Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock 'n' Roll

When Little Richard passed on in 2020 most of the news stories followed the familiar tale of the man as one of the founders of rock in the 50s who found religion, dropped out and then came back to the "devil's music". This episode does a good job fleshing out Richard's story and delve deep into his background and the full arc of his life and career.

This PBS film delves into both his artistry and paints a pretty detailed picture of Richards' complicated life. It highlights the central tension of his sexuality and 'evils' of rock n roll versus his religious upbringing. He had at least two major breaks from pop music which damaged his career commercially (he never again had a Top 40 single after first leaving rock in the late 50s). Richards' homosexuality was never truly hidden, but he himself was a contradiction by marrying a woman and renouncing his own lifestyle at times. It haunted him until the very end.

Despite his up and down career as a musician, his influence was phenomenal and both docs have testimonials from everyone like Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger to David Bowie. John Waters states that his pencil mustache is his decades long tribute to Richards' trademark 'stache. One of the "villains" of both pieces is Pat Boone, who did toned down covers of Richards' songs to greater commercial success with white audiences (Boone appears in the doc in brand new interviews).

This documentary about Little Richard was aired on "American Masters" and is well worth your time. It follows Little Richard's career as a groundbreaking rock 'n roll artist to his walking away from the industry, twice, only to return and his eventual recognition as ONE of the originators of rock ,though others, such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Chuck Berry, easily could also have been recognized for creating rock music....a bit of a mistake on the part of the documentary.

I liked this show because it manages to do something MANY similar films do NOT do...it features the man...warts and all. His homosexuality, his way of dealing with it and his personal life are all things many documentarians might have skipped...but they are fortunately in this show. Well worth seeing.

I know "Divided Soul" was the title of an old biography on Marvin Gaye, but I think it also applies to Little Richard.

This documentary is a pretty quick, high-level encapsulation of Little Richard's high notes, and lord knows he could hit the high notes. It play up his King/Queen duality and his impact as an outrageous performer and thus the architect/progenitor/etc of that brand of wild rock and roll.

By the time I caught him, it was more of the Mike Douglas kind of phase of his career. For me, he/Elvis/Jerry Lee sort of belonged to a generation before me. Nice to see Ringo on here and his story and clear love for Richard. Not so sure about Pat Boone getting a lot of screen time, Bobby Rush I found very moving and fascinating.

For me, Little Richard seemed more of a pioneer for androgyny than the King of Drag Queens. His charismatic and individuality (and his own brand of spirituality) perhaps more to his core than having him as a leader for the LGBTG set?

Anyways, his electric eclectic rapid-fire high-on-life (and maybe something else) shines though here. And seems like one catch more footage of his religious phases, his physical revival after a nasty car accident and more (didn't find much on his adopted son yet....but...)