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 20th
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.
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