Customer Reviews

Little Richard: The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Read this book. David Kirby's vibrant prose left me with an entirely new appreciation of "the architect". As a Maconite, I've long been aware of the special place Little Richard holds in the history of rock n' roll, however, not until I read this well-researched book did I understand the breadth and depth of Penniman's influence. Kudos to Kirby for an important addition to the understanding of an extraordinary musician.

In the introduction to this new Little Richard biography, poet David Kirby lets us know right off what kind of book this is going to be."If this book were a car," he declares, "it'd be a hooptie -- an Oldsmobile 88, say."
Kirby proceeds to take us on a fast and bumpy (yet stylin') ride through the mad career of The Georgia Peach: Mr. Richard Wayne Penniman. Along the way we're treated to Kirby's witty, poetical musings on pop music, the 1950s, the "Old, Weird America", Gay Macon, and the occasional Chuck Berry zinger. In fact Kirby drives us right into the heart -- I mean the birth -- of Rock `n' Roll.
Strangely, it's not so much the biography of a man, but the biography of a song. "Tutti Frutti" was Richard's breakout 1955 single, and it must have horrified people when it first erupted from A.M. radios. Kirby asks: how exactly did a song like that come to be?
He begins with Richard's magical incantation: A-wop-bop-a-loo-mop-a-lop-bam-boom, a phrase born in the dish pit of the Macon Greyhound Station, where young Richard used it as a way to curse out his boss. We see it evolve from there into a bar song about anal sex, and then (as Kirby claims) into the world's first Rock 'n' Roll song.
Try as he might, Kirby is never able to nail down an interview with The Queen of Rock `n' Roll himself. The closest he gets is a phone conversation with the man at the home of Willie Ruth Howard, Richard's cousin. Here, in a hilarious exchange, Little Richard tricks Kirby into giving Willie Ruth 88 dollars.
Little Richard: The Birth of Rock `n' Roll is a funny, strange, and totally fitting tribute to a long-overlooked genius. Was "Tutti Frutti" really the "first" Rock `n' Roll song, as Kirby insists? Sure, I'll buy that. And even if you disagree, I think you'll love this book anyway. Any musician, music-lover, or lover of weirdness should hop on in.

As a huge fan of both Little Richard and early rock n roll history I was very excited when I heard about the book. I was also apprehensive worried that someone would screw up a piece of history I love (See: Cadillac Records). However, after the introduction I knew Little Richard was in safe hands with Kirby.

David Kirby is a passionate writing who makes grand statements: i.e. Tutti Frutti is the center of western culture. But by god, he backs it up with one hell of an argument in this book.

If you are already a fan of Little Richard, you'll love this book and have further appreciation for the Georgia Peach. If you're new to little Richard or just a fan of Rock n Roll this book might be the beginning of a beautiful relationship

I read way too many rock 'n' roll biographies. I could be filling my head with interesting socio-political tomes (which I do read on occasion) or treatises on the latest thoughts on victims' rights or whathaveyou, but instead I read typically badly-written stories of people who may or may not be remembered in another ten years for wielding their cigarette-burned axes all over the world with fellow drug-addled losers... Okay, maybe not all of them are that bad, but you know what I mean.

Well, anyway, my pal Dick and his wife gave me a nice gift certificate to a book store and I bought this here book, Little Richard: The Birth of Rock 'N' Roll, by a real life professor of English, David Kirby. It's a small thing, suitably decorated in a mid-2oth century pink cover design depicting our own Richard Penniman looking his straightest best, more than likely belting out "Tutti Frutti" or one of his other hits. In fact, Kirby's main premise in this book is that that song is the most important in the history of rock, and based on his very erudite and quite humorous arguments, he may just be right. This book isn't exactly a biography, though, because Kirby doesn't present "just the facts, m'am" like most do--he gives you basic facts 'n' figures but he surrounds them with his very interesting anecdotes and observations of Macon, Georgia (where Richard was born), of the man's bi/gay persuasion, of his lifelong swingin' back 'n' forth from absolutely primordial rock 'n' roll screamer to good-boy churchgoer. Kirby, a prof at Florida State U., makes this such an entertaining and energizing read, you just gotta get out your 18 Greatest Hits CD (on Rhino) or any one of the other packages of Little Richard's awesome songs and start boogieing right there on the floor in front of God and everybody.

And he doesn't just pour on the fanboy kudos all over the place, either. Though Charles White's bio on LR might be the one to get if you want a by-the-book biography (it ain't a bad book either, I recall), David Kirby's is the one to better show just what made this effeminate madman possibly the craziest, most outrageous shouter the world has ever known.

This review also appears on my blog, [...]

This is one of the best books on music that I know. Not exactly a biography, certainly not musicology, not history, either--its hidden-in-plain-view secret is that it's not *exactly* anything. Instead it's a tasty gumbo, a most varied carol, a rousing, splendid book-length essay centering around but hardly limited to the cultural importance of Little Richard and his song "Tutti Frutti." Full of great stories and arresting information, it's also got to be one of the most entertaining books on music ever written. If you know Kirby's poetry, you won't be surprised to find that it's also seriously funny. Roll over, Greil Marcus, and tell Guralnick the news!

I read this book based on the Washington Post's good review. As a rock & roll fan, I thought I'd enjoy it, but once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. I had one image of Little Richard pounding on the piano, belting out "Tutti Frutti." True, LR is a masterful muscian, but David Kirby weaves a memorable story of the real LR. This fast-paced book displays a lot of heart and is a must read for all R & R fans.

Rock'n'Roll was more than revolution of music. "Little Richard: The Birth of Rock'n'Roll" looks at Little Richard and the effects that his wild and energetic piano playing did for 1950s America. Richard's music was one of the many things that helped pushed race relations to the forefront of the American agenda, as young people of both races mixed freely in celebration of the music, as well as looking at the man himself and how a legendary performer gets his starts. "Little Richard" is a top pick for any autobiography or music history collection.

David Kirby's got verve, pluck and style, all of which are the perfect approach for the subject at hand. Overlapping ideas nestle up to each other and the narrative of Little Richard's life. Especially rich is his take on issues about art and the need for mistakes to take root and bloom. Kirby has allowed that very thing to happen in the creating of this book. He was on a quest, but also open to whatever (and whomever) he might meet along the way.

David Kirby--a rollicking and fun-loving poet of the highest smart-and-nutty order--has written his own rollicking, fun-loving hymn to Little Richard. If you're looking for some fawningly exhaustive biography, look somewhere else. If you're looking for some nightmarishly pedantic musicologist/historian's study, the you'd better run away at top speed from this classily-produced tome. Rather: think of this book as Kirby himself, dancing to Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti." What a one-of-a-kind song...and Kirby's own deft footwork--his graceful-as-always prose-- strikes me as an equally inimitable wonder. This is a match made in my kind of rockin' Heaven: both down-to-earth and earthy. And--like both writer and his subject here--vibrantly, blessedly alive.

I just finished this sweet book. Where to begin! I'm ready to pack up and move to Macon. I loved many of his images -- the gazelles, the weird show with the white boys and the buttons popping off one's shirt, his quirky perverse inserts in unexpected places, the dead-on description of the horrific racism, his love for Tutti Frutti, his gentle but frank descriptions of Little Richard, and his wonderful quotes of others - especially about what makes great rock n'roll. Thanks for a lovely voyage.