The Wild Man of Rock and Roll

Little Richard, who died earlier this month at 87, may not have been the king of rock and roll (though Leon Russell once suggested that he was the queen), but he made rock and roll possible with his wild, forceful, energetic take on the blues.  

Elvis Presley himself wouldn't have put himself above Little Richard, who more or less created the template of rock and roll with his inspired shouting and wailing, his revolutionary piano playing, and, of course, his wardrobe.  He had great hair long before the Beatles did.  And his exuberant hits - "Tutti Frutti," "Good Golly Miss Molly," "Lucille," and "The Girl Can't Help It" - remain among the most important in all of rock and roll.  His songs could be as bawdy as his stage act - "Long Tall Sally," in case you didn't notice, was about a boy's uncle cheating on Aunt Mary.  You hear his influence in not just covers of his songs, like the Beatles' own cover of "Long Tall Sally," but in original Beatles tunes like "Birthday" and the singing styles of Paul McCartney, Elton John (an obvious spiritual descendant of Little Richard,) Prince, and Roger Chapman. 

He gave his all in his long career, but he didn't get all of the rewards he was entitled too, largely because he was black, and also because most rock and rollers of the fifties never got much   As Little Richard himself once said, "You ain't never give me nothin'!" I just hope that he finally got paid.  RIP. :-(