The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Authorised Biography

by Charles White, Little Richard (Contributor), Paul McCartney (Foreword)

The classic authorized biography that told it all. When Little Richard burst onto the scene in the early 1950s, he sounded like nothing on earth. Drenched in sweat, screaming, hollering and pumping his piano, his stage act was so explosive that for years people assumed the real man could never match the flamboyant public image. Then came Charles White's sensational book exposing the even more astonishing life and times of Richard Wayne Penniman from Georgia.
Little Richard made himself a star through sheer force of personality, breaking racial and sexual taboos on his way to becoming the primal force of Fifties rock 'n' roll. Elvis Presley called him 'the greatest'. Otis Redding called him his 'inspiration' and James Brown called him his idol. Charles White is the only author to have captured the true energy of Little Richard. Using Richard's own words, White chronicles a staggering career that spanned the very rules of rock 'n' roll, the rise of The Beatles, tussles with God and The Devil and an erratic series of comebacks. Illustrated with pictures from Little Richard's own archive and including a comprehensive discography.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Queer, Memoir

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
This si Charles^^^^^^White.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

RIP Little Richard 1932-2020, one of the original primal forces of rock and roll

This is Nik Cohn on the subject of Little Richard:

He looked beautiful. He wore a baggy suit with elephant trousers, 26 inches at the bottoms, and he had his hair back-combed in a monstrous plume like a fountain. Then he had a little toothbrush moustache and a round, totally ecstatic face.

He’d scream and scream and scream. He had a freak voice, tireless, hysterical, completely indestructible, and he never in his life sang at anything lower than an enraged bull-like roar. On every phrase he’d embroider with squeals, rasps, siren whoops. His stamina, his drive were limitless and his songs were mostly non-songs, nothing but bedrock twelve-bars with playroom lyrics, but he’d still put them across as if every last syllable was liquid gold.

The website Popmatters wrote:

As with Chuck Berry, Little Richard's subversion was non-prescriptive and pre-political in nature: a symbolic suggestion that life possibilities and modes of expression existed beyond the prison gates of the official adult culture. Little Richard's liberationist gestures and hilarity in excess would subsequently be inherited by up-starts such as James Brown, George Clinton and Prince.

Little Richard, along with the Dionysian half of all great pop and rock, gives you that glimpse of excess which you know you were born for but you know you can't get to. For two minutes life is perfect.

Saturday night and I just got paid
Fool about my money, don't try to save
My heart says go go, have a time!
It's Saturday night and I'm feelin' fine!

Gonna rip it up
Gonna rip it up
And ball tonight

Oh yes... and this book is an excellent account of the crucial part of Little Richard's life.

Recommended.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Richard is incapable of being dull, he's incapable of making a bad record, and he's incapable of being in a lousy book. Richard's pretty open in this book, talking about his orgies with Buddy Holly and the army of young men at his beck and call. But don't worry, he quotes scriptures too!

[Melanie H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is summer reading my friends - pooping in jars, men dressing in women's clothes, and oh what glorious music. This is a man that truly changed popular culture and how much money he was denied because of the color of his skin.

Genius. Craaaazy. Genius trumps all.

[Ethan Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure that Charles White wrote or put together a 5 star Biography here (maybe 4 star) but the tales that Little Richard tells in this book are so ecstatic, so openly and gleefully perverse you really have to read it to believe it. The raw, uncut, shocking recounts as told by Little Richard are definitely 5 star (most of the content of this book is transcribed interviews with Richard in his own voice). I read sections of this book out loud in the tour van to a gang of decades long hardened tour dogs and the recounting of Little Richard's bisexual conquests through the entertainment underworld of 1950s America had myself and these men blushing and covering their mouths with shock like a bunch of society dames who just heard the hostess shart at a Victorian tea party. Little Richard's struggle with giving up his drugs, his homosexuality, his super flamboyant rock star persona and sticking with a life in the church are indeed a life long battle and really gives his tale another level of depth. You can really see how torn LR was throughout his life, he'll speak of the bible in one line with such honest and passionate enthusiasm and talk about all night druggy gang bangs, which though he highly denounces now, also rings with tone of a man basking, indeed rolling joyfully deep in the recollections of his escapades. As far as music goes Little Richard may be the most powerful and influential voice of Rock and Roll the world has ever known and there is plenty here for the hard core music fan too. Recounts by the engineers on the "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti Frutti" sessions are awe inspiring as LR does all live performance in the studio, working up the takes until he hits the perfect frenzied pitch and the great performance take is captured and sealed into history. It is recounted that LR played the piano on those sessions so hard that he'd break piano wires within the lowest octave of the piano. LR also has amazing stories to tell about the other stars he rolled with in his years on the road at work and in play (play was usually drugs,gang bangs,orgies and compulsive masturbation recounted in gory detail) from Buddy Holly to Lennon and McCartney to name a few minor players in this tale of religion, music and sin. It's a 5 star read.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a biography! It is in some ways an "oral biography" since so much of the book consists of verbatim dialogues between the author and Little Richard. In addition there are numerous family members, bandmates and other musicians, and even music "executives" quoted extensively, as though they were answering direct questions from the author.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves rock and roll, and wants to learn more about the most dynamic performer of the 50s and 60's, or to anyone who wants to read and excellent biography.

I can certainly appreciate why this was one of David Bowie's most impactful books.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Richard WAS the life force incarnate. I mean he probably still is, but especially back in the day.

[Skip · Rating 5 out of 5]

What this book brought about for me is how much of an influence Little Richard was to Rock n Roll. If there was no Tutti Frutti, there would have been no Rock n Roll. Some people say Rock n Roll would have happened sooner or later. I am not sure sure, but maybe. But who? Pound for pound, Little Richard was the one. He is the one. This book also brought out how much of an influence he had on so many other artists, including Elvis and Otis Redding, just to name two. On the other hand, one of Richard's strongest influence's was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. That I did not know. Once I listened to some of her music, I definitely see the connection. That is, hear the connection. I was always interested in knowing what happened when he left the Rock n Roll stage and went on to preaching. And then he went back to the Rock n Roll stage, to return again to preaching. Now I know.I would love to have been around on one of his days on the podium.
I have been listening to Little Richard from the time his first music was released. Still listen to him. Will always listen to Little Richard. So glad I have been around for his Rock n Roll.

[Mirna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best book I read in 2011. It's wacky and weird yet honest and perfect. Little Richard played a huge part in inventing rock and roll and his autobiography tells the story of his journey in the music industry during a racially-charged era. This has some really shocking moments, he really doesn't hold back on any of his sexual exploits. You really get a feeling for what it was like and how many people he actually influenced. My favorite part of this book is how he describes the energy of his shows, I really got a tinge of jealousy because I will never be able to experience it.

[Sean Kottke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended by Filth Elder John Waters, this has been on my to-read list for quite a while. It was the perfect book to read on a decadent summer vacation. So many fun facts to make you blush, but it goes beyond the sensational to interrogate racism in the music industry with the thesis that it’s necessary to understand the role of white supremacy in popular music to get at the heart of Little Richard and rock ‘n roll. It’s the premise on which critical race theory is based, but this is no post-modern revisionist history. It’s a classic oral history bio written by a Brit fanboy 40 years ago.

[Jeremy Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a guy. A true innovator and icon. No one could sing like he did and he had such an impact on others that followed, but I don't think got the recognition that he deserves.

He certainly isn't perfect, he Has some backward views on homosexuality and an odd interpretations of Christianity but the book is riveting.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow. amazing! little richard, what an amazing story. much respect. if you don't get hooked after the first 25 pages, i'd like to talk.

[Melissa Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

best rock n roll bio I've ever read

[Christopher Roth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must say that this is a stunning portrait of a true musical genius. At the beginning of the book I was full of admiration for his out-of-the-closet bisexuality (with a tilt toward the gay end of the spectrum), so courageous and untypical for someone of his time and place. By the end, though, with him claiming to have been "cured" of his homosexuality (which he regards as a social contagion, not as a congenital identity) by evangelical Christianity. I am, of course, more sympathetic with the point of view of fellow rhythm-and-blues artist and evangelical Christian Johnny Otis, quoted in this book, who said that the injunctions against homosexuality in Leviticus and Paul mean nothing when weighed against Jesus's instructions that we love one another and withhold moral judgment. Richard regards this as a "happy ending" and as a triumph. I regard it as ongoing damage done by organized religion on a person who really actually did seem to be having fun as a promiscuous bisexual but who somehow, falsely, conflated those proclivities with the drug addiction that later took over his life. A truly fascinating document.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick read. I should probably have said four stars instead of three, but that's my rating right now. How about 3.5 stars?
Is it worth reading? Those curious about the early history of rock and roll will love it.

There is a lot of info here as it is told mostly in first person by Little Richard himself. There are sections scattered between his historical recollections from his mother, sisters, brothers and various band members and former managers.

This book pulls no punches. If talk of explicit sexual encounters and drug use offend you then this book is not for you. There is also a long chapter that is basically a sermon by Little Richard during his second time being a preacher.
Yes, he did it twice. He rocked and rolled for a few years, then quit very suddenly (in mid-tour) to abandon rock and turn to the pulpit.
That lasted about two years and somehow promoter Don Arden (yes, Sharon Osbourne's daddy) convinced him to play rock again.
Mr. Penniman rock and rolled again until 1975. Since then he's been a preacher, but balanced that out with a performance here and there until he retired at age 70.
NO ONE promotes Little Richard better than the man himself. He talks a good game and insists he is better ON STAGE then many other early rockers.
That's right, he admits that he never captured himself completely on record.

Little Richard is now 83. This book was first done in 1984 and my Kindle edition was a revised edition with updates. I cannot claim that reading this is essential, but curious fans will be enjoy the craziness. The man partied as heavy as Led Zeppelin.

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the life story of Little Richard from early Childhood to the 1990s. Virtually the entire book is told in testimonials, with the majority of them coming from Richard himself. Bits of narrative connect the quotations but most of the story is told through first person accounting. It was a fun but exhausting read. Richard turns out to be a highly conflicted person, constantly embracing and then rejecting his musical legacy. Like many rock bios, salacious stories of drugs and sex permeate the book but the really interesting parts are actually the stories of Richard's upringing in Macon, Georgia, where music was a way of life in what seemed like a much simpler time. It's this segment of his life and the and the background in gospel music that drove him to become one of the most influential rock singers, composers and performers of all time. The writing is typical "rock bio" (i.e. average) but where the book suffers the most is that it veers into puff piece at times. Nonetheless, it's a really interesting story about a hugely influential talent and that alone is enough to warrant a look.

[Brooke Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty complete oral history style book about his early life and musical career. Includes pretty involved descriptions of the wild lifestyle of his younger years. The book ends a little strangely, closing with Little Richard's religious testimony. His later reflection on his own sexuality seems to reflect the time period, and felt sad in some ways. In the end, though, he gets to be the authority of his own lived experience, and this book allows us to understand more about his formative experiences in life and the music businesses.

Also, as someone who lives in Macon, I'll forever be grateful for the story of how he says he got kicked out of town!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first picked this up, I opened it at random pages and found something ridiculously awesome each time. Way over the top, he holds nothing back in this. It is primarily told in an oral history format, with narration by LR and then some cheesy and melodramatic interludes by Charles White. I enjoyed this quite a bit, except for the last couple of chapters, which were a bummer.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Little Richard is the best and the real king of rock & roll. This biography is pretty poorly written though. The only thing that saves it is Little Richard's crazy lifestyle and personality. It's made up of third-person biography and first person accounts mostly from Little Richard (which are the best parts).

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this before going to see Little Richard play at the Riverside Casino. Screaming, wailing, blow jobs, pooping in jars, a sky-high pompadour...rock n' roll would have never been the same without him.

[Thirstyicon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was quite open and a good read. It's truly eye opening, even to a music lover like myself. YOu learn just how many people Richard influenced and or worked with: The Beatles, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, etc!

I recommend this book to anyone who claims to love Rock N Roll.

[Jennifer Royan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up because it was on Bowie's top books. Really blown-away by the writing style of Mr. White. It reads like a documentary with cutaways to multiple interviewees. Sad insights on Richard's viewpoint of his own sexuality.

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An oral history of Little Richard's life and music, filled with amazing stories. Every other page delivers a jolt.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's like that old song: 'blomp-blomp-a-noop-noop, a-noop-noop-noop!' You guys know that song? ...From Tiny Rogerts? You never heard of it? You know, the black effeminate guy from the '50s? ...Nobody?" - Rick / Rick and Morty S1E11, "Ricksy Business"

I read once that the ancestral line of punk rock goes from Little Richard to the Sonics to the Stooges. It makes sense: the proto-punk Sonics contributed a more aggressive tempo, and the Stooges, well, they speak for themselves.

But when you turn on a Little Richard song, it's the sheer wildness in his full use of his vocal range that sets him apart from his many magnificent contemporaries in that early era of rock. Bo Diddley, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, and the rockabilly progenitors all have claims on that era of origination, but no one injected unpredictability like Little Richard.

So here is his story in a nutshell, a book that also made David Bowie's list of all-time favorites. Rather than a traditional narrative, author Charles White has stitched together oral history collected from an impressive bevy of sources - including Little Richard himself. Only briefly does he interject narrative context, often for the purpose of moving us along through history. The effect is something like a VH1 retrospective in book form.

Which is just as well, because the scandal and largesse of Little Richard's career might as well be a made-for-TV tell-all. He's a blunt interviewee, a completely open book about all sorts of backstage antics. If you're holding on to even a shred of innocence in how you picture the lives of rock stars, even as early as the '50s, this book is a great way to jettison it.

One gets used to it quickly though, especially as we learn how wild of a child Little Richard was. The best music histories, no matter how salacious they might get, are the ones that capture the genuine excitement of the new. This book is no exception. The undercurrents of rebellion along the lines of sexuality and gender stereotypes are meticulously captured, as are the simply ludicrous details of Little Richard's costumes and stage antics.

The combined effect brings him to life as a performer. Reading how he unveiled himself in a suit decked out in little mirrors, or how he faked passing out live on stage only to go right into "Lucille" down on the ground, I could just feel the tension and audacious theatrics coming to life. When you hear a Little Richard radio staple even today, it's riveting how he uses every millimeter of his vocal chords, and he was the same type of performer: he went all-in.

As a history of popular music in the late '50s and beyond, this book also shows us a world where contracts were regularly unfair and usurious towards artists, often leaving them with peanuts. One of Little Richard's early records had to measure royalties in half-cent increments. It's part of how the world was, and often still is. We're shown how this reality was only exacerbated by the racial climate of Little Richard's heyday.

Living a life where the business end was frequently a raw deal, and where the temptations were shockingly high, Little Richard seems to have survived - and survived he did, having died only a few years ago in his late eighties - through constant reinvention. His biography doubles as a fascinating exploration of the ping-pong game between the lifestyle excess of a rockstar and the asceticism of religious piety.

More than once we follow Little Richard discover Jesus and quit the rockstar life, then return to it with wilder parties and harder drugs than ever, then become a church man again. Church and family are bedrocks that go hand-in-hand for him; it's hard to imagine him making it past the era that claimed Hendrix and Janis without stabilizing anchors. When Little Richard speaks about a series of sudden deaths of friends and loved ones, about how blindsided he was because of the addictive nature of the rockstar's hedonism, it's heart-breaking. His faith and his family are a huge part of how and why he, despite the obvious racial tension of his climb to fame, is adamant about his music transcending racial boundaries and unifying human beings everywhere: some of the loveliest and most memorable words of the book.

That said. We're also introduced to views Little Richard developed over time about his sexuality that, by contemporary standards, let's just say are Very Much No on the political correctness litmus test. I'm a big believer in studying people and their views as products of their time, and not censoring or retroactively "cleansing" reality. But I'd feel remiss not also dropping the caveat that potential readers who are turned off by proselytizing about "sinful" lifestyles ought to know ahead of time that some of the interviews with Little Richard find him doing exactly that. (Evergreen reminder: Capturing a character or real-life person's fallibility in writing is not the same thing as endorsing their views.)

As I mention one caveat for the star of the show, I'll dole out another for the author. While Charles White's narrative interludes do a nice job moving us through history, sometimes their aerial view is too high. Occasionally he mentions stuff like a wild show in France leading to a riot, with no elaborating details, in order to set up another lurch forward in time. But a wild show that causes a riot in France sounds like a pretty good punchline unto itself! If we aren't going to get those details in the authorized biography, where else will we?

A few other narrative interludes, conversely, inject pinches of editorialization the book might be better without. The author clearly holds that Little Richard is a relatively unsung hero - hard to argue there - and makes no mystery of being a bulldog on his behalf. There are a couple concerts White relays - one featuring Jerry Lee Lewis, one with John Lennon - where he bolsters this view through a narrative that casts the other stars as antagonists along racial lines. No doubt they were part of a system that could and did produce tremendously unfair results for black versus white artists.

But did it go beyond that, beyond the ordinary competitiveness and egotism of rockstars, into *personal* racial antipathy? One might believe "yes" or "no" earnestly and the author might have their own view. But we have it straight from the horse's mouth in this book, where more than once Little Richard decries any notion that other artists are villains who ripped him off. (All the other wheelers and dealers in the music industry, sure.) Here Little Richard's views are three-dimensional and nuanced, and for the author's narrative to advance Lewis and Lennon as racial villains feels like a step back from reality and an inappropriate use of the author's personal voice (it overrides the voice of the subject the very author presents, rightly, as a racial underdog).

It was a complex world, and from the business and racial climate to the jaw-dropping excess of Little Richard's backstage life, the grey zones come to life throughout this book. I had enough minor quibbles that it isn't my top choice for music biography, but there's no doubt that it's a riveting and worthwhile read. And as someone who's always tagged digital music meticulously, I have to tip my cap in appreciation of the super-detailed appendices the author included. They are superb chronicles of Little Richard's recording sessions and discography, obviously compiled out of pure love for the subject's career and music.

Parting words: a few of Little Richard's "first comeback" era songs were recorded with help from a studio guitarist, an ambitious young fellow by the name of Jimi Hendrix. Just one of many gems hidden throughout the immortal career of Little Richard!

[Anjanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an interesting man-his personality, career, faith journey. More than meets the eye! His impacts on music and culture can not be dismissed.

[Ron Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read White’s classic biography of Little Richard after having read Nik Cohn’s (1968 [1972]) Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock. Both are on David Bowie’s list of his hundred favorite books (see https://tinyurl.com/yxt6xckb).

Little Richard was one of the most complex and contradictory people that ever lived. The interviews in this book with Little Richard are piercingly honest. He was, of course, one of the great founders of rock and roll, extraordinarily creative, an amazingly hard worker, and an incomparable powerhouse of a performer. There is more than a whiff of bipolar disorder about his oversized personality. But he was also a black man striving for success in a white man’s world; a man who grew up glaringly gay in a world and time where this could cost you your life; a deeply religious man as well as a perverse sex fanatic (White speaks of "the ever-present conflict between the delights of the flesh and the needs of his soul"); a great and generous friend who also dumped people close to him indiscriminately; and a person who was (often rightly) suspicious of people in the music business to the point of paranoia.

This is a good rock and roll biography. The book covers his life and career up to 2002; a quick look at Wikipedia can fill you in on the years until his death in 2020 (https://tinyurl.com/4bcjppjv).

[Alex Giorgio · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book about the real "King of Rock n'Roll", a real groundbreaker and visionary who inspired many.

CW: Throughout his life, Little Richard went back and forth between the world of Rock n'Roll and a life of preaching. That being said, this book contains some very outdated depictions of homosexuality and some very homophobic content (in a sermon given by Richard). It is noted that he changed his position on this, later in life. I think that it is important to recognize the world that Little Richard grew up in, his gender performance and openness about homosexuality, and the toll it may have taken on his social and religious life. I see him as the victim of a repressive society, a groundbreaking out and proud gay man, and someone who didn't have the language that we have today to describe his sexual orientation and gender identity.

[Claire]

GOSH. I don't even know how to rate this rollercoaster. It sure is something.

The format is almost entirely transcriptions of interviews with Little Richard, other musicians, family members, etc, with these occasional contextualizing bridge passages from the biographer. Hagiography to the max.

The first half feels weirdly similar to Delaney's 1984 or Times Square Red Times Square Blue: the two men are COMPLETELY different, as are their worlds, but the straightforward, super explicit, unapologetic and oddly undramatic details of wild-ass queer sexual shenanigans read very similarly, and of course they're published around the same time.

And then that last third of the book, ending with his preaching about how rock is the devil's music and the evils of homosexuality... gosh.

Content warnings for a whole lot of sex and a whole lot of homophobia... truly a wild ride!

[Ryn McAtee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, but it’s one of the best music biographies that I’ve read. I loved Little Richard’s candidness and the stories he told that I wouldn’t have expected in a million years. It’s very evident that he’s always been an exceptionally intelligent and talented man— for a queer black man in the 50s and 60s to make it as big as he did, that man is a force of nature! Little Richard would have been a star no matter what. My heart did break when he was denouncing homosexuality though (as well as his accusation that many gay men are pedophiles). I’m glad that he could find solace in religion, but at the same time, I wish religion hadn’t made him hate that side of himself. Incredibly fascinating man, and a fantastic read.

[Tlingit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, Little Richard is pretty straight forward in this book. I'll write more when I'm finished.
An interesting life. The book is written such that the author provides certain details then asks Little Richard, his family members and some people close to him to give personal accounts. It shows a man fighting with duality while sharing vast amounts of energy with his audience. Most of this book was really engaging.
I have to say that I was not very interested in the chapter where Little Richard spouts his opinions on being gay, religion and his views on living a righteous life but I understand why it was in there. I skimmed through much of it. I only wished there were more pictures.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

What's interesting about Little Richard is his character, his music, its effect on the country and on other musicians, the relationships everyone had, and the scene that revolved around them. I thought the telling of Little Richard's remarkable life story could have benefited from a more remarkable narrative setting than a flat chronology of record sales and business breakups with Bumps Blackwell. I did, however, enjoy the sections of oral biography, and occasionally contrasting memories of the same events. I would recommend the book for those parts.