On Thursday night, Little Richard performs a free show at Woodrow Wilson Plaza (adjacent to the Reagan Building). The show is finale of the D.C. Grooves concert series sponsored by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
The flamboyant heterosexual (Much like Clay Aiken, Richard has never acknowledged the obvious fact that he is gay) and Geico spokesperson has promised to perform hits such as Tutti Fruiti, Long Tall Sally and Good Golly, Miss Molly. While audience members might come expecting to hear these standards, that hasn't always benn garaunteed. Little Richard's on-again-off-again religious fervor has often left him refusing to perform those old tunes in lieu of new found Gospel.
At age 75, Little Richard has influenced generations of performers from James Brown to Elvis Presley. And he's quick to tell you that. Little Richard began a 2004 editorial for Rolling Stone by stating "A lot of people call me the architect of rock & roll. I don't call myself that, but I believe it's true." The subject of that editorial written by Little Richard, by the way, was the greatness of Little Richard "You remember the way that Liberace dressed onstage? I was dressing like that all the time, very flamboyantly, and I was wearing the pancake makeup."
The Little Richard show starts at 7:00pm and the DC-based doo-wop group The Jewels are featured as the opening act.
D.C. Grooves Concert Series starring Little Richard
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (Woodrow Wilson Plaza)
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (Federal Triangle Metro Stop)
Thursday, September 20
7:00pm until 9:00pm
Read More: Little Richard by Little Richard (Rolling Stone - April 15, 2004)
God loves a cheerful giver.
I happened to catch (no, not deliberately) LR on "The Next Best Thing" when there was an LR impersonator. LR came on at the end and played a set.
The "judges" alluded to the fact that there were two fruitcakes on stage and LR was visibly pissed, but I guess he needed the money because he didn't storm off.
It's funny he alludes to Liberace, who was definitely gay, and not hiddenly gay.
it's funny he has a mullet in the picture
and his lip liner/combo 'stache always gets me
The now defunct (and missed) Independence Air used to offer you the option of picking which celebrity you wanted to hear read you the safety instructions.
I always went for Little Richard.
My favorite piece of Little Richard trivia:
He first recorded the folling lyrics to "Tutti Frutti"
A wop bop a loo mop, a good goddam!
Tutti frutti, loose booty
If it don’t fit, don’t force it
You can grease it, make it easy...
They made him change the lyrics.
Michael, if you didn't know, Liberace fiercely defended his hetero status, even suing a British columnist and winning. That was in the late 50s. Right up to his death from AIDS, Liberace- like Rock Hudson- never once publicly acknowledged his homo status.
Wow. I didn't know. See? I do just talk out of my ass about things. I remember watching his old black and white tv shows rebroadcast on A&E as a kid and mimicing his playing style (but not his dress) from the shows and thinking "what a homo. I hope my friends never catch me watching this" (having grown up in a redneck town you can imagine the repercussions).
On another note: I read "A Year in Provence" last night since NOTHING else was going on and there's a passage in there where Peter Mayle and his wife go to a party and the DJ is playing Little Richard in a barn and all the fashionable guests are dancing.
How did you know what I was going to do last night, BYT?
Liberace, Little Richard, Luther Vandrous...its sad when the very gay can't even admit it to themselves. Although a lip-liner mustache is about as much of a public declaration as you can get.
[...] “The flamboyant heterosexual and Geico spokesperson has promised to perform hits such as Tutti Fruiti, Long Tall Sally and Good Golly, Miss Molly.” [Brightest Young Things] [...]
read full show review (with quotables!) here:
http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/music/little-richard-lusts-for-fat-white-women/