But his brown complexion and long black hair, which
he now keeps at shoulder length, make him look a little bit like an Apache
warrior on speed. When he gets excited and starts talking rapidly, his eyes
become huge and he waves his arms and kicks his feet.
He likes to point to Prince and Michael Jackson as examples of popular black
artists who have followed his lead, but he doesn't feel that he has much to
offer to the current music scene. "With black audiences, you're only as
popular as your last hit record. Black people tend to set trends, so if
you're not in the current trend, you are out. And, anyway, I don't care much
for this music that's not really music. All the rappers are just copying the
old beats and pretending to make something new. I'm like the old cook who
could say that she made everything from scratch. Now, ain't nobody making
anything from scratch."
Recently, a black admirer stopped Richard on the street and told him: "Stay
chocolate." But he replied: "Suppose I feel like being pineapple tonight?"
It is clear that his ego is the size of Jupiter, but he is right about being
one of the truly original voices of rock music. Before 1956, when Tutti Frutti
and Long Tall Sally soared to the top of the record charts, the only composer
who was doing similar work was Chuck Berry. In part, Elvis launched his career
by doing a successful cover version of Tutti Frutti.
There is considerable justification for Richard's view that his music was
given greater play when white singers put out their cover versions. Pat Boone
had the greatest success with Tutti Frutti, and many other white
entertainers, including the Beatles, did well with Long Tall Sally and other
hits introduced by Little Richard. Forty years on, it is not easy to look
back and see how radically new this music once seemed.
"I was afraid to play my tunes when I first went into a recording studio. I
was just going to give them some old-fashioned rhythm and blues numbers
because I thought the record company would laugh if I sent them tunes like
Tutti Frutti.
"So I sat in the corner of the studio and played some of my music for myself,
and the producer heard it and said, 'What is that?' It didn't sound like
anything he had heard. And we recorded it and, sure enough, the kids loved it.
We knocked their toes out of their boots."
When his early recordings began to be played on popular radio, many of his
friends and family had no idea that their Richard Penniman was the new
sensation Little Richard. "I came home one day and told my mother, 'Hey, Mom,
that's me on the radio.' She didn't believe and told me not to be lying to
her about such things. And she went on not believing that it was me until one
of my Cadillacs showed up in the front yard."
When his career went through its inevitable lows, he was forced to sell the
fancy cars and houses. Over the years, he has seen his reputation go up and
down many times, and has had to fight to regain lost royalties and other
legitimate income owed to him from past recordings. Today, he lives reasonably
well in his Hollywood hotel overlooking the seedier side of Sunset Boulevard.
He's not rich and he's not poor. And he insists that what he wants most is to
secure his rightful place of honour in rock history.
"At the recent inductions to the Rock Hall of Fame, Billy Joel said I was one
of the true pioneers. It was nice to hear that, but even when people were
ignoring my contributions, I always knew that there was a pillar in the house
of rock that I had put there and that wasn't going to be moved. Nobody can
change what I created all those years ago."
No, but Richard's massive ego and erratic style have often driven even his
most ardent admirers to distraction. When I left him last week, he could not
stop raving about how much he would impress "those English people" on his new
tour. But, now, on the eve of his much-anticipated return to Britain, the
concerts have suddenly been cancelled.
The promoters insist Richard is to blame. He says he is the innocent victim.
He wants to play the concerts, but claims the promoter has inexplicably
pulled out.
It's a shame that this difficult wonder of living history can't cross the
Atlantic and strut his stuff one more time. Whoever is at fault, Richard is
bearing this latest disappointment as well as can be expected.
As he likes to say, life, with all its ups and downs, is "a blessin' and a
lesson".
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 1999
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
JPerry
Richard, lost in his own ego and living in a seedy hotel (not to mention a
fantasy world.) What a shame. Compare this to the last few interviews
given by Carl Perkins, who was always humble, gracious and sincere. I
respected Perkins. I just pity Richard.
Teresa Williams
in concert in Rochester NY last spring and was only a little surprised
at his long-winded flights of fancy, but quite shocked at his frail
appearance. It was quite a show with several very athletic young
dancers and a bit of audience participation but I was close enough to
see he had folks helping him as he moved away from the stage.
I'm not complaining about the show, just asking if anyone knows if he
has some health problems. He seemed to have trouble walking as if his
feet hurt or maybe it was his balance. As for his attitude, that's
nothing new. He's always felt underappreciated. He's probably right, too.
Teresa
JNance1973
given by Carl Perkins, who was always humble, gracious and sincere. I
respected Perkins. I just pity Richard.
> Little Richard . . . big, big ego
-------------------------------------------------------
Richard use to call himself the "King of Rock n Roll". Now it's several other
names ie Father etc.. He still knows enough to not insult. In his book, he
really laid into John Lennon. Going on and on about how nasty he was. The
Toronto Rock n Roll Revival featured both acts. Richard got extremely pissed
that he was not the headline act over John. By the way, John always considered
Chuck Berry the true "King of Rock n Roll". Chuck never argued the point.
Good morning Worm your Honor! The
prisoner standing before you now was
caught red-handed showing feelings.
William Mulholland
>
> Thanks to JNash for posting the Little Richard article. I saw Richard
> in concert in Rochester NY last spring and was only a little surprised
> at his long-winded flights of fancy, but quite shocked at his frail
> appearance. It was quite a show with several very athletic young
> dancers and a bit of audience participation but I was close enough to
> see he had folks helping him as he moved away from the stage.
Yes, thanks JNash for posting this excellent article.
> I'm not complaining about the show, just asking if anyone knows if he
> has some health problems.
Yip, it's his head.....swollen. ;0)
Bill
William Mulholland <wmulh...@cwcom.net> wrote:
>Teresa Williams wrote:
>>
>> Thanks to JNash for posting the Little Richard article. I saw Richard
>> in concert in Rochester NY last spring and was only a little surprised
>> at his long-winded flights of fancy, but quite shocked at his frail
>> appearance. It was quite a show with several very athletic young
>> dancers and a bit of audience participation but I was close enough to
>> see he had folks helping him as he moved away from the stage.
>
>Yes, thanks JNash for posting this excellent article.
>
>> I'm not complaining about the show, just asking if anyone knows if he
>> has some health problems.
>
>Yip, it's his head.....swollen. ;0)
I don't know why everyone is coming down so hard on Little Richard. This is the way he has
always been. I've read and seen dozens of interviews with him and it's just how he acts and
talks. None of the artists that he talks about get offended and when I have seen him with the
later bands and artists, they treat him with love and respect. He may have a big ego, but he
had a big ego back when he was washing dishes in Macon.
Bill
Danny Caccavo
> Was anyone else saddened by this? Here is a great talent like Little
> Richard, lost in his own ego and living in a seedy hotel (not to mention a
> fantasy world.) What a shame. Compare this to the last few interviews
> given by Carl Perkins, who was always humble, gracious and sincere. I
> respected Perkins. I just pity Richard.
>
> > Little Richard . . . big, big ego
Nahhh. It's the way he's always been. Why change?
THE MAGIC SCHOOLBUS! <g>
DC
--
Danny Caccavo
"Where's Elvis?"
joan may
Beanstalk
>>>>> Matthew Fisher, Little Richard and Jon Carroll
Forum: Procol Harum - Forum #1
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 09:26:02 GMT
From: <Je...@aol.com>
On Novermber 15, 1998, Matthew Fisher added the following opinion to his
WebPage:
>>>>> The Greatest Record Ever Made?
Some say A Whiter Shade of Pale, others say Stairway to Heaven.
Both answers are wrong. The correct answer is, of course, Good
Golly Miss Molly by Little Richard. <<<<
While I don't agree with him - I think it IS AWSoP - perhaps Jon Carroll
of the San Francisco Chronicle does. Just over 3 weeks after Matthew
posted the above, Carroll expressed very similar sentiments in his
December 7th column:
>>>>> Little Richard and The Great Dame
Saw Aunt Mary coming and he jumped back into the Theatre on the Square
JON CARROLL
Monday, December 7, 1998
IT IS ABOUT time that someone said out loud while he is still alive that
Little Richard is one of the great Americans of the 20th century. His
devotion to anarchy is both uncompromising and cheerful, an almost
impossible combination. His fashion sense is so peccable that it
achieves impeccability by coming in the back door. He can still do a
falsetto scream at will. Plus, he rocks.
Here is what there is too much of in popular music today: dour people.
Dour young women depressed about something, dour young men strangling on
their rage. Dour is OK, but there is life beyond dour. There is Little
Richard.
Little Richard likes sex. That's sort of a radical message these days, a
straightforward ``sex is fun´´ kind of thing. Little Richard
believes that sex is Christian. If you asked Little Richard, What would
Jesus do?, he would respond: ``She´s got everything that Uncle John
needs,´´ which would be confusing out of context but still --
you´d understand the message.
Greil Marcus wrote a wonderful essay about Little Richard on the Dick
Cavett show in the early '70s. Also on the show were Erich Segal, author
of the now-almost-forgotten ``Love Story,´´ and John Simon, the
critic who has made a career of being acerbic about everything. Simon
did not like Segal´s book, and the two of them were debating
furiously. Little Richard watched. He seemed to think that the
conversation was insufficiently focused. He suddenly levitated from his
seat, causing the others to shrink back noticeably. He fixed them with a
gaze. They were unable to meet it. He said: ``WHY, IN WHOLE HISTORY OF
AAAAART! THAT´S RIGHT! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! WHAT DO YOU KNOW,
MR. CRITIC? WHY WHEN CREEDENCE CLEARWATER PUT OUT WITH THEIR `TRAVELING
BAND´ EVERYBODY SAY WHEEE-OOOOO! BUT I KNOW IT ´CAUSE THEY ONLY
DOING `LONG TALL SALLY´ LIKE THE BEATLES AND THE STONES AND TOM JONES
AND ELVIS BECAUSE -- I AM ALL OF IT, LITTLE RICHARD HIMSELF, VERY TRULY
THE GREATEST, THE PRETTIEST, AND NOW TO YOU (he looks at Segal) AND YOU
(to Simon). ``I HAVE WRITTEN A BOOK MYSELF. I AM A WRITER. I HAVE
WRITTEN A BOOK AND IT´S CALLED, HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED BUT HE LOST WHAT
HE HAD! THAT´S IT! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! HE GOT WHAT HE WANTED
BUT HE LOST WHAT HE HAD! THE STORY OF MY LIFE! CAN YOU DIG IT? THAT´S
MY BOY LITTLE RICHARD, SURE IS. OO MAH SOUL.´´
And it was suddenly clear who the actual artist onstage was, who the
real visionary was, who was reviewing the assumptions of art and making
selections as though from a menu. Little Richard, in performance, taking
on the world with one hand tied behind his back and WINNING. God bless
him.
IT IS MY belief that every night at the Theatre on the Square, one of
the spiritual heirs to Little Richard is on full public view. His/her
name is Dame Edna Everage, although it's also Barry Humphries.
[what follows is a blurb on Dame Edna -- for the complete column, see
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/ ]
Why did Constantinople get the works? That's nobody's business but
j...@sfgate.com.
©1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page E8 <<<<<
Also check out Carroll's section on "Mondegreens" -- misheard lyrics --
e.g. "the girl with colitis goes by" etc..
Best, Joan
na
Bill wrote in message <7fg372$p...@dfw-ixnews6.ix.netcom.com>...
>In article <371B89A0...@cwcom.net>,
> William Mulholland <wmulh...@cwcom.net> wrote:
>
>>Teresa Williams wrote:
>>>
>>> in concert in Rochester NY last spring and was only a little surprised
>>> at his long-winded flights of fancy, but quite shocked at his frail
>>> appearance. It was quite a show with several very athletic young
>>> dancers and a bit of audience participation but I was close enough to
>>> see he had folks helping him as he moved away from the stage.
>>
>>
>>> has some health problems.
>>
>
> I don't know why everyone is coming down so hard on Little Richard. This
is the way he has
>always been. I've read and seen dozens of interviews with him and it's
just how he acts and
>talks. None of the artists that he talks about get offended and when I
have seen him with the
>later bands and artists, they treat him with love and respect. He may have
a big ego, but he
>had a big ego back when he was washing dishes in Macon.
i agree.
little richard has always been this way, and that's a big part of what has
made him what he is.
a legend.
na
Tom
>> I'm not complaining about the show, just asking if anyone knows if he
>> has some health problems.
>
Yeah, but he's entitled even if he did go on Full House.
John Calabro
Teresa Williams wrote:
> I saw Richard
> in concert in Rochester NY last spring and was only a little surprised
> at his long-winded flights of fancy, but quite shocked at his frail
> appearance.
> He seemed to have trouble walking as if his
> feet hurt or maybe it was his balance.
I think that might be part of his act, similar to James Brown collapsing on stage
and having his people come out and put a cape over him, help him off the stage, only
to have him jump up - energized by the music - repeatedly.
> As for his attitude, that's
> nothing new. He's always felt underappreciated. He's probably right, too.
He's darn right! He has every right to boast! Stop and consider the state of
popular music when Little Richard blew on the scene like a tornado!! He may not be
the "King" - but he damned sure is High Exalted Royalty of ROCK AND ROLL!
He invented WILD!
John Calabro
--
****************************************
* Visit Radio Free New York *
*home of Pirate Radio legend Hank Hayes*
* http://rfny.simplenet.com *
****************************************
Leonard Migliore
<giga...@geocities.com> wrote:
> Teresa Williams wrote:
>
> > I saw Richard
> > in concert in Rochester NY last spring and was only a little surprised
> > at his long-winded flights of fancy, but quite shocked at his frail
> > appearance.
>
> > He seemed to have trouble walking as if his
> > feet hurt or maybe it was his balance.
>
> I think that might be part of his act, similar to James Brown collapsing
on stage
> and having his people come out and put a cape over him, help him off the
stage, only
> to have him jump up - energized by the music - repeatedly.
>
>
> > As for his attitude, that's
> > nothing new. He's always felt underappreciated. He's probably right, too.
>
> He's darn right! He has every right to boast! Stop and consider the state of
> popular music when Little Richard blew on the scene like a tornado!! He
may not be
> the "King" - but he damned sure is High Exalted Royalty of ROCK AND ROLL!
>
> He invented WILD!
Billy Joel said at the RR Hall of Fame show that if all the derivative
guys weren't allowed, all there'd be was black guys. Not so. All there'd
be is
Little Richard. Don't take my word for it. Just listen.
--
Leonard Migliore
Usenet Troll
na
Tom wrote in message
>
>
>>Billy Joel said at the RR Hall of Fame show that if all the derivative
>>guys weren't allowed, all there'd be was black guys. Not so. All there'd
>>be is
>>Little Richard. Don't take my word for it. Just listen.
>
>
>heard some old Esquirita records.
you cant help yourself can you tom?
always with the most obsure and most far reaching acts in history.
ok ok who is Esquirita (if you'll pardon my ignorance)
>
>
Tom
Tom
>> ok ok who is Esquirita (if you'll pardon my ignorance)
>> >
>
>
>Tom just has a back catalog of Spin magazines.
>
Not me. I think Spin mentioned Esquirita exactly once, in an article Miriam
Linna wrote for them. While Miriam's recommendation holds a lot of weight
with me, I knew about Esquirita before the article.