"Little Richard: I Am Everything" -- Movie Review

 

At a special screening from Lincoln Center, I saw the new documentary, “Little Richard:  I Am Everything”. 

Synopsis

The personal and professional life of the man whom many consider the progenitor of rock and roll music.

Story

In 1932, a force of nature was brought into this world when Richard Penniman was born in Macon, Georgia.  Of course, it wasn’t until years later that people would know him by his stage name of Little Richard.  Although he would go on to record for Specialty Records and acquired local notoriety, it wasn’t until he recorded a song called "Tutti-Frutti” that he earned nationwide recognition.  But the song almost wasn’t recorded because the executives at the record company knew that the sexually explicit lyrics would never be permitted play on any radio station.  As a result, they had someone else rewrite the lyrics, which would be the version Richard recorded.

The problem came when white recording artists gained more fame (and money) than Richard when they recorded their own version of the same song – most notably Elvis Presley and Pat Boone.  It also didn’t help when the deal that Richard signed with his record label was such that he didn’t make much money on the records that were sold.  As a result, Richard had to work harder and harder, realizing that what would set him apart would be his live performance style in addition to catchy songs.  In the mid-1950’s, his unique style started to catch on and he finally started to make the kind of money he deserved. 

In 1962, the Beatles opened for him in Hamburg, Germany and the band treated him like royalty.  In 1963, he toured Europe where his opening act was The Rolling Stones, who were a cover band at that time; Mick Jagger said that he learned how to work the stage by watching what Richard did during his concert performances throughout the tour.  Later on, Richard’s homosexuality came in conflict with his religious background and he quit music in favor of preaching – but when that didn’t earn him much money, he went back to music.  However, reconciling his sexual feelings with his religious beliefs would haunt him for the rest of his life.   

Review

“Little Richard:  I Am Everything”, while enjoyable during the star’s performances, is a very complex story – and rightly so, because Richard himself was a very complicated man. Conflicted about his homosexuality because of the time in which he was raised as well as his religious upbringing, he would vacillate between preaching and music – and much of that preaching was in denial of his admitted homosexuality.  Despite his success, his life was not a happy one, partly because he could not be his true self but also because he was bitter about not receiving the recognition he felt he deserved. 

The documentary could be used as a useful teaching moment to not only provide young people with a sense of history about 20^th century popular music trends but also about the African-American experience during that time as well as how closeted and underground the gay and trans community needed to be in order to merely survive.  This shared experience greatly explains how and why they formed such closely-knit friendships and served as each others’ support systems when no one else would.  As time evolved, so did society’s view of such things – but this did not happen overnight; instead, it took decades.    

Post-screening, Rolling Stone movie critic David Fear interviewed the documentary’s director Lisa Cortes.  She said that she deliberately chose archival footage of Little Richard to in a sense “narrate” the movie because she wanted an immersive experience for the viewer without being a hagiography – as borne out by various people who knew him on either a professional or personal level throughout his life.  One scene that Cortes had to cut was one between Sir Lady Java and Lee Angel where they were both recounting entertaining stories about Richard while getting drunk on beer.