Little Richard

Tutti Frutti
$0.99

Second Coming
$12.98

After the Muscle Shoals swamp-rock of 1970's The Rill Thing and the misfire m���lange of `50s rock and `70s R&B on 1971's King of Rock `n' Roll, Richard third's and final album for Reprise splits the difference. The rock `n' roll sides, recorded with many of the New Orleans players who backed Richard's 1950s sessions, are shorn of the dated neo-disco touches H.B. Barnum added to the preceding album, and though the grooves never cut as deep as the earlier Muscle Shoals session, there's a good helping of funk here. Lee Allen provides fat sax tone, and Earl Palmer anchors the second line beats with greatest of ease.

Producer Bumps Blackwell's work is more huskhy here than on his and Richard's seminal mid-50s sides, mixing the funky jazz sounds of New Orleans with a bit of Stax soul. As on the Muscle Shoals sessions, Richard sounds comfortable, if not always as energized. "When the Saints Go Marching In" is ignited by Richard's revival-pitch vocal and superb playing by both Palmer and Allen, and the funk continues on the mostly instrumental "Nuki Suki," with Richard's clavinet and the saxophone's yelps giving way to short, lascivious vocal breaks.

A wah-wah-and-bass groove provides the foundation of "Prophet of Peace," and the closing "Sanctified, Satisfied Toe-Tapper" is a seven-minute instrumental. The album's most unusual track is a co-write with Sneaky Pete Kleinow, "It Ain't What You Do, It's the Way You Do It," featuring Kleinow's steel guitar. Richard and Blackwell's original rock `n' roll grooves show themselves on "Rockin' Rockin' Boogie" and "Thomasine." While this isn't as inventive or forward thinking as The Rill Thing, it's a great deal more solid than King of Rock `n' Roll, and deserved larger commercial success at the time. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [���2009 hyperbolium dot com]

The Very Best Of Little Richard
$7.99
Each and every track here will blow your socks off. The irrepressible Little Richard absolutely blasts these songs out and yet with exquisite lyricism. He shows an immaculate sense of timing and how he manages to get the words out so quickly is beyond me. His raw, screaming voice just grabs you and won't let go. From the top speed of tracks like Tutti Frutti and Ready Teddy, through to the slow ones like Send Me Some Lovin' and Can't Believe You Want to Leave, all you'll want to do is turn up the volume and play them again.
The sound is beautifully balanced and as raucous, tearing it up, as it should be. Some might not like digital remastering but it sounds good to me. Great piano and sax. I saw Little Richard on film years ago doin' all these tracks. He'd been filmed live in a theatre where he was climbing all over the walls and singing from the tops of the columns. What a guy - relive it all right here - a great album!

Little Richard: The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll
$19.95
This book is a concise, evocative, and thoroughly researched study of one of the great rock'n'roll pioneers. After "Tutti Frutti," Little Richard began garnering fans from both sides of the civil rights divide. He brought black and white youngsters together on the dance floor and even helped to transform race relations. In June, 2007, Little Richard's 1955 Specialty Records single, "Tutti Frutti" topped "Mojo" magazine's list of '100 Records That Changed the World'. But back in the early 1950s, nobody gave Little Richard a second glance. It was a time in America where the black and white worlds had co-existed separately for nearly two centuries. After "Tutti Frutti" Little Richard began garnering fans from both sides of the civil rights divide. He brought black and white youngsters together on the dance floor and even helped to transform race relations. "Little Richard: The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll" begins by grounding the reader in the fertile soil from which his music sprang. In Macon, Georgia, David Kirby interviews local characters, who knew Little Richard way back when, citing church and family as his true inspiration. Kirby sees Little Richard as a warrior, one fighting with skill and cunning to take his place among the greats. In the words of Keith Richards (on hearing "Tutti Frutti" for the first time), 'it was as though the world changed suddenly from monochrome to Technicolor'. Those sentiments have consistently been echoed by the music-listening world, and the time is ripe for a reassessment of Little Richard's genius and legacy.