Little Richard "Here's Little Richard" [1957]

Just in case there's any confusion: rock 'n roll has always been a rip-off of other forms of music. Witness chitlin'-circuit clown Little Richard on his debut album "Here's Little Richard" providing a dumbing-down of swing-jazz patterns, amphetamine-dosed blues and letting the Devil give the sermon in Sunday morning choich. Further, Richard Penniman (not short of stature, BTW; I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason he's considered "little," though) apparently never met a 1-4-5 progression he didn't like, or perhaps he was incapable of following anything else; the rampant redundancy in the musical genre can therefore also be laid at this man's manicured feet, and probably gave Andy Warhol the idea to repeat a single dumb, vacuous figure mindlessly and endlessly -- he was hanging his silk-screen versions of "Here's Little Richard" only a few years later. That Richard constantly sang about his lust for women -- especially given his obvious preferences in later years -- is not really a sticking point here: I'm sure the Little Richard of 1957 was fuckin' everythang. It wasn't long before Richard repented and turned to the Lord for salvation; without any specific details, it's easy to hear how his depraved, lecherous animal spirits on this record practically begged for forgiveness. I guess that means all the fans of this type of music are damned for eternity. Thanks, Little Richard -- perhaps you were actually the anti-Christ all those racist rednecks thought you were back in the day.