Charles White's book--part biography and part oral history--has sat on my bookshelves since 1983, when I got a free copy from Crown Publishers, where I worked at the time. But it wasn't until the death of Richard Penniman in 2020 that I really began paying attention to "the quasar of rock," less because of his classic hits than more recent video clips of his outrageous personality. My favorite talk show quote: "I'm not conceited, I'm convinced!"
White lovingly makes the case that Little Richard invented the archetypal rock 'n roll persona with incredible talent, energy, charisma and faaaaaaabulous costumes. He also accepts without comment the man's tortured pin balling between the two poles in his life: homosexuality--expressed through what he himself called "the devil's music"--and religion (the book ends with a kind of greatest hits sermon memorable only for its homophobic venom). Astonishingly, Little Richard, through sheer force of personality and drive, remained in the spotlight almost four more decades after the book's publication without ever permanently hitching himself to either pole.
But this half-a-life bio still leaves readers absolutely certain of four things: 1) audiences LOVED him; 2) dozens of major artists are forever indebted to him; 3) the music business screwed him; and 4) no other pop artist ever has spoken on the record so explicitly, and perhaps damagingly, about his sex life.
The Life and Times of Little Richard also adds another stop on my fantasy cultural time machine: the night in 1962 when the Beatles opened for the (gay!) father of rock 'n roll at Hamburg's Star Club. Or maybe one of the nights when Jimi Hendrix played in his band. I can't decide.
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