PART 1
Little Richard Penniman (1932 - 2020)
“I am a creator, emancipator, inventor, the king, originator, a beauty, the Bronze Liberace, original Georgia peach, a human atom bomb, international treasure, living flame and a Southern child.” Last paragraph of this link.
It ain't bragging when you're telling the truth.The man was a fearless showman, "out" and loud and proud before it was acceptable to acknowledge. Unapologetic. Makeup. Wild attire. Pompadour atop his head as formidable as the prow of an ocean liner.
A genius, extrovert and trail blazer on the national stage, Richard Penniman was totally certain of his destiny and willed it to become reality. His white audience (me included) had no clue what the lyrics of his songs meant. Like me, they were swept up with the rocket fueled energy whether on the radio or on 12 inch black and white TVs in the 1950s. His falsetto that punctuated his songs nearly punctuated the speakers on the radio turned up to maximum volume.
In the early1950s, Elvis was a meteor. Little Richard was a super nova.
Rhythm 'n Blues began to surface on the charts. "Race music" was not a feature of the two AM stations in my home town. Hell, it wasn't even a thing people discussed...all we knew was that radio stations in Troy, NY whose signal barely reached Pittsfield, MA spoke to our budding teenage energy and yearnings in the midst of puberty.
I listened to the music in my best friend's living room. All we knew was Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley and The Comets, Buddy Holley and The Crickets. Then came Ray Charles, do wop music of the Penguins, Johnny Otis, The Coasters.
Tutti Frutti released in 1956 was the beginning of a Penniman tsunami.
His 1956 “Long Tall Sally, (the best-selling 45 in the in history of Specialty Records spotlighting Little Richard's distinctive boogie piano was recorded in New Orleans' famed J&M Studios of Cosimo Matassa).
Little Richard was the Big Bang that is still reverberating today.
Scott Alarik's Folk Tales
09/30/23 Scott Alarik
https://scottalarik.com/bio/
WUMB 11AM September 29, 2023
Scott Alarik was as good storyteller as they come. His weekly program “Folk Tales”, still rebroadcast on weekends, was a deep dive into the roots of Americana music from Appalachia, the Ozarks, Midwest to panhandles in Texas to Florida.
From 1972 until 2021 his program was a must listen… so good that it is rebroadcast Saturdays long after his untimely death of a heart attack at his home in Cambridge, MA December 1, 2021 at 70 years old.
His voice, as author, storyteller, lecturer, is instantly recognizable after you’ve heard it. Melodious and authoritative, it feels like the voice you dreamed of listening to around a campfire after a day of trekking the Appalachian trail.
The September 30, 2023 rebroadcast on WUMB FM is a crystal clear through-line between music sung by black slaves in the 1800s that are part of the American songbook (“Wade In The Water”, for example) filled with metaphor not grasped by white slave owners as songs of resilience and ways and means to flee Northward and freedom.
Like I felt when I listened to camp counselors tell tall tales around a campfire on overnight camping experiences as a Boy Scout, the power of listening to a good story never gets old.
Scott Alarik’s uncanny ability to connect roots stories scattered all over America was/is a magical synthesis of Americana. I love sitting around his figurative campfire every Saturday.
September 30, 2023 in Commentaries, Music | Permalink | Comments (0)