Rating My CD's: A-Wop-Bop A-Loo-Bop, A Good Goddamn

39. Little Richard -- Georgia Peach

The original lyrics to "Tutti Frutti" were all about butt sex:

Tutti Frutti -- Good Booty
If it fits, don't force it
You can grease it, make it easy
A Wop-Bop A-Loo-Bop, a Good Goddamn

That's according to Jim Miller, author of Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock n' Roll 1947-1977 (see link below), a pretty good cultural history of the classic rock n' roll era. Apparently Richard Penniman had no plan of recording "Tutti Frutti" until a producer convinced him that it would be a hit if he just excised all the naughty lyrics. He did and it was, and the result was one of the great nonsense phrases of Rock. The recorded "Tutti Frutti" isn't about anything but a Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On. Little Richard just howls and shrieks and hits that ecstatic thrill that Rock'n'Roll so often promises but fails to really deliver.


I remember seeing the later Little Richard on TV as a kid in the 80's, a gleeful, freaky lunatic in a purple jacket. I thought him odd: clearly a man, but very feminine in mannerisms and dress. His androgyny seems to have grown as he's gotten older, as the gay has been let out. But at the same time, the older he's gotten, the more he's tried not to be an out homosexual. He's been married twice, which doesn't mean anything. He's never sired any children, which doesn't mean anything, either. He's referred to being gay, but only in the past tense. I think that's why many people don't know that Little Richard is gay: he might not know himself.

In any case, the oddness of Little Richard is why I never paid him much mind until recently. I came to Little Richard by way of the Sonics, who did brilliant, balls-to-the-wall covers of "Jenny, Jenny" and "Keep A-Knockin'." Gradually, I discovered more and more songs that I dug, like "The Girl Can't Help It," to be Little Richard songs. Eventually I had to pay monetary tribute to the man's work and buy this disc. I'm glad I did.

He's been praised by many who followed in his wake, from James Brown and Otis Redding to Mick Jagger and Bon Scott. And that's all fine. But I'd like to advance the proposition that Little Richard is the Grandfather of Punk. Because "Tutti Frutti" didn't necessarily become a hit because of Penniman's skill with a piano. On many of his hits, you barely hear the piano. No, Little Richard songs grab your attention because of their sheer exuberance, their impassioned explosiveness, their performance. The 1960's are littered with garage bands, like the aforementioned Sonics, who grabbed onto that style of performance and made hits despite having little talent and less training. And without garage rock, punk rock would never exist.

That's the real influence of "Tutti Frutti" and its nonsense lyrics. Let's be Real: most rock song lyrics are transcendent nonsense, a calculated performance of an pre-packaged idea to people who aren't interested in thinking analytically at the moment. First-Generation Punk and Grunge was all about throwing down nonsense: Non-Sense, the the erasure of meaning. You can hear it in the Ramones ("Today Your Love, Tommorrow The World") or in Nirvana ("A mulatto...and albino...a mosquito...my libido"), but it starts here.

Not that any of that matters.Little Richard doesn't need to be honored for his Influence. Nothing is worse than being stuck with a record that you don't listen to very much but feel forced to hang onto because of it's "influence" on artists you actually like. But you won't keep this disc in your car and listen to it over and over again because of it's influence. You'll keep it because it's the purest Rock'n'Roll of this or any age.

Grade:DI