Little Richard

Like most of you I have heard the constant 'line' that Little Richard (Richard Penniman) was an early R&B original, the architect of Rock n Roll, and such. The wiki bio echos that take. I have a somewhat different view.

I've been going through the Blues discography and the 8 disk Specialty set and the fact of the matter is that while he is recorded as early as 1951, all the singles prior to his first New Orleans session in September of 1955 are best described as forgettable! Until that first New Orleans session there is nothing that anyone would even bother archiving today where it not for that latter material. To take it a step further, looking forward through the sessions he has 3 more Los Angeles sessions in 1955 that produce nothing of any note then in February thru August 1956 he is back in New Orleans and a large chunk of his best hits are cut at J&M. Yet another lack-luster L.A. session is followed by a pair of N.O. sessions that produce six more singles. So from September 1955 to October 1956 Richard has nine New Orleans sessions resulting in 30 singles plus around 25 or 30 extra takes. During the same period 5 Los Angeles sessions result in 5 singles (0 hits) and a slew of rejects. In 1957 sessions in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles manage to produce 6 more singles with 'Keep a Knockin' (a composite of 4 takes in Wash.)  being the first quality tune he had ever produced outside of New Orleans!

Subsequent to that 1955-1956 golden era in New Orleans, Little Richard doesn't really do much other than to play those same songs endlessly for the next 7 years.  To be fair there is a mid 60's run with some new decent tunes but they correspond to the time he is reunited with the New Orleans guys who have come to L.A.! The rest of his career is spent re-doing his own hits and covering hits of others like Fats Domino and Elvis whilst self promoting himself into Architect of Rock n Roll he is widely considered to be today.

So what happened in New Orleans that worked so well for Richard? How did he leave here a star with giant hair, eye makeup and lipstick (he only had the hair when he got here) and a schtick and piano style that would carry him more than 50 years when he seemingly came here without much going for him? The obvious first answer is Cosimo Matassa, Earl Palmer and the J&M gang who play on all those records, producer Bumps Blackwell get some credit too but a less obvious answer lies in three young gay artists who were his friends while he was here, Esquerita (S.Q. Reeder, he didn't adopt the stage name until 1958) , James Booker and Bobby Marchan. 

Richard and Reeder met cruising for sex in a Macon, GA bus terminal and while I've never seen any documentation that Richard brought Reeder here with him, the fact is he shows up here around the same time and stays until 1963. Reeder taught Richard his piano style, and he and Marchan,( the singer for The Clowns who was also a female impersonator on Bourbon Street), likely influenced Richard on the makeup as well. Youngest of the group was was James Booker (18 or 19 at the time) who was 3 times the piano player of any of them, had been a pro since 12, and couldn't help but teach them all something.

My friend John Parsons, Booker's ex manager, has told me stories that James told him of the four of them cruising Canal street in Richard's new white convertible Cadillac, looking outrageous and hunting for action. (There was certainly no where else in the Deep South, or damn near anywhere else at that time that they could have survived such behavior. New Orleans has always shown great tolerance towards gays even when the rest of the country did not.) The stunning thing to me is that the 'public' seems to have clue that these guys are gay! When seen thru the 'gay-dar' educated eyes of one who has lived most of his life in New Orleans and San Francisco that seems incredible, but folks in the 40's and 50's saw what they wanted to see. My friend Cliff confirms that in his experience of his uber conservative Dad allowing him to see Richard in the late 50's in Chicago, something he would have forbidden had there been any thought of any singer being a homosexual.

There is another obvious important influence on both Richard and Esquerita who predates both by nearly a decade and who was well known to both of them. His name was Billy Wright. In fact Richard began his career openly imitating Billy Wright and Wright apparently used his influence in getting Penniman his first recording sessions at RCA. When I show the pictures of this guy, you won't believe it! He had the hair going in 1948!

So was at the end of the day was Little Richard really all that original, was he all that important? As to original, I'd have to say not really, almost everything about him is borrowed, but important, well clearly yes since he is the one whom everyone remembers and credits. He was the guy who was there in the right place at the right time and while his catalog of 'significant' material is surprisingly small, when it is good, it is really good.

This collection gives you the meat of the Specialty hits (I might have included a couple of the more obscure New Orleans tunes if it were me), some the best from the mid 60's Vee Jay sessions (I Don't Know What You Got is really quite good) and some of his covers of other folks hits. It is quite listenable and really about all the Little Richard one needs. (imo)