Little Richard – Lucille

I assume no-one reading this really needs an introduction to Little Richard. Even if you don’t know him I’m sure you’ve heard him. And you’ll have definitely listened to someone who’s been influenced by him directly or indirectly (and this, if you asked Little Richard, never short of confidence, is just about everyone).

Ever since hearing him via my Dad’s record collection I’ve been a fan, but he’s popped up a lot recently for one reason or another. There was a BBC6 music documentary compiled from his own words; he had to deal with outrageous rumours of his death (“I’m still singing”); and in the documentary Lemmy I watched on Friday night Mr Kilmister put Richard in the top 3 originators of Rock ‘n’ Roll. On this last point Little Richard I think would disagree – his top 3 would be Little Richard occupying every spot.

I could have chosen any song really. The excitement, a rawness, a certain lovely oddness permeates all of them. But I’ve chosen ‘Lucille’ because Richard’s drummer gave a description of it that could be applied to most, if not all, of Richard’s songs – “Sounds like a damn earthquake”.