I spent last week in Los Angeles, hanging with my family. Along with the cooking, laughing and listening I did, I was finally able to coerce my dad into writing another "DadMog". Hope everyone enjoys reading this as much as I did:
It's 1985, we're in a radio studio in Santa Monica with the architect of rock and roll, Little Richard himself, and he can't stop talking about Buddy Holly's schlong. "He was so huge. I never seen nobody that big in my life. He was huge, huge, Huge. Huge, huge, huge. HUGE!!" Then he adds, as a gratuitous postscript: "I loved Buddy."
Richard's dressing room in Alan Freed's gigantic stage shows in New York in the mid to late '50s was, in the singer's own words, a raving bordello of big names. "They should have had 'Little Orgy' written on my door at the Brooklyn Paramount," he laughed.
The occasion for this conversation was the publication of his autobiography, written by a Irish podiatrist, Dr. Rock, called "Little Richard: The Quasar of Rock and Roll." You don't hear a lot of Richard on the airwaves anymore, but a casual perusal of his extraordinarily influential catalog reveals a broad range of styles in addition to his adrenal-ripping piano-pummeling hits. Proto-soul and gospel stand proudly alongside the easy lope of "Send Me Some Lovin'," and irresistible dance raveups like "Good Golly Miss Molly," "Rip It Up," "She's Got It" and "Lucille."
I tell him that I could never figure out the line in the latter where he shouts, "I asked my friends about her, but all....what?" A look of recognition passes across his handsome unlined 50-something face. "Ah, we had to cover them up so that Pat Boone and those others wouldn't be able to cover them. I was saying, '...but all their lips was tight'."
Pat Boone is to rock and roll what imitation margarine is to fine French cuisine, but his versions of songs by Richard, and black groups like the El Dorados ("Crazy Little Mama") often outsold the originals. Most mainstream AM radio stations were black-averse. It took Hollywood to help change that. Richard co-starred in what many observers, myself included, believe was the greatest rock and roll movie of the founding era, Jayne Mansfield's "The Girl Can't Help It," whose title song was performed in a rollickingly erotic rendition by Richard. As a tightly corseted Mansfield enters a nightclub, her waist impossibly small and her massive mammaries threatening to burst over the top of her strapless silver gown, Richard leers, "She walks by, the bread slice turns to toast/she's got a lot of what they call The Most..." Cut to a milkman delivering a bottle whose top bursts explosively as Jayne passes by. You get the idea.
That film also featured Eddie Cochran, the Platters, and other early stars. "To me, the first videos were made at that time." Richard also was featured prominently in most of Alan Freed's ground-breaking black and white rock movies, most of them knocked out in just four or five days by bent-nosed producers making a fast buck on what appeared to be a brief fad. "I always wanted to be a movie star in my home town," explained Richard. "And I felt that I was when I was movin' from city to city, a movin' star."
His frenetic yells, bat shrieks and banshee howls inspired more than one rock band, but most especially the Beatles and Paul McCartney. With the Stones and the Beatles in tow, Richard came out of a brief, religious, retirement in 1961. In Hamburg, "Mick Jagger slept on the floor of Bo Diddley's room, because my room was full as always. I was yelling next, NEXT!" I ask if Paul really learned that yell from him. "Oh, yes. I was going 'Woooooo! Woooooooooo! And Paul would go, 'wooogh,' a sound like someone being punched in the solar plexus. "And what", I inquire, "do you think Mick Jagger learned from you?" "Oh," coos Richard, a delicious smile spreading his features, "How to walk!"
After his initial burst of years of top ten hits designed to send Fifties parents into paroxysms of horror (the only time I heard my very conservative Irish Catholic mother swear was when I would play Richard's 45s over and over, and she'd shout upstairs, "Turn off that god-damn booga-wooga jungle music!"), Richard started to ask for his money. "And they stopped playing my music. That's what happened. That's the way it was." When he claimed to have seen a huge bright light pass over a stadium he was playing in Australia, thinking it was Sputnik (which, if visible, would have been only the tiniest pin-prick of light), he decided to quit the business, and threw all his diamonds in the ocean. (Thirty years later, regretfully, he demands, "Whatever fish got my rings - give them back!!") He returned to the States and entered a southern Bible college, arriving in an ostentatious Cadillac. "As a kid, I met Lloyd Price in Macon, GA in the Douglas Theater. He had a black and gold Cadillac. I wanted that Cadillac so bad. In my town, the only person who had a Cadillac was the funeral parlor, you had to die to ride!" Then, turning to the London Weekend Television cameraman who was filming our interview, he addressed a newcomer then making his initial splash on the music scene: "Prince, I had a purple Cadillac before you was born, baby! Prince is me in this generation. I love him."
Richard was also a pioneer in gender-bending stage appearance, one of the first men to use heavy makeup and eye-liner, sequins, spotlights and other attention getters. Among his main influences was a flamboyant pianist named Esquerita. "He was inspired by me to be in show business. I met him at the bus station in Macon, Georgia. I would sit there all night and watch people get off, (you know what I mean), and I said, 'Oh, boy!' He got his hair style (a heavily pomaded pompadour) from me, but he taught me how to play piano, with 'One Mint Julip' by the Clovers."
His musical interests had started much earlier, however, at age 6, with his brothers in a gospel group, The Tiny Tots Quartet. Other influences included Mahalia Jackson and the Clara Ward singers, Ruth Brown, Sister Rosetta Tharp, and New Orleans rock legend Fats Domino. (Today it's almost unimaginable that fifty and more years onward, the founding class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is still mostly amongst us: Richard, Fats, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry.)
For young people who love to dance their butts off, the fever-pitch rhythms of Little Richard have never lost their luster. Today, live, he may not be leaping atop his piano anymore, but his pipes are as good as ever, the blood-curdling high notes intact and terrifying. If you've only heard a couple of his hits, his body of work is well worth (re)visiting, the very spirit of Rock and Roll itself.
If you would like to read the rest of the MOG posts by my pops, here are the links: #1: Fela Kuti #2: Lord Buckley #3: Nina Simone
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Finally!!!!
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I had the pleasure of seeing a tape of Roger's interview with Little Richard and it truly is a great bit of rock and roll history. I look forward to each and every DadMog.
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That was an absolutely wonderful read. I love Little Richard. One of my favorite songs to do at karaoke is "Long Tall Sally".
I remember seeing a movie about Little Richard on TV some years ago. They spent some time on the whole Pat Boone dilemma. That part was hilarious.
Post Script—I nearly spit out my coffee reading that bit about Buddy Holly.
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That is some quality writing. I was just listening to Little Richard recently while assembling a mix that included Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Willie John, etc. Makes ya wonder what the context was when he saw Buddy Holly's schlong. Guess they were just as depraved then as, say, Led Zep were a couple decades later.
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Nobody was more intense than Little Richard. Check out a couple of his cuts that haven't been played to death on the radio: "I'm Just a Lonely Guy" (on the Specialty label) and "Two-Time Loser" from his 1970 LP "The Rill Thing" on the Reprise label. One of the many good things about his recordings during the late 50's was the beauty of the sax solos by men like Lee Allen and Alvil "Red" Tyler, who were New Orleans studio regulars. It's hard to find great white sax players in rock & roll or even rock, as it is hard to find not-great black sax players. One exception to that is the great sax solo in "Spooky," the Classic IV's 1967 hit.
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At one point the early 90s, I was in the bar of the Sunset Hyatt in LA with a photographer friend, when we spotted someone vaguely familiar.
"I think that's Bobby Womack at the bar," my friend said, and promptly walked over to ask him.
It was Bobby, and he told us he was waiting for "Richie", who was having a small gathering for his birthday.
About 20 minutes later, just as I leaving, Little Richard cycloned into the room (there isn't really another word) and declared at the top of his voice "Hellllloooooo Ev'ryboooooodddddy! It's uh-happy buthday to meeeeee!!!!"
I took the plunge and held out my hand to shake his, while wishing him the best for his special day. He pulled my hand to his mouth and gave my knuckles the wettest kiss they've ever experienced.
And I didn't wash for at least a week.
DadMog is King. Long may he be rockin' and reigning over all of us.
Many, many thanks for a fabulous post.
(Or, in "Richie"-speak, should that be faaaaaabuuuuuluuusssss? Ooh, my soul.)
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Wow. This was awesome. I need to see the other DadMogs.
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tell Dad thanks for me!. Greatly appreciate the posting here. Met Little Richard on one of his preaching tours in the early Eighties. In any milieu, he is a religious experience. merci!
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I've always been a Bo Diddly fan myself, but having become a fan of the Wailers (the Tacoma 50's/60's group) via their influence on The Flaming Sideburns, I have slowly become a fan of Little Richard. Am I the only one that wishes these guys would get more radio play today?
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Hell yeah, Iren! The (Fabulous) Wailers are amazing. They still play in Spanaway, Wash., you know. Though some of them have died.
her massive mammaries
I can't believe your dad said that - and I don't even know him.
As for Little Richard, I couldn't agree more. A lot of people laugh when you say he's amazing. My brother included. I told him I had just dropped $50 on one of his LPs on Specialty and he just laughed and called me a dumb ass.
Then I played it for him.
Vastly underrated musician and one of the greatest influences on rock. Berry and Diddley were important, but Little Richard is right up there with him.
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I always tried to write off Little Richard's contribution to the world of Rock and Roll till I woke up a bit and did my homework; definitely significant, and I too love your "Dad Mogs" Kate, keep 'em coming and Mog On!
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Hey, Kate. I reckon your pops and me should collaborate on a book...
We could call it...
DADMOGS & ENGLISHMEN!
(that echo-y ripping sound you hear is sides splitting all across cyberspace)
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kate, always dig the moggering of your pops. thanks for spreading.
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It's official - good taste and eloquence are hereditary.
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Thanks, Kate :)
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wow...thanks. i am surprised anyone actually read that. tell me which bands you like.
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Amazing post, please do continue the saga, or even get your dad to get a Mog persona himself, and please share with the world his knowledge and insights, many fans i see he will have already, count me in as one too.
You Kate grew up exactly the way i think one day any son of mine will be raised....hehehe
Loved the other DADMOG's as well and thank you for introducing me to Lord Buckley whom i didn't knew about even being a fervorous stand-up fan.
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That was an awesome post!!!!
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Your dad has excellent taste - Little Richard and Lord Buckley. Phew!! You lucky girl - he could have been into Andy Williams and Lawrence Welk.
A great post. And yes, we orta hear these guys on the radio - it would scare the life out of most of the young punks who think they're wild.
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Thanks. Great post. Shouldn't he have a mogin of his own?
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That would be nice, but he doesn't have the time. He barely has enough time to write me very occasional MOG posts!
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When I read Cindi Lauper had Little Richard officiate her wedding I thought that was the best damn idea I had ever heard in my entire damn life. Fast forward to 2004 when my girlfriend and I finally decide to get married; I track down Mr. Richard’s manager and pop the question: Can the architect of rock ‘n roll officiate MY wedding?
“Sorry, this artists does not officiate weddings except for his personal friends,” came the emailed response.
“Well,” I thought, “I’ll be his close personal friend if that’s what it takes…besides, I wanted to do that anyway, I don’t really need an excuse.”
Then I read the second line: “However, if you can offer Little Richard a minimum of $50,000 or more, we MIGHT consider this.”
Oh my. Well, it was a long shot from the beginning so I wasn’t too crushed…but still, imagine it: Little Richard, THE Little Richard at yer wedding. How sweet would that be? Well, maybe not…he’d steal the show, I suppose, because it’s always Little Richard’s day.
In the end we made up for it by having the processional feature a song by Bo Diddley, The Shaggs and Screaming Lord Sutch while the recessional featured Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas. Not bad. And all for well under $50,000.
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Wow, only $50,000? :) A friend of mine found out that Al Green officiates marriages, so she put her name on the waiting list. The list is years long, so she figures when her name finally comes up she will actually have someone she wants to marry.
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Great post.
I think who I am today is just because of my dad's Little Richard & Fats Domino records, and tapes (on wheels). He played them to me when I was little. The first thing I taught myself on the piano was how to pick out boogie woogie chords, at around 6 yrs. Really put rock'n roll into my heart.