November 2023. The Life and Times of Little Richard by Charles White
2003, Omnibus Press, 309 pages. Written in English, read in English.
Awopbopaloomopalopbamboom. Like a magic spell that changed the face of music forever. And behind it, a person who has almost been equally impossible and inevitable. And his story is as fascinating as you would have expected it to be.
Charles White chose an interesting way to construct the narrative of Little Richard’s life. With the exception of a few italicized paragraphs in which he provides context, the whole book is constructed of quoted monologue from various important figures in Little Richard’s life, the king of rock’n’roll himself denoted by a black circle. White explains at the end of the book, that he set out to write the biography when he realized there’s no actual biography of Little Richard, while there are plenty of biographies of the musicians whose path has been set in his light. He constructed the whole book out of interviews with people close to Little Richard — his family, his publishers and collaborators, contemporaries and admirers. But being under the impression that Little Richard himself would not be willing to be interviewed, he was content to have this — a frame highlighting the absence of its content — as a sufficient remedy for the lack of a biographical narrative of Little Richard’s life. When Little Richard has invited him for a set of interviews, the book became the complete masterpiece that it is, and White has become the first, and only, official biographer of Little Richard.
What we know at the outset is the legendary songs — the Tutti Fruttis, the Lucilles, the Good Golly Miss Mollys; we know the flamboyant stage persona, the pancake makeup, the wigs; if we’ve followed up more closely, we know of the constant battle between his showmanship and his deep religious beliefs, the various retreats onto a more religious lifestyle, the ordination. White helps Little Richard tells the whole story in a way that makes everything clear, almost obvious.
The narrative is told from Little Richard’s perspective. Most, if not all, of the other interviews that White has conducted are then rearranged to either counterpoint, or affirm, Little Richard’s history. Maybe it was a demand from Little Richard in exchange for his story from his perspective, but there’s no feeling of a slight of hand here — Little Richard is very forthcoming with his history, the ups and downs, the things he’s proud of and those he is ashamed of. His perspective also provides us with the ability to get a different, sometimes accurate side of the story. Some reports of his paranoia suddenly appear to be very reasonable based on what he recalls and others that have been through the same experience with him corroborate. He grapples, without holding back anything, with his conflicted view of his homosexuality, with his embrace of, and then running away from, religion, with the fact that he could have, maybe should have, been much more of a superstar than any of his disciples.
Another entertaining aspect of the book is the fact that Little Richard serves as a musical legend version of Woody Allen’s Zelig character — he was there in the background not only as an undisputed influence but as a direct force. He recalls how he taught Paul McCartney how to sing like him for “I Saw Her Standing There”, how he taught Tina Turner how to dance. That guitarist on his right on some of his shows and recordings? That’s Jimi Hendrix.
The version I’ve read is a second edition of the book, published 20 years after the original. White has left the bulk of the narrative intact. He begins it in the same place and ends it in the same place. A small forward to this edition gives some context about the happy end that the original version lacks — Little Richard returns to tour for sold out crowds in Europe, is invited to participate in Bill Clinton’s inauguration ball, and receives well earned and long overdue lifetime achievement awards. He has remained there for fifteen more years, always entertaining, always ready to light up an audience, always ready to defend his throne.
The December 2023 selection of the David Bowie Book Club will be The Street by Ann Petry.
