Awop Bop Aloo Mop: Little Richard: A Life of Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll...and Religion

Awop Bop Aloo Mop: Little Richard: A Life of Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll...and Religion PDF Author: Tina Andrews
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780998226064
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
As much music history as biography, "A Wop Bop Aloo Mop" celebrates "Little" Richard Wayne Penniman who burst onto the American scene in 1955 with his mega-hit "Tutti Fruitti." Almost by himself, Little Richard wrote the anti-rules and poured the concrete for the foundation of a new musical art form he created. Alan Freed would call it "Rock & Roll." Dubbing himself "The Architect of Rock & Roll," Little Richard had the biggest impact on musicians and singers black and white with his wild, flamboyant performances and outrageous, costumes which included sequined tuxedo's, velvet capes, pancake make-up, eyeliner, and a six-inch pompadour hairdo. He was one of the first artists to make the androgynous look popular, and his influence could be experienced in the music and performances of Mick Jagger, The Beatles; Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, James Brown, and David Bowie-who all cite Richard as their inspiration from whom they all stole. But Little Richard also had demons he struggled with throughout his career--his complicated relationship with his sexual orientation, and its effect on his faith. Little Richard left secular music 18 months after his first hit to sing "for the Lord" in an effort to suppress his homosexuality. Four years later, he was back on stage in London with The Beatles as his opening act shaking his hips, singing his hit Tutti Frutti, a song that originated as a testament to gay sex. He helped solidify The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Preston, and the Beatles as major acts who used his onstage antics for their success. A terrible car crash sidelined Little Richard for months causing him to miss his own induction into the first Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 for his contribution to music. But he later appeared in movies, television shows and tours showing everyone why he remains the "Originator, the innovator, and the "Architect of Rock & Roll."

Awop Bop Aloo Mop: Little Richard: A Life of Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll...and Religion

Awop Bop Aloo Mop: Little Richard: A Life of Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll...and Religion PDF Author: Tina Andrews
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780998226064
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
As much music history as biography, "A Wop Bop Aloo Mop" celebrates "Little" Richard Wayne Penniman who burst onto the American scene in 1955 with his mega-hit "Tutti Fruitti." Almost by himself, Little Richard wrote the anti-rules and poured the concrete for the foundation of a new musical art form he created. Alan Freed would call it "Rock & Roll." Dubbing himself "The Architect of Rock & Roll," Little Richard had the biggest impact on musicians and singers black and white with his wild, flamboyant performances and outrageous, costumes which included sequined tuxedo's, velvet capes, pancake make-up, eyeliner, and a six-inch pompadour hairdo. He was one of the first artists to make the androgynous look popular, and his influence could be experienced in the music and performances of Mick Jagger, The Beatles; Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, James Brown, and David Bowie-who all cite Richard as their inspiration from whom they all stole. But Little Richard also had demons he struggled with throughout his career--his complicated relationship with his sexual orientation, and its effect on his faith. Little Richard left secular music 18 months after his first hit to sing "for the Lord" in an effort to suppress his homosexuality. Four years later, he was back on stage in London with The Beatles as his opening act shaking his hips, singing his hit Tutti Frutti, a song that originated as a testament to gay sex. He helped solidify The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Billy Preston, and the Beatles as major acts who used his onstage antics for their success. A terrible car crash sidelined Little Richard for months causing him to miss his own induction into the first Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 for his contribution to music. But he later appeared in movies, television shows and tours showing everyone why he remains the "Originator, the innovator, and the "Architect of Rock & Roll."

The Big Life of Little Richard

The Big Life of Little Richard PDF Author: Mark Ribowsky
Publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1635767237
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
“This entertaining, fast-paced biography” of the legendary singer-songwriter “will thrill fans of Little Richard and early rock and roll” (Publishers Weekly). Richard Wayne Penniman, known to the world as Little Richard, blazed the trail for generations of musicians: The Beatles, James Brown, the Everly Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Prince . . . the list seems endless. He was “The Originator,” “The Innovator,” and the self-anointed “King and Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll.” In The Big Life of Little Richard, Mark Ribowsky shares the raucous story of his life from early childhood in Macon, Georgia, to his death in 2020. Ribowsky, acclaimed biographer of musical icons―including the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, and Otis Redding―takes readers through venues, gigs, and studios, conveying the sweaty energy of music sessions limited to a few tracks on an Ampex tape machine and vocals sung along with a live band. He explores Little Richard’s musicianship; his family life; his uphill battle against racism; his interactions with famous contemporaries and the media; and his lifelong inner conflict between his religion and his sexuality. By 2020, eighty-seven-year-old Little Richard’s electrifying smile was still intact, as were his bona fides as rock’s royal architect: the ’50s defined his reign, and he extended elder statesmanship ever since. The Big Life of Little Richard not only explores a legendary stage persona, but also a complex life under the makeup and pomade

All Shook Up

All Shook Up PDF Author: Glenn C. Altschuler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198031912
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
The birth of rock 'n roll ignited a firestorm of controversy--one critic called it "musical riots put to a switchblade beat"--but if it generated much sound and fury, what, if anything, did it signify? As Glenn Altschuler reveals in All Shook Up, the rise of rock 'n roll--and the outraged reception to it--in fact can tell us a lot about the values of the United States in the 1950s, a decade that saw a great struggle for the control of popular culture. Altschuler shows, in particular, how rock's "switchblade beat" opened up wide fissures in American society along the fault-lines of family, sexuality, and race. For instance, the birth of rock coincided with the Civil Rights movement and brought "race music" into many white homes for the first time. Elvis freely credited blacks with originating the music he sang and some of the great early rockers were African American, most notably, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. In addition, rock celebrated romance and sex, rattled the reticent by pushing sexuality into the public arena, and mocked deferred gratification and the obsession with work of men in gray flannel suits. And it delighted in the separate world of the teenager and deepened the divide between the generations, helping teenagers differentiate themselves from others. Altschuler includes vivid biographical sketches of the great rock 'n rollers, including Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly--plus their white-bread doppelgangers such as Pat Boone. Rock 'n roll seemed to be everywhere during the decade, exhilarating, influential, and an outrage to those Americans intent on wishing away all forms of dissent and conflict. As vibrant as the music itself, All Shook Up reveals how rock 'n roll challenged and changed American culture and laid the foundation for the social upheaval of the sixties.

Race, Rock, and Elvis

Race, Rock, and Elvis PDF Author: Michael T. Bertrand
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252025860
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In Race, Rock, and Elvis, Michael T. Bertrand contends that popular music, specifically Elvis Presley's brand of rock 'n' roll, helped revise racial attitudes after World War II. Observing that youthful fans of rhythm and blues, rock 'n' roll, and other black-inspired music seemed more inclined than their segregationist elders to ignore the color line, Bertrand links popular music with a more general relaxation, led by white youths, of the historical denigration of blacks in the South. The tradition of southern racism, successfully communicated to previous generations, failed for the first time when confronted with the demand for rock 'n' roll by a new, national, commercialized youth culture. In a narrative peppered with the colorful observations of ordinary southerners, Bertrand argues that appreciating black music made possible a new recognition of blacks as fellow human beings. Bertrand documents black enthusiasm for Elvis Presley and cites the racially mixed audiences that flocked to the new music at a time when adults expected separate performances for black audiences and white. He describes the critical role of radio and recordings in blurring the color line and notes that these media made black culture available to appreciative whites on an unprecedented scale. He also shows how music was used to define and express the values of a southern working-class youth culture in transition, as young whites, many of them trying to orient themselves in an unfamiliar urban setting, embraced black music and culture as a means of identifying themselves. By adding rock 'n' roll to the mix of factors that fed into civil rights advances in the South, Race, Rock, and Elvis shows how the music,with its rituals and vehicles, symbolized the vast potential for racial accord inherent in postwar society.

Will You Take Me As I Am

Will You Take Me As I Am PDF Author: Michelle Mercer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416566554
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Joni Mitchell is one of the most celebrated artists of the last half century, and her landmark 1971 album, Blue, is one of her most beloved and revered works. Generations of people have come of age listening to the album, inspired by the way it clarified their own difficult emotions. Critics and musicians admire the idiosyncratic virtuosity of its compositions. Will You Take Me As I Am -- the first book about Joni Mitchell to include original interviews with her -- looks at Blue to explore the development of an extraordinary artist, the history of songwriting, and much more. In extensive conversations with Mitchell, Michelle Mercer heard firsthand about Joni's internal and external journeys as she composed the largely autobiographical albums of what Mercer calls her Blue Period, which lasted through the mid-1970s. Incorporating biography, memoir, reportage, criticism, and interviews into an illuminating narrative, Mercer moves beyond the "making of an album" genre to arrive at a new form of music writing. In 1970, Mitchell was living with Graham Nash in Laurel Canyon and had made a name for herself as a so-called folk singer notable for her soaring voice and skillful compositions. Soon, though, feeling hemmed in, she fled to the hippie cave community of Matala, Greece. Here and on further travels, her compositions were freshly inspired by the lands and people she encountered as well as by her own radically changing interior landscape. After returning home to record Blue, Mitchell retreated to British Columbia, eventually reemerging as the leader of a successful jazz-rock group and turning outward in her songwriting toward social commentary. Finally, a stint with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and a pivotal meeting with the Tibetan lama ChÖgyam Trungpa prompted Mitchell's return to personal songwriting, which resulted in her 1976 masterpiece album, Hejira. Mercer interlaces this fascinating account of Mitchell's Blue Period with meditations on topics related to her work, including the impact of landscape on music, the value of autobiographical songwriting for artist and listener, and the literary history of confessionalism. Mercer also provides rich analyses of Mitchell's creative achievements: her innovative manner of marrying lyrics to melody; her inventive, highly expressive chords that achieve her signature blend of wonder and melancholy; how she pioneered personal songwriting and, along with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, brought a new literacy to the popular song. Fans will appreciate the previously unpublished photos and a coda of Mitchell's unedited commentary on the places, books, music, pastimes, and philosophies she holds dear. This utterly original book offers a unique portrait of a great musician and her remarkable work, as well as new perspectives on the art of songwriting itself.

Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field

Mahalia Jackson and the Black Gospel Field PDF Author: Mark Burford
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190634901
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
Drawing on and piecing together a trove of previously unexamined sources, this work is a critical study of the renowned African American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972).

Guitar World's 50 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time Songbook

Guitar World's 50 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time Songbook PDF Author: Hal Leonard Corp.
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 1480348279
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 987

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Book Description
(Guitar Recorded Versions). The name says it all: the 50 best as decided by the experts at Guitar World magazine transcribed for guitar note-for-note. Includes: All Along the Watchtower * All Day and All of the Night * Barracuda * Bohemian Rhapsody * Carry on Wayward Son * Crazy Train * Detroit Rock City * Enter Sandman * Free Bird * Highway to Hell * Hotel California * Iron Man * Layla * Misirlou * Pride and Joy * School's Out * Smells like Teen Spirit * Smoke on the Water * Sweet Child O' Mine * Tush * Welcome to the Jungle * You Really Got Me * and more.

The Supremes

The Supremes PDF Author: Mark Ribowsky
Publisher: Da Capo Press, Incorporated
ISBN: 0306815869
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
Biographer of Phil Spector (He's a Rebel), among others, Ribowsky takes a dishy, insider look at Berry Gordy's making of the Supremes, with some nasty swipes at Diana Ross while elevating Flo Ballard as the trio's martyr. In his detailed look at how Berry engineered his Motown empire, thanks to his smart sisters and a lot of luck and fortuitous pairing of talent, Ribowsky nicely intersperses some hindsight reflections by the main players, such as the brothers Brian and Eddie Holland of the legendary songwriting team with Lamont Dozier, with comparative accounts by Mary Wilson, Ross and others in order to sift the truth from the legend. While the author constantly snipes at Ross for her popping eyes and naked ambition, it was largely her single-minded drive that garnered attention to the trio's early incarnation as the Primettes, and her high girl-woman singing voice that established the Supremes' distinctive sound. Moreover, Ross's influence on Gordy (and his faith in her future solo stardom) motivated him to keep pushing the group into the limelight, in spite of other girl groups that had a bigger top hit following, such as Martha Reeves and the Vandellas. In this engaging, vivacious account, Ribowsky energetically and thoroughly underscores the Supremes' significance as one of the first crossover successes. (July) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s (Songbook)

VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s (Songbook) PDF Author: Hal Leonard Corp.
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 145848405X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 990

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Book Description
(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Songbook). Selections from the very popular special on VH1. Includes: Burning down the House * Come on Eileen * Don't Stop Believin' * 867-5309/Jenny * Fight for Your Right (To Party) * I Melt with You * Jack and Diane * Jump * Like a Virgin * Little Red Corvette * Super Freak * Sweet Child O' Mine * Time After Time * Under Pressure * Walk like an Egyptian * White Wedding * Wild Thing * You Shook Me All Night Long * many more.

He's a Rebel

He's a Rebel PDF Author: Mark Ribowsky
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0815410441
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Spector's achievements are well-chronicled in this tightly-written and very accessible book.