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Renegade or Retrograde: Questioning Little Richard's Legacy
by Jacob Bloomfield
In the many retrospectives on rock musician Little Richard since his death on 9 May 2020, some major narratives have emerged: he has been alternatingly cast as a queer forefather in the tradition of Oscar Wilde; a transgressive figure who broke racial, gender, and/or sexual boundaries; and a music pioneer largely defined by his influence on subsequent artists such as The Beatles. But in exalting the singer as a boundary breaker, observers have overlooked retrograde elements of Richard's legacy: his ...
read moreLittle Richard: 1932 - 2020
by C. Michael Bailey
It has been often said that popular culture is like a McDonald's cheeseburger: something better consumed than considered. It is a dilemma then, when a pop culture event stirs the roiling cauldron of the 21st Century. It is even greater and more significant when that event signals the end of an era. In his tribute to Johnny Cash on the artist's death in 2003, commentator and VH1 Executive Director Bill Flanagan opined on the CBS program Sunday Morning:
read moreRip it Up: The Specialty Records Story by Billy Vera
by C. Michael Bailey
Rip it Up: The Specialty Records Story Billy Vera RPM Series 177 Pages ISBN: # 978-1947026360 BMG Books 2019 The best music writing makes the reader go listen to music. It is just that simple. Volume 4 of BMG's RPM Series: Rip It Up—The Specialty Records Story is just such music writing. It made this reader search music from two fronts. First, the edition is authored by Billy Vera, who with The ...
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