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Daily Journal, Sunday, May 10 (Little Richard and Happy Mother’s Day edition)

Happy Mother’s Day everybody. It’s Mom’s Appreciation Day or MAD as we call it. Actually, no It’s, of course Mother’s Day (for MD, what every mom wanted their son or daughter to grow up and be.} Well, we didn’t all become doctors but I’ve lived for the most part a wonderful life and I bless and acknowledge my mother’s assistance in that. Please try to empathize with our Moms. Today‘s a day where we stop and say I Love You.

(And a very happy BIRTHDAY, tomorrow May 11, to the love of my life, Catherine.

I also want t say RIP to one of the greats, Little RIchard, who is on my countdown albeit I don’t really have any vinyl of the rock and roll Little RIchard — rather I have a gospel record.

Little Richard, aka Richard Penniman from Macon, Ga., belongs up there with Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and the Beatles in completing the crossover mixture of white and black song stylings that melded in what we call rock and rollld.

His jagged falsetto and frenetic presentation of rock and roll songs had never been heard quite like Little Richard delivered them. His influences can be heard all over rock and roll, very specifically in Paul McCartney’s vocal yells and yelps.

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Little Richard — 361


ALBUMS: Precious Lord (1985)

This is an interesting record from one of the founders of rock ‘n roll.

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$$$

Son of a church deacon, who severely punished Little Richard after catching his son wearing women’s clothes , Little Richard aka Richard Wayne Penniman clearly had some personal issues in his life — sexuality conflicts and substance abuse.

According to various sources including an autobiography, Little Richard’s father’s church duties in Macon, Ga., were augmented by a moonshine and nightclub business. So somewhere therein lies a reason or two why Little Richard bounced back and forth between being ‘born again,’ singing gospel and secular music that pushed the bounds that society had laid down for sexually explicit content at the time.

Long Tall Sally, Tutti Frutti, and Good Golly Miss Molly are three of his bigger hits whose vocal stylings influenced everyone from Paul McCartney to Wilson Picket.

The record company had to hire someone to clean up the lyrics forTutti Frutti, for example. This 1985 gospel record is not listed on Wikipedia’s discography although you can buy it on vinyl on Amazon for about $17. I bought this new back in 1985 after wandering into a store in one of Birmingham’s mostly black neighborhoods. That’s where I also found a Birmingham Community Choir record, which I feature earlier in my countdown.

This album is not well recorded and that’s why I give it a 3.5, rather than a 4 or better. It sounds like it was recorded in a cavernous empty church with one microphone dangling from the ceiling. An echo-ey and distant feel.

That said, the singer shows off an amazing voice and range. Glad I got it

ALABAMA NOTE: In one of his bounce backs to religion in the late 60s, he attended Oakwood College (now University) in Huntsville. It is a historically Black Seventh-day Adventist institution,