Tropic Sprockets / Little Richard: I Am Everything

Tropic Sprockets / Little Richard: I Am Everything

By Ian Brockway

Richard Wayne Penniman (1932-2020) was the iconic singer and performer known as Little Richard. A colorful and comprehensive documentary “Little Richard: I Am Everything” by Lisa Cortes offers a portrait of the music and the man. [Check Tropiccinema.com for showtimes and trailer.] Above all and central to Little Richard is the spirit of Love and free expression. This film represents those qualities and gives them full importance.

Richard was born in Macon, Georgia. He was skinny and was born with a disability: one leg was shorter than the other. He was flamboyant, effeminate, and loved practical jokes.

Richard loved the piano but could not play so he banged on the instrument with his elbows and drove his parents crazy.

In 1947, Sister Rosetta Tharpe overheard Richard singing and invited him onstage at The Macon City Auditorium. Tharpe paid him and Richard was hooked on singing.

Richard performed in a medicine show with a snake oil salesman. He also performed in drag as Princess LaVonne. This carried very little risk because patrons were drunk, and this often blurred the lines.

Soon after, Richard earned a contract with RCA Victor. At first the record company encouraged him to sing like Ray Charles or James Brown.

This left the musician deeply dissatisfied.

Richard met Billy Wright and Esquerita, two outrageous and skilled musicians who wore makeup.

In September 1955, “Tutti Frutti” was released as a single and Richard scored his first act. While the songs lyrics concerned sex, Richard changed the lyrics to make it more sellable to radio audiences. The song was followed by “Long Tall Sally” and “Lucille.”

Audiences were mad for Richard who was one of the first musicians to wear lipstick and mascara, to dance on his piano and tear off his shirt. He truly used every stage object to enhance his performance.

While Richard was gay, he was not always openly so. He was emotionally in love with Lee Angel, an exotic dancer and LBGTQ activist from Savannah.

Around this time, Richard sampled and was heavily involved with cocaine.

On a plane to a musical engagement, Richard experienced extremely profound and tangible visions of Armageddon.

He promptly abandoned music and became a Seventh Day Adventist scholar. In 1959, at an evangelical rally, Richard married his only wife, Ernestine Harvin. The marriage was short lived.

Richard hung out with The Beatles and performed with them in Germany.

When Richard re-affirmed his faith, he denounced his homosexuality and condemned his own music, saying that his music “did not come from God.” He told his audience that he would buy back his own records so that the records would be out of circulation.

The gay community was betrayed by Richard’s harsh reversal.

Richard went on various religious shows at this time and sold Bibles. He was running out of money. Then Richard experienced a career resurrection, going back to the music business and writing a memoir.

Central to the film is Richard’s desire for free expression poised against his personal religious beliefs. Yet no matter his struggles, Richard was always a performer with songs that ran like a locomotive across the senses.

Richard existed with his demons: he was teased for being gay, skinny, theatrical, and disabled. His father physically beat him.

During the latter part of his life, he was able to accept that he came from divinity and love as the father of rock and roll—an auditory companion to the atom bomb and The Big Bang.

Richard’s cosmic influence is everywhere: from Paul McCartney’s hoot to Prince’s teased ruffles, to David Bowie’s Man Who Fell to Earth and John Waters’ Midnite Movie pencil mustache; he ignited it all.

Little Richard even paid a visit to Pee Wee’s Playhouse.

Despite being a pop culture success of phenomenal impact, professional recognition eluded him until 1993 when he won a Lifetime Achievement Award. It is one moment in the film certain to produce tears.

This musician was a fully glamorous entity, a being of cosmos and kitsch. He was a musical mover and shaker and in the best way, Little Richard was always his complete theatrical Self.

Write Ian at [email protected]

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]