#processed conk

On this day 69 years ago (14 September 1955), a promising still mostly unknown 22-year-old rhythm and blues musician calling himself Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman) recorded the outrageous landmark rock’n’roll single “Tutti Frutti” at J & M Studio in New Orleans. In his ambitious 2024 book The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture (1955 - 1979), Jon Savage (author of the 1991 tome England’s Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock – a sacred text for me) argues “Tutti Frutti” represents year zero and forensically deconstructs and analyzes the song. “From the first eruption to the final exclamation, “Tutti Frutti” had a harsh, relentlessly driving sound, with an unrestrained vocalist who punctuated the simple lyrics with gospel shrieks and weird outbursts,” Savage writes. “Honed in the dives and drag bars of the American South and informed by his thorough knowledge of the sexual underground, Richard’s lyrics were a deliberate provocation: “Tutti frutti, good booty / If it don’t fit, don’t force it / You can grease it, make it easy …” In the volatile climate of 1955, they were also a barrier to any kind of wider exposure. [Producer Robert] Blackwell knew that a verse about sodomy would create such a storm as to kill both the record and Richard’s career. Substitute lyrics were needed if the record was ever to get a chance of airplay … Riffing off this basic phrase, Richard pounded the piano, yelled, shrieked and testified over just under two and a half minutes, and in doing so opened up the underground that he had inhabited … By early November, “Tutti Frutti” had sold 200,000 copies, entering the R&B charts in the middle of the month at #12. It was the breakthrough sound of freedom, couched in an extreme androgyny. The game was on.”

In Memoriam: remembering his royal highness, “Show Business Personified” and the artist praised by soul diva Etta James for having “the guts to be a king and queen all at the same time” - the divine Little Richard (aka Richard Wayne Penniman, 5 December 1932 - 9 May 2020) on the fifth anniversary of his death. I saw the flamboyant “Bronze Liberace” give one of his final concerts at Viva Las Vegas rockabilly weekender in 2013 (he retired from performing shortly afterwards). I won’t lie – by that point, the Georgia Peach was a hot mess, but a fascinating, charismatic and regal hot mess (and possessor of a profile worthy of Nefertiti). The man was magnificent! We’ll never see Little Richard’s like again. Pictured: Little Richard in Copenhagen in 1975.

Woooo! Happy heavenly birthday to the Georgia Peach … the flaming architect of rock’n’roll … the artist praised by soul diva Etta James for having “the guts to be a king and queen all at the same time” … the man described by Billy Miller of Straight to Hell as “an odd mix of stud and nellie... but always nellie that could pull a knife on you” … his Royal Highness, the divine Little Richard (né Richard Wayne Penniman, 5 December 1932 - 9 May 2020)! We’ll never see Little Richard’s like again! My favourite song by his will always be “Directly from My Heart” (1959). Oh, and “The Girl Can’t Help It” (1958) of course! Pictured: Richard performing in London in 1966.

Born on this day in South Carolina: flaming, ultra-flamboyant, maniacal pompadoured king (or should that be kween?) of outsider rhythm and blues Esquerita (aka Eskew Reeder Jr, 20 November 1935 – 23 October 1986. Some sources list his birth year as 1938). His defining masterwork is the song “Esquerita and The Voola” from 1958: all these decades later, it still sounds like a demented voodoo incantation. Esquerita was such a beauty and an endless source of fascination.

Born on this day: musician, songwriter, guitarist, producer, bandleader and rock’n’roll pioneer Ike Turner (né Izear Luster Turner Jr, 5 November 1931 – 12 December 2007). From the late fifties until their acrimonious split in 1976 Turner and his fiercely glamorous raspy-voiced “bold soul sister” wife Tina Turner (the former Anna Mae Bullock) were the tempestuous royal couple of greasy, primal rhythm and blues. Yes, Ike’s reputation as a monster is warranted (especially once the cocaine addiction kicked in), but his trailblazing musical genius demands recognition. In the great 2023 documentary Little Richard: I Am Everything, one of the talking heads notes that Richard's piano playing was beholden to Turner’s, something Richard himself freely admitted (he raved that hearing “Rocket 88” by Ike Turner and His Kings of Rhythm in 1951 “made my big toe shoot up in my boot” and profoundly fired his own musical imagination. Richard borrowed the piano intro to “Rocket 88” for his own “Good Golly, Miss Molly”). Pictured: The eternally stylish Turners on the cover of the revue’s first-ever live album – released sixty years ago this month (November 1964). Find it on Spotify if you're curious - it rocks! John Waters is right: Ike and Tina Turner were the best soul group ever.

“Little Richard scared my grandmother in 1957. I was eleven years old, and on my way to her house for dinner with my parents and had just shoplifted a record in the five-and-dime. Mom and dad hadn’t even noticed. Easy pickings – the 45 of “Lucille” on the Specialty label. My favourite tune. I felt happily defiant in the backseat of the car with the sharp edge of the single jabbing my stomach beneath the sweater. Once inside Mama’s, I made a beeline to her out-of-date hi-fi and let it roll. “Lu-CILLE! You won’t do your sister’s will!” came blaring through the house like a rabid pack of dogs. It was as if a Martian had landed. My grandmother stopped in her tracks, face ashen, beyond comprehension. The antiques rattled. My parents looked stunned. In one magical moment, every fear of my white family had been laid bare: an uninvited, screaming, flamboyant black man was in the living room. Even Dr Spock hadn’t warned them about this.” / From the book Role Models (2010) by John Waters / Happy heavenly birthday to Mr Show Business Personified … the Georgia Peach … the Bronze Liberace … his Royal Highness, the divine Little Richard (né Richard Wayne Penniman, 5 December 1932 - 9 May 2020)! We’ll never see Little Richard’s like again. My favourite song by his will always be “Directly from My Heart” (1959). Oh, and “The Girl Can’t Help It” (1958) of course!

Born on this day: brash, charismatic and sexy rock’n’roll pioneer Chuck Berry (Charles Edward Anderson Berry, 18 October 1926 – 18 March 2017). I managed to see him perform just once – at Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender 2010. The consensus was that the then-84-year-old Berry sounded like he was struggling; on the plus side, from a distance he still resembled a brown-eyed handsome man, and it was a spine-tingling moment to see him do his signature duck walk. He also still exuded a genuine whiff of sleaze and danger. My favourite song of his will always be the hushed eerie blues lament “Stop and Listen.”

In Memoriam: remembering his royal highness, “Show Business Personified” and the artist praised by soul diva Etta James for having “the guts to be a king and queen all at the same time” - the divine Little Richard (aka Richard Wayne Penniman, 5 December 1932 - 9 May 2020) on the third anniversary of his death. I saw the flamboyant “Bronze Liberace” give one of his final concerts at Viva Las Vegas rockabilly weekender in 2013 (he retired from performing shortly afterwards). I won’t lie – by that point, the Georgia Peach was a hot mess, but a fascinating, charismatic and regal hot mess. The man was magnificent! We’ll never see Little Richard’s like again. Pictured: backstage portrait of Little Richard in the UK in 1962 by Harry Hammond.