rest in peace little richard: you were the original rock and roll wild man

I could not LIVE with myself if I didn't give Little Richard his propers today upon hearing the new of his passing. This mofo was the real deal: raw, conflicted, intergalactic, multi-sexual, wild, tender and a whole lotta fun. Little Richard was my introduction into rock and roll under the tutelage of my Aunt Donna in a basement in Milford, CT a few years before I entered first grade. To say that I was slain in some kind of spirit upon hearing "Tutti Fruitti" and "Long Tall Sally" would be too tame. I was knocked on my ass! And my all time favorite is still "Lucille."  There ain't NOTHING like this one. Just look and listen to these cats - and how about Richard's eyes!!!!

Between my basement baptism in 1957 with Little Richard, and 1964 when the Beatles debuted on Ed Sullivan, most of what was on the radio was second best. I dug the doo wop girl groups and felt something going on with Motown, too. I still get chills when the Jaynettes version of "Sally Go Round the Roses" pops up. A total gas.

And then I heard Paul McCartney do his take on the master, Little Richard, and it was rock and roll Pentecost: there WAS a place for a dumpy white kid if Macca could sing like that. Sir Paul was quoted today as saying that he learned to sing like Little Richard but he had to get about a foot above and outside himself and look down before it would rip. That sounds about right to me because it IS an out of body experience to do Little Richard. Let me add that John Lennon's screams and shouts were equally electrifying and soulful back in the day, too - and I loved his version of "Twist and Shout."

When I was writing my doctoral thesis on a spirituality of rock and roll I read about Richard's history: playing the chitin' circuit in the South, doing gigs in Black gay clubs, dealing with the Klan and all the rest. When Bo Diddley's producers brought him to New Orleans to record he had to clean up his act - and things went flat. Until he started playing his original version of "Tutti Fruitti" during a break. Everyone loved it but knew that in 1955 there was no way they could get a song that sang, "Tutti Frutti, good booty - if it don't fit, don't force it, just grease it, make it easy" on the air. Dorothy LaBosterie was called in to re-write the raunch while Little Richard kept up his original energy. She had no idea was he was singing about - and swore the song had another genesis - but no one could do it like Little Richard and his legacy endures. It really didn't matter that the man could really only play in one key, it always killed it.

My world came alive because of this brother's music - he was a total original - and I loved him. Rest in peace, Richard, keep rippin' it up.