Little Richard remembered

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The number of artists who have been influenced by him, or who play the genre of music that he helped birth are too long to list. This old article is interesting because he paid homage to the elements that helped to shape his music and stage persona.

Back to Basics, Little Richard Is Happy at Last
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Those who invent genres both define them and are stuck with them. Little Richard, hair like an apartment building, sexually ambiguous, wildly extroverted and very funny, is coming to New York for three nights at Tramps (45 West 21st Street, Chelsea), starting this evening. Little Richard (Richard Penniman), for those who don't remember, helped invent rock-and-roll. He made a strain of American extremism, all Saturday-night hysteria, a regular part of international mass culture.

As much as he has tried to renounce the spirit of abandon he had advocated with his first important recordings, exchanging it for the spirit of religion, Mr. Penniman, two years short of 60, always seems to return to the carnivalesque secular style that made him famous. The great reverberations of "Tutti Frutti," "Good Golly Miss Molly" and "Slippin' and Slidin' " that forever changed the idea of expressionism have him but good.

And the music has kept him famous enough for him to have, nearly 40 years after his first success, the best year he has ever had. Not only is he touring internationally, but he is also doing what a good portion of the human race wants to do: hang around with Cindy Crawford (the two made an ad for Revlon recently). He has made commercials for Taco Bell (no free food). And he has become a huge star among preschoolers, releasing an album on the Disney label, featuring rock-and-roll versions of children's songs (a good demographic move). Back to Secular Music

As he has periodically in his career, the deeply religious Mr. Penniman dropped out of the performing limelight in the late 1980's. But he has been touring regularly for the last two and a half years and recent reports have him pounding the piano and singing with the sort of transcendental abandon his rock-and-roll audience expects of him. This will be his first club show in New York since 1967.

"I came back to secular music because I felt there was need, a vacuum there," he said. "People wanted to hear me and I love my fans. That's the reason I did the children's album: I wanted younger kids to hear how it was done. I never thought, even being the architect of rock-and-roll, that the music would last this long. But it's stronger than ever."

In the late 1940's and early 50's, when Mr. Penniman started piecing together his style, he had a lot of music to choose from. He listened to just about everything, from Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and Count Basie to country music and blues and rhythm-and-blues singers like Joe Turner and Louis Jordan. He'd regularly hear jazz's great personalities: Louis Armstrong and Cab Calloway. Mr. Penniman grew up in Macon, Ga., 1 of 12 children. Though his father reportedly sold bootleg liquor, the influence of gospel music was strongly felt in the family. Mr. Penniman not only copied Sister Rosetta Tharpe's yowl, he turned it into his trademark as well. Then he started working with a carnival. 'An Advance Class in Entertainment'

"The jazz and blues was really like school, and I was in class constantly," Mr. Penniman said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. "But the carnival was an advance class in entertainment, and my personality was awakened. I used to sing Louis Jordan's 'Caledonia,' and I would dance with a table in my mouth with a saxophonist on it. When you're determined to be famous badly enough, nothing is too hard. I wanted to be seen so I didn't mind the pain."

From the obscure rhythm-and-blues pianist Esquerita, whose real name was Eskew Reeder, he learned more about how to play the piano, and about makeup. At the time, in the 1950's, female-impersonator shows were often found in the black underground; New Orleans' famous rhythm-and-blues spot, the Dew Drop Inn, featured impersonator shows; in fact, the emcee, Patsy Videlia, was a female impersonator. Mr. Penniman was a habitue. 'It Was Different!'

"That scene was richer than rich," he said. "I used to like hearing Fats Domino, Smiley Lewis, Professor Longhair. I loved them all, and I knew Patsy pretty well. I had to be different for people to know me, so I made my hair higher, and I had the Indian look and makeup so people didn't know where I was coming from. When I'd throw my legs on the piano, it was different!"

Mr. Penniman hasn't always been successful: his initial flush lasted about five years, and then came intermittent drug problems, and the insinuation of homosexuality, which cost him work. When he did perform, his rock shows often included sermonizing and religious songs, alienating his fans. And he made his share of terrible records.

"In the beginning, it was beautiful," he said. "It was really exciting, and I thought I was the king of the road. I was really up to my nose in the riches and fame. So excited. It was explosive. I went crazy, the girls screaming your name, to see people love you. It was wonderful. Then it fell apart, and I wanted to study and learn more about God. I came from that background, and God helped me through."

Like so many of the early rhythm-and-blues and rock performers, Mr. Penniman was badly fleeced. In the mid-1980's, he sued to regain control of his royalties, and now says he has them.

"I was educated: I learned about investments," he said. "I learned how to be in charge of things, which is just as important as talent. First, I didn't read my contracts right; I signed bad contracts. And I didn't have good management or a good accountant. I was just a dumb entertainer, and I paid a big price. I paid dearly for it.

"Now I'm making more money than anytime in my life. I wish my mother was alive to see this. I don't have to travel if I don't want. I love to be in front of people, playing away. But I don't have to because I don't have to pay a note on anything."

A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 8, 1992,
 

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