Little Richard (a.k.a. Richard Wayne Penniman) (b. December 5, 1932), 1975. Photo c/o GETTY.There ar
Little Richard (a.k.a. Richard Wayne Penniman) (b. December 5, 1932), 1975. Photo c/o GETTY.There are few people who have impacted popular music and culture more than Little Richard, who turns eighty-four today. Since 1947, when he first appeared onstage, Little Richard’s power as a performer has challenged notions of gender, sexuality, race, spirituality, and art.In September 1955, Richard performed for his producer a sexually explicit song he had made up on the road; he called it “Tutti Frutti.” Sensing a hit, the producer hired a songwriter to change some of the lyrics, and Richard recorded the cleaner version in three takes. It was an instant hit, followed by the bigger success of “Long Tall Sally.”In the 1960s, as he toured Europe, Richard became a mentor and teacher to Billy Preston, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. In 1964, a young man named Maurice James joined Richard’s band and spent the better part of two years learning from the legend; James later changed his name to Jimi Hendrix.As with many of his generation—and particularly those African Americans raised in the religious South—Little Richard faced harsh disapprobation regarding his sexuality from a young age and he struggled with it for most of his life. Kicked out of his house at fifteen because of his penchant for dressing up in his mother’s clothes, Richard was a drag performer in the early 1950s, and he racked up a number of lewd conduct arrests for various cruising activities. In 1984, he told an interviewer that he felt homosexuality was “unnatural” and “contagious,” though he considered himself “omnisexual.” By 1995, however, he felt comfortable enough to tell an interviewer that he always knew he was gay, though he’s rarely talked about it since.In any event, Little Richard is a pioneering member of the queer community whose work has influenced, among many others, Chuck Berry, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Prince, Queen, Patti Smith, and Lou Reed. #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #LittleRichard -- source link
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