S E N S O RY ST I M U L AT I O N … F O R T H E E Y E S A N D E A R S
ART&CULTURE The King and Queen of rock ‘n’ roll, Little Richard
THE
HEROES
ISSUE
2020
Tribute to an LGBTQ Icon
EMBRACEMAGAZINE.US
76
STORY BY STEVE PAFFORD
I
t seems like another day, another hero lost. One of the most colorful performers in history, rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Little Richard, died in May. He was 87. What is left to say about Little Richard that he has not already said better himself? “I am the innovator! I am the originator! I am the emancipator! I am the architect! I’m rock ’n’ roll!” he once told an interviewer, before adding, “Now, I am not saying that to be vain or conceited.” No, Little Richard – born Richard Penniman in Macon, Georgia was just being honest. And a bit vain and conceited. As a child, he was mocked for having one leg shorter than the other, which drastically impacted his gait, and ridiculed for his effeminate appearance. The homophobic bullying bred a massively competitive streak in him, driving Richard to outdo everyone in every endeavor he could. Richard once said, “Rhythm and blues had an illegitimate baby and we named it rock ’n’ roll.” That may sound far-fetched but it is a fair summary of what happened in America in the early ‘50s, where it is often said that Ike Turner was its inventor, Chuck Berry its undisputed father and Little Richard anointed as its architect, usually by himself. But like the USA, no one person was the founding father of rock ’n’ roll, which was actually black slang for having sex. Its conception was
a cross-pollination that irrevocably altered popular music by introducing black R&B to white America, shattering the color line on the music charts, and bringing what was once called “race music” into the mainstream. Years before he created Tina, Turner was responsible for weaving a mixture of boogie-woogie stomp, traditional blues and white hillbilly music into a cohesive new order. And years before anybody thought in terms of a rock ’n’ roll record, there he was leading his own Kings of Rhythm on Rocket 88, a game changing single that had been recorded in Memphis in 1951. Sam Phillips, founder of the local Sun Records and the man who discovered Elvis, considers 88 to be the first rock record. Even Little Richard admitted to basing his piano style on Turner’s performance. So if Little Richard did not invent rock ’n’ roll then he most certainly reinvented it. With his piercing wail, hyperkinetic piano playing and towering pompadour, he was by far the most daring, the most outré of all the early rockers, the one that personified its mutinous outsider appeal. His unfettered flamboyance, showmanship and sexual expressiveness made him an implausible sensation — a trailblazer and trendsetter celebrated across America during McCarthyism and the buttoned-down Eisenhower era. He was also gay, gifted and black.
Little Richard playing at the halftime show
