Those Conformist Fifties: Little Richard
This has become a regular feature by now: things that make me suspect that despite what some say, the Fifties in the United States was not necessarily or exclusively a time when everyone conformed slavishly to the blandest stereotypes we imagine today. Case in point: Little Richard Penniman.
He was raised by churchgoing people but his father was a bootlegger. His music came straight from African American gospel roots, and one of his favorite singers was Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a unique performer if there ever was one. He began making "jump blues" records in 1951. He recorded "Tutti Frutti" in 1955, after changing the impromptu lyrics that originally went, "Tutti Frutti, good booty," and it went to the top of the R&B charts. He made sixteen more hit singles in three years, and appeared in three films. He was huge, in a word. People went insane at his concerts, and had to be held back from throwing themselves off balconies. Women threw their underwear at him.
In the Fifties, don't forget.
Personally he had wild parties and bisexual orgies and then gave it up and became a preacher, and he's kind of been shuttling back and forth between God and the devil, or at least the devil's music, ever since. At his height, performers ranging from Elvis Presley to Pat Boone, of all people, covered his tunes—a form of conforming, you might say, but it was the crazy guy that everyone wanted to conform to. Was there anyone who influenced rock music more? Hard to say. But he was huge. Once in the Sixties, he toured England and his opening act was The Beatles. He hired Jimi Hendrix as a guitarist. And I hate to keep harping on this, but he was really one of the biggest names in show business ever. He was so big that it seems inevitable at this late date, and maybe we fail to see how improbable it was that this bundle of seething contradictions from way over on the wrong side of the tracks became a superstar in 1955 and had bisexual orgies and wore eyeliner. Where is music as orgiastic and bacchanalian coming from today, I'd like to know? Now that we're not such conformists any more?
He was raised by churchgoing people but his father was a bootlegger. His music came straight from African American gospel roots, and one of his favorite singers was Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a unique performer if there ever was one. He began making "jump blues" records in 1951. He recorded "Tutti Frutti" in 1955, after changing the impromptu lyrics that originally went, "Tutti Frutti, good booty," and it went to the top of the R&B charts. He made sixteen more hit singles in three years, and appeared in three films. He was huge, in a word. People went insane at his concerts, and had to be held back from throwing themselves off balconies. Women threw their underwear at him.
In the Fifties, don't forget.
Personally he had wild parties and bisexual orgies and then gave it up and became a preacher, and he's kind of been shuttling back and forth between God and the devil, or at least the devil's music, ever since. At his height, performers ranging from Elvis Presley to Pat Boone, of all people, covered his tunes—a form of conforming, you might say, but it was the crazy guy that everyone wanted to conform to. Was there anyone who influenced rock music more? Hard to say. But he was huge. Once in the Sixties, he toured England and his opening act was The Beatles. He hired Jimi Hendrix as a guitarist. And I hate to keep harping on this, but he was really one of the biggest names in show business ever. He was so big that it seems inevitable at this late date, and maybe we fail to see how improbable it was that this bundle of seething contradictions from way over on the wrong side of the tracks became a superstar in 1955 and had bisexual orgies and wore eyeliner. Where is music as orgiastic and bacchanalian coming from today, I'd like to know? Now that we're not such conformists any more?
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