Little Richard quotes - page 3
Little Richard - he was the first one that really got to me. Little Richard and, of course, Elvis Presley. I don't know if it was because of James Brown and Little Richard, I always preferred a high energy vocal, a hard full-force vocal. I liked Little Richard better than Elvis, and I liked James Brown better than the Beatles...but the Miracles were a heavy influence on me, too...[though] I always preferred the more energized vocals.
Little Richard
Chuck Berry's "duck walk," Presley's bumps and grinds, Jerry Lee Lewis's wanton destruction of pianos, Little Richard's bizarre stage theatrics. As part of the counter-discourse of early rock 'n' roll, such practices not only assaulted high culture but also brought sexual display into the public realm, which is finally the same thing, for it is the body ... That is excluded by the dominant course of mid-century modernism.
Little Richard
...Little Richard had that confidence because of the toughness of his early life. He used to talk about how his dad [a deacon who ran a nightclub] used to treat him [his father disapproved of his sexuality and beat him] and how he kept his head up. He was torn between rock'n'roll and the gospel all his life and he talked about that too – it affected him a lot and it was a battle that couldn't be won...
Little Richard