I spent some time today wondering if there was any moment where I did not know about Little Richard.
If I did, that moment probably came when I was really young and only really knew about Batman and Spider-Man and the Lone Ranger episodes that aired over the radio. Yes, believe it or not, there were radio serials in my lifetime. I don’t remember the details or any of the storylines. I just remember that I listened to the Lone Ranger, and it was probably on the same station that aired Paul Harvey.
But even if I didn’t know Little Richard, I probably heard Tutti Frutti and knew the lyrics, A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom! I probably tried to sing them.
He was our guy. Just like everyone, his songs hit us when we were children, and they still get us going now. Timeless and perfect.
Yes, Little Richard has always been there. I remember him popping up on the Today show before taking off for school in the morning. I remember seeing highlights of an all-star band featuring Paul McCartney and Pete Townshend performing Lucille at the 1979 Concert for the People of Kampuchea. That concert was a veritable who’s who of popular and cutting-edge music of the time. It featured The Who, The Clash, The Specials, Queen, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Wings, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello & The Attractions and the McCartney fronted Rockestra.
That all-star outfit had the likes of John Bonham, Dave Edmunds, Kenney Jones, John Paul Jones, Laurence Juber, Denny Laine, Ronnie Lane, Robert Plant, and Townshend. No slouches amongst them.
The songs that supergroup did aren’t too memorable. But they closed the show with a Little Richard song.
Of course.
And why not? After all, even if Little Richard didn’t invent rock-n-roll, he most definitely was the one who set it free. That’s probably just as important because if something doesn’t have a spirit, it can’t live. Little Richard gave the music its spirit.
He was there at the birth. More importantly, everyone was influenced by him. You can hear it in Paul McCartney’s vocal style and the way Elton John pounds the keys on his piano. Jimi Hendrix leaned how to perform from Little Richard when he toured with him at the start of his career after leaving the Army. Imagine that. First, Jimi Hendrix joins the Army as a paratrooper and the he joins Little Richard’s band. If that isn’t an education, nothing is.
Little Richard certainly could have taken credit for Prince’s style choices, and through the late 1950s, he was just as famous as Elvis. James Brown and Bob Dylan borrowed from Little Richard. Without Little Richard, there is no Elvis, no Jerry Lee Lewis, no Beatles, no Jimi Hendrix, and there sure is no such thing as hip-hop.
David Bowie said it best: “When I heard Little Richard, I mean, it just set my world on fire.”
He isn’t alone in that regard.
Here’s the crazy thing about Little Richard … Though he continued to perform well into this century, Little Richard did not have a top 10 hit since “Good Golly Miss Molly,” and that one came out in 1958. Imagine that? Little Richard could play concerts every night in the 21st century on the strength of songs he wrote 50 years earlier. Better yet, those songs sounded just as fresh, and they performed with tremendous energy. Little Richard was all energy. That was part of his charm.
Just watch this clip of Little Richard inducting fellow Macon, Ga. native Otis Redding into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. Better yet, watch the reactions of those sitting in the audience like Bruce Springsteen and Keith Richards.
He gave it all up in the late 1950s. It wasn’t that the fame was too much because Little Richard spent the majority of his life showing up at events, appearing in movies, and on talk shows just because he was Little Richard. He was stylish, colorful, fun, flamboyant, controversial, funny, charming, warm, and a mountain of energy.
He was unapologetic and quite simply, Little Richard. He was a lightning bolt who lit up everything and turned the dark skies bright.
Richard Penniman died at age 87 in Tennessee on Saturday. But it really seemed like he was alive forever, and, likely, it will always feel like that.