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Little Richard has died
- tibbydudeza 6y agoPrince Version 1 has passed on :(.
- talentedcoin 6y agoLittle Richard was a true legend — there will never be another like him. I always can’t help thinking of this hilariously bonkers piece by John Waters about interviewing him: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/nov/28/john-waters-met-little-richard https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/nov/28/john-waters-me... “I was in this hotel and I had a Chrysler my mother had mortgaged her home to get me. I went into the studio anyway, and they had me singing like Ray Charles, BB King. They wanted me to sing the blues and that was not me. I got on the piano and started singing: 'Woooooo!' They said: 'Oh boy, where did you get that voice?' 'A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-wop-bam-boom!' and they said: 'That's a hit'… and the rest is history.”
- papeda 6y agoBonkers indeed. An interesting point of comparison is this "interview" with Prince, written over the course of months by the writer tapped to write his memoirs [1]. It seems that Prince and Little Richard both had an extravagant overflowing creative instinct that just...dazzled people. As someone whose personality tacks way more toward clear and consistent structured logic, it's interesting to see. [1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/09/the-book-of-prince https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/09/the-book-of-pr...
- PrimeVinister 6y agoDazzled is the perfect word for it. Thanks for the link also
- bsanr2 6y agoHaving known people like this, I think it moves beyond instinct. They definitely have a more finely-tuned inborn sense of themselves and other people, for sure. But they also have developed a calculated and astute sense for what part of themselves to present to people provoke a particular emotional or behavioral response, and also the courage to present those parts (in Prince's case, occasionally quite literally and physically) when need be.
- ethbro 6y agoAbsolutely. I think we're all guilty of looking at famous people and believing they were born that way. When in reality, as with everyone, the majority worked their asses off and honed their craft. That it seemed effortless is a testiment to their practice, not their innate nature.
- agumonkey 6y agoHaving watched a few videos of tutti frutti I can smell that Prince loved Little Richard to bits.. there's an subtle yet uncanny similarity in stance and rawness.
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- wutbrodo 6y agoI also enjoyed the short piece he wrote about himself for Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Artists Ever" list[0]. Oddly, he seems to be the only artist who wrote his own blurb, and his bitterness is palpable, but it's a fascinating perspective on what it must be like to look back on an incredibly influential life feeling like you didn't get appropriately rewarded. [0] https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-artists-147446/little-richard-30098/ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-...
- sunstone 6y agoClearly thinks he didn't get his due but he doesn't spend any time talking about the artists that inspired him.
- yowlingcat 6y ago"...he was fond of saying in later years that if Elvis was the king of rock 'n' roll, he was the queen" Absolute legend. The world has lost a singular titan connecting multiple generations of flamboyant pop music excellence.
- pfarrell 6y agoLittle Richard’s induction of Otis Redding into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is one of the best inductions ever. It’s a mess, in a good way. It’s unorganized. Richard talks more about himself, but it works and it’s pure Rock and Roll. RIP. He was a pioneer. Seriously, watch the first minute. It’s beautiful. https://youtu.be/YUvHBirr1PI https://youtu.be/YUvHBirr1PI
- kitotik 6y agoI can’t even guess why this comment has downvotes, but that video is a spectacular example of a great personality with amazing talent. To wake up a room as stodgy and boring as the rock and roll HOF is no easy task, not to mention having the balls to even attempt it. Thanks for sharing that!
- fredsanford 6y ago"Ya'all gonna make me scream like a white lady..." LOL RIP sir.
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- lisper 6y agoI never realized that Little Richard was gay until I saw that video. That led me to this: https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7990551/richard-sexuality-religion-history https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7990551/richard-sexu... That piece also has some very interesting videos of LR performing in the 50s. The manifest racial segregation in those videos was the norm at the time but seems truly shocking today, at least to me.
- tptacek 6y agoGo track down the original lyrics to Tutti Frutti. :) He was a drag performer earlier in his career, too.
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- alrs 6y agoYou can get an idea of how scandalous Little Richard was if you look up the original lyrics to Tutti Frutti, "Loose Booty."
- lostlogin 6y agoThis is discussed in the article.
- paul7986 6y agoWent to a music festival in Memphis (2006) on the water and while walking up to our car a limo was driving by. The window rolled down and there he appeared waving to us... make up to the max and all. Fun memory as my friend sweetly and surprised said, "Oh, hi Little Richard." Most of us didn't notice him until her greeting.
- dorkwood 6y agoI think I'm reaching that age where more and more celebrities I'm actually familiar with start to pass away. I first heard Little Richard in the opening chopper sequence from the original Predator. What a great scene!
- at_a_remove 6y agoPerhaps my favorite Little Richard song is "Troubles of the World." It isn't your basic gospel, it has real passion and a kind of horror of the physical realm to it. The organ lurches around like a carousel horse as he sings of both wanting to escape the anguish of earthly life even as he looks forward to being reunited with his parents with all of the feel of revelation in a drunken moment. It was off of his second gospel album, a little break from the rock'n'roll, often attributed to some difficulties he had with a plane being a very sharp sign from God. It borders on the sacrilegious with the sound, but the hope to escape misery in his voice turns the sound into a repudiation of the world. I'm not religious myself but I can feel what it must be like from the track, a sense that the man wanted to escape this swampy carnival with leering pitchmen even as you sense just how comfortable he is with the environment as a whole, how well he fits in. Salvation must have seemed as out of reach, like any brass ring, to a man lured by the money that came rolling in, flattered by the adulation, pampered by the lifestyle, and at ease with casual accommodation of his apparently voracious (and omnivorous) sexuality. Being a lot further to one side of the Kinsey scale than the other must have been another layer on the leaden robe, however gilt, as he struggled to heed the call. He would of course go back to rock'n'roll. Like Willie Sutton said, that's where the money is. And it's hard to argue with a paycheck, even as unsteady as they are when they're royalties from the record business.
- cellularmitosis 6y agoFans of Little Richard should look up Esquerita, who was a bit of a proto-Little-Richard :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquerita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquerita
- coldtea 6y agoHe couldn't be "proto-" Little Richard since his "first solo studio recordings came (...) around 1958". Little Richard was already doing pop in 1952, and had Tutti Frutti become a hit in 1955.
- 8bitsrule 6y agoStudio recording dates don't tell you much. "With a six-inch pompadour, brocaded shirts, rhinestone shades, and a rhythmic, belligerent style of piano playing, Esquerita was the original Little Richard, years before Mr. Penniman tutti-frutti'd his way to stardom. Working around the Dallas-New Orleans circuit in the early '50s... https://www.allmusic.com/artist/esquerita-mn0000198922/biography https://www.allmusic.com/artist/esquerita-mn0000198922/biogr... Sample Esquerita; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUF81FcZHMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUF81FcZHMA
- dang 6y agoOff-topic (sorry) - would you mind emailing hn@ycombinator.com? I'd like to invite a repost of a previous submission (a la https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20repost%20invite&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...)
- 8bitsrule 6y ago1. I have two email addies- one I Never post online, one throwaway I check once a month to keep it alive. 2. Anything I post on HN is free (until the ads show up) 3. Love that Schulz quote. (What a sad story that is.)
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- ArtWomb 6y agoRIP. The Architect of Rock'n'Roll. He laid down the perfect track for all the mothers out there keeping everything going this Mother's Day Weekend ;) Little Richard - Thinkin' About My Mother (Take A) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13ZlB63K8Dw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13ZlB63K8Dw
- kingkawn 6y agoI saw little Richard live in the mid 90s when I was a teenager and he is to this day one of the best live performances I’ve seen. He said at some point that he had an opportunity to invest in the Beatles in the late 50s but declined because he thought they were too closely copying him to succeed.
- rp00 6y agoTIL Little Richard was alive yesterday
- dang 6y agoCould you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? We're trying for a bit better than internet default here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- hnhg 6y agoThe BBC just posted an interview with him from 1972 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/2691775331059950/ https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/2691775331059950/
- seizethecheese 6y agoI’m struggling to figure out how this is news that a hacker would find interesting. I certainly don’t. Celebrity death news is banal. If there has never been a front page article about someone’s lived actions, we should not have one upon their death.
- coldtea 6y ago>I’m struggling to figure out how this is news that a hacker would find interesting. I certainly don’t. I'm struggling to find how this type of comment is considered interesting. HN is a social voting site for startup guys and hacker types. If enough users upvote a story within some time frame (and nothing more involved happens with the moderation), it goes to the front page. Simple as that, and has been discussed at least a hundred times. So whether someone can "figure" why hackers would find this news interesting or not, hackers did find it interesting and upvoted it. And why not? Hackers are not one-dimensional computer geeks. They have curiosity, they care for music, they care for pop culture (not to mention movies, comics, etc), they care for games, they care for science, they care for a thousand things... It's also not about the fact that some "celebrity died". Little Richard for starters is hardly a current celebrity. Obvious as his figure is to oldsters, most 20- 30-somethings today would't even know about him, except in encyclopedical terms ("some old rock n' roll guy from the fifties?") - if that. He is celebrated by those who know about him not because of some contemporary popularity, but for what he did 65-70 years ago. Which included significant contributions to pop culture, rock music, gay representation, and other things besides. Things hackers can, and apparently do, find interesting.
- smueller1234 6y agoThis needed to be said, thank you.
- xoxoy 6y agoKobe Bryant’s death submission was flagged immediately from this site, so OP has a point. There’s nothing more hostile or controversial on this site than who is allowed to have their obit stay on HN.
- agumonkey 6y agoThe cultural garden is getting dryer and dryer. More room for new flowers I guess.
- lonelappde 6y agoA lot of people who came up in the 80s as 90s (when he returned after his hiatus) saw him as a kooky famous for being famous musical celebrity, and had no idea the amazing reason why he was so beloved and sought after by the adults making movies and records.
- xoxoy 6y agoThis is allowed but Kobe’s death wasn’t allowed. Funny.
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- werber 6y agoWatch velvet goldmine
- 8bitsrule 6y agoRichard didn't do wild stuff all of the time. I was blown away when I found his soulful 'I Don't Know What You've Got' (1965, Don Covay song). Ay-yay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMzX72GOOEQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMzX72GOOEQ It's said that's Hendrix on guitar.
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