{"id":11941,"date":"2012-02-01T00:01:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T05:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=11941"},"modified":"2012-02-07T08:26:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-07T13:26:19","slug":"little-richard-rock%e2%80%99s-taken-for-granted-flake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/little-richard-rock%e2%80%99s-taken-for-granted-flake\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Richard: Rock\u2019s Taken-for-Granted Flake?"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KJq04drs9NE?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>People my age and older grew up knowing <strong>Little Richard<\/strong> as one of the founding fathers of rock &#8216;n roll\u2014and the genre&#8217;s most flamboyant practitioner. Little Richard survived the British Invasion, even encouraged it through his friendship with <strong>The Beatles<\/strong>. He ping-ponged between religious conversions and ecstatic fits of unadulterated sin. He was lauded during a run of early &#8217;70s rock revivalism, milking it for all the money white record industry types probably stole from him in his prime.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pDZw4U6e-MM?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>In the early &#8217;80s he experienced a rebirth playing himself at any given opportunity, through a best-selling memoir, a fine turn in <em>Down and Out in Beverly Hills<\/em>, and numerous commercials and talk-show appearances. By the time the late-&#8217;80s rolled into the &#8217;90s,\u00a0<strong>Prince<\/strong> was the high-pitched,<em> keee-RAAAY-zeee<\/em> dude with make-up and a bouffant hairdo. Hipsters found the need to &#8220;discover&#8221; <strong>Esquerita<\/strong> and countless other outsider loons. All kinds of musicians were\u00a0<em>fabulous<\/em>, found sashaying down runways, winking at their sexuality. It was all in good fun, but somehow the guy who started it all seemed to be taken for granted.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GUCsW2vYry0?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Maybe I&#8217;m wrong (which I&#8217;ve been known to be), but I suspect that a younger generation of hipsters takes Little Richard for granted. It probably goes with the territory of playing one&#8217;s self for 60 years, but before he dies (whenever that may be\u2014I&#8217;m not suggesting the time is near)\u00a0I hope we take a few moments to appreciate just what a musical, entertainment, and social dynamo he <em>is<\/em>. The Rock &#8216;n Roll Hall of Fame induction speech\/performance for <strong>Otis Redding<\/strong> that kicks off this post something special. He&#8217;s in character, but he&#8217;s also in the moment. The guy is the real-deal rock &#8216;n roll flake. There&#8217;s a natural warmth and pathos to his freak show that account for his status among rock &#8216;n roll flakes, that appeal to me no matter how much I want to stroke my beard and tamp my pipe at the same-old spectacle. Mach schau, Richard, mach schau!<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XCz3AurV3zo?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People my age and older grew up knowing Little Richard as one of the founding fathers of rock &#8216;n roll\u2014and the genre&#8217;s most flamboyant practitioner. Little Richard survived the British Invasion, even encouraged it through his friendship with The Beatles. He ping-ponged between religious conversions and ecstatic fits of unadulterated sin. He was lauded during <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/little-richard-rock%e2%80%99s-taken-for-granted-flake\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[580,589,212],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11941"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}