Little Richard

Little Richard was famously quoted as once saying "Rock n Roll is evil, because Rock n Roll makes you take drugs, and drugs turn you into a homosexual". The following is a partial discography; a comprehensive discography is available [3] (http://www.iainmatthews.com/disco.htm) on Matthews' personal site. A made-for-TV film, Little Richard (2000) starred Leon in the title role. Since that time, Matthews has had a moderately successful career, releasing records on a number of small labels in Germany, the UK, and the U.S., before moving to Amsterdam in 2000, where he continues to be involved in various indy projects and collaborations, including the Sandy Denny tribute band No Grey Faith and yet another revival of Plainsong. He appeared in the movie Down and Out in Beverly Hills in 1986 and scored his first major hit in years with "Great Gosh-a-Mighty!" which led to a resurgence in popularity. He also appeared with Andy Roberts at the 1992 Cambridge Folk Festival, which led to the first of what were to be several reformed version of Plainsong. In 1986, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened, Little Richard was among the first inductees. It also led to his first truly solo performances: his previous "solo" outings had always been as a front man for a one-shot band.

Since then, Little Richard has had a periodic career in movies, as well as releasing occasional singles and enduring as one of the legendary flamboyant pioneers of rock and roll. It led, however, to hooking up with producer Mark Hallman — a longtime fan — moving to Austin, Texas, and recording several albums for a series of German independent labels. The Rolling Stones opened for Richard and the Everly Brothers before they ever had a recording contract. This led to Walking a Changing Line (1988) on Windham Hill, an unlikely album-length tribute to Jules Shear of Jules and the Polar Bears. Richard took the Beatles with him on a tour of Hamburg, and they performed with him at the Star Club. Matthews was invited to join them to perform, both with them and in other configurations, at the 1986 Cropredy Festival. The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, long-time fans, supported him. Since 1974, Fairport Convention had been staging the annual Cropredy Festival; since 1979, this annual reunion had been pretty much their only activity as a band, but in the mid-1980s several of them were interested in reviving the band and had done some recording.

In 1962, Little Richard returned with an enthusiastically received tour of the United Kingdom. He worked for a while in an A&R capacity at Island Music and then new-agey Windham Hill Records. While Specialty Records released a few new songs based on past sessions, Richard did little musically, releasing some gospel songs in the early 1960s. Neither this nor a return to solo recording in England turned his luck. Richard then enrolled in a Christian university in Alabama. Soul" and Prince's "When U Were Mine". Little Richard quit the music business suddenly in 1957, while in the middle of an Australian tour; he reportedly renounced his rock and roll lifestyle, removed four diamond rings worth $8,000 from his fingers and threw them into Sydney's Hunter River. As Matthews' official web site writes, at this point he "had been struggling for nearly 15 years now and was still living hand to mouth, with nothing to show for his efforts but a string of out-of-print albums, and the loyalty of those musicians and fans who shared his vision." [2] (http://www.iainmatthews.com/bio.htm) He moved from Los Angeles to then-inexpensive Seattle, where he teamed up with David Surkamp, formerly of the Seattle band Pavlov's Dog, to form the New Wave band Hi-Fi, whose repertoire included Matthews originals, but also covers of Neil Young's "Mr.

As an example of Richard's craftsmanship, he and Blackwell rehearsed the line from "Long Tall Sally", "He saw Aunt Mary coming and he ducked back in the alley" for a full day until he achieved machine-gun precision. Label-owner Shelly Siegel, died suddenly in 1979, leaving the label rudderless. Despite the raw sound of his music, the singles were carefully put together, as documented on the three-volume album The Specialty Sessions, which include many false starts and variations. However, the North American rights for his album were held by the small Canadian label Mushroom. His frantic performing style can be seen in such period films as Don't Knock the Rock (1956) and The Girl Can't Help It (1956), for which he sang the title song, written by Bobby Troup. He bounced from Elektra to CBS Records, to the small Rockburgh label, where he finally scored a hit single in 1978 with a cover of Terence Boylan's "Shake It", and a moderately successful follow-up covering Robert Palmer's "Gimme an Inch". In the next few years, Richard had several more hits, including "Long Tall Sally", "Slippin' and Slidin'", "Jenny, Jenny" and "Good Golly, Miss Molly". After Plainsong collapsed due to a bandmate's alcohol problem, and with his career now based in Los Angeles, he released several more albums with ad hoc bands, including one produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith, but none met with commercial success.

The song, with its introductory "Womp-bomp-a-loom-op-a-womp-bam-boom!" became the model for many future Little Richard songs, with its driving piano, saxophone solo by Lee Allen and its unrelenting beat. It also included "Even the Guiding Light", a spiritually positive answer to Thompson’s powerful but bleak "Meet on the Ledge". (Tutti-frutti was a slang term meaning a "gay male" and booty means "buttocks"). The album included a cover of Dave McEnery's "Amelia Earhart's Last Flight", plus a song of Matthews' own, "True Story of Amelia Earhart's Last Night" based on the research that suggest that Earhart on her round-the-world flight may have been spying on Japanese bases in the Pacific islands. The lyrics were changed from "Tutti-frutti loose booty" to "Tutti frutti all rooty" because record producer Bumps Blackwell felt they were over the line. After solo two albums on Vertigo Records, under the sponsorship of former Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith and surrounded by a who's who of likeminded British semi-folkies (notably another ex-Fairporter, Richard Thompson), he formed Plainsong, who signed to Elektra Records and in 1972 produced In Search of Amelia Earhart, which solidified Matthews' songwriting reputation with the critics, if not with the general public. During a break in that session, Richard began singing an impromptu recital of "Tutti Frutti", an obscene, lusty song he had been singing on stage. The band went through several different lineups and toured extensively for the next two years, to general critical acclaim but no great commercial success.

Richard Penniman had begun his career singing with Johnny Otis, but had little success until he sent a demo tape to Specialty Records in 1955, and met for a recording session in New Orleans. With Thompson, Nicol, and Hutchings from Fairport, plus drummer Gerry Conway (of Fotheringay, and later to join Fairport) and pedal steel player Gordon Huntley, he formed Matthews Southern Comfort, whose sound was rooted in American country music and rockabilly; this was his first significant experience as a songwriter, although the band also covered the likes of Neil Young and Ian and Sylvia. Bing Crosby - 'Pennies from Heaven' - Ella Fitzgerald, was all I heard." His early recording career in the 1950s was a mix of blues music and rhythm and blues, heavily steeped in gospel music, but with a driving beat and breathlessly delivered lyrics that marked a decidedly new kind of music. In 1969, as Fairport's music veered more toward British folk influences, Matthews was booted out. Little Richard (born Richard Wayne Penniman, December 5, 1932 in Macon, Georgia) is a pioneer of rock and roll though he says (quoted in Hamm 1979, p.391) he "came from a family where my people didn't like rhythm and blues. He recorded a couple of singles there in 1967 with a pop band called Pyramid, before being recruited by Ashley Hutchings as a male vocalist for Fairport Convention, where he duetted first with Judy Dyble, but more famously with Sandy Denny. 1996 - Shag on Down by the Union Hall. He moved to London in 1966, taking a job in a Carnaby Street shoe store.

1992 - Shake It All About. Matthews grew up in a working class family in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, where he sang with several minor bands during the British pop music explosion of the mid-1960s. 1988 - Lucille. He later had a solo career and fronted the bands Plainsong and Matthews Southern Comfort. [1] (http://www.richieunterberger.com/matthews.html). 1977 - Now. Influenced by both rock'n'roll and folk music, he has performed mainly as a solo act, alghouth he was a member of Fairport Convention during the early period where they were heavily influenced by American West Coast folk rock. 1976 - Little Richard Live. Iain Matthews (known in the 1960s first as Ian MacDonald, and from the late 1960s until 1989 as Ian Matthews) is a British musician and songwriter.

1976 - Sings. Plainsong, Pangolins (2003) Blue Rose. 1975 - Keep a Knockin'. Iain Matthews and Elliot Murphy, La Terre Commune (2001) Blue Rose / rfect Pitch / Eminent. 1974 - Recorded Live. Iain Matthews and Elliot Murphy, The Official Blue Rose Bootleg (2001) Blue Rose. 1974 - Talkin' 'Bout Soul. No Grey Faith, Secrets All Told — The Songs of Sandy Denny (2000) Perfect Pitch / Unique Gravity.

1973 - Rip It Up. Iain Matthews, Excerpts from Swine Lake (1998) Blue Rose. 1972 - You Cant Keep a Good Man Down. Iain Matthews, Skeleton Keys (1992) Line. 1972 - The Original. Ian Matthews, Walking a Changing Line (1986) Windham Hill. 1972 - Dollars. Hi-Fi,Moods for Mallards (1982) First American Records; live mini-album.

1971 - The Second Coming. Hi-Fi,Demonstration Record (1982) First American Records; live mini-album. 1971 - The Rill Thing. Ian Matthews, Siamese Friends (1979) Rockburgh. Big. Ian Matthews, Stealin' Home (1978) Rockburgh. 1971 - Mr. Ian Matthews, Hit and Run (1977) CBS.

1970 - Well Alright!. Ian Matthews, Go For Broke (1976) CBS. 1970 - Little Richard. Ian Matthews, Some Days You Eat the Bear...Some Days the Bear Eats You (1974) Elektra. 1970 - Rock Hard Rock Heavy. Plainsong, In Search of Amelia Earhart (1972) Elektra. 1969 - Right Now. Ian Matthews, Tigers Will Survive (1972) Vertigo.

1969 - Little Richard. Matthews Southern Comfort, The Essential Collection (1997) Half Moon (a retrospective of 1970s recordings). 1969 - Good Golly Miss Molly. Matthews Southern Comfort, Later That Same Year (1970) MCA. 1967 - Rock N Roll Forever. Matthews Southern Comfort, Second Spring (1970) MCA. 1967 - The Explosive Little Richard. Fairport Convention, Heyday(1986) BBC - a release of recordings from 1968/1969.

1965 - The Wild and Frantic Little Richard. Fairport Convention, What We Did On Our Holidays(1968) Polydor. 1965 - Little Richard Is Back. Fairport Convention, Fairport Convention(1968) Island. 1964 - Sings the Gospel. Pyramid, "The Summer of Last Year"/"Summer evening" (1967) Deram Records; his first recording. 1963 - Sings Spirituals.

1962 - King of the Gospel Singers. 2. 1960 - Pray Along with Little Richard, Vol. 1.

1960 - Pray Along with Little Richard, Vol. 1960 - Clap Your Hands. 1959 - The Fabulous Little Richard. 1957 - Here's Little Richard.

3. 1957 - Little Richard, Vol. 2. 1957 - Little Richard, Vol.

1. 1957 - Little Richard, Vol. 1956 - Cast a Long Shadow.