Rippin' It UP!

One Saturday afternoon in the 1970's I was watching WTTW-11, the public television station in Chciago, and a British music program came on, titled, I think, Don't Knock the Rock. It was interesting because all the music was live, not lipsynched, and the groups were interesting--the Animals, younger than I had ever seen them, and two rock'n'roll legends, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, the latter two backed up by a British band, Sounds Incorporated. The period seemed to be after their initial exiles from rock: Richard's from his sojourn in the ministry (!!!), and Jerry Lee from the notoriety that accompanied his marrying his underaged cousin. It was also done before Richard became a caricature of himself.

Lewis gave an performance almost demented in its frenzy, climaxing in a delirious rendition of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," replete with large dollops of tent-show evangelism (not for nothing is his cousin Jimmy Lee Swaggart) and foot-banging on the keyboard. A current seems to run through him, and he's surrounded by fans (almost all male), who, it seems, just want to touch the hem of his garments.

Then Little Richard comes out, and I've always felt he watched Lewis and decided to blow his doors off, so to speak. Nothing proclaims this more than his version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On." It's like the Beatles coming on after the Stones and playing "Satisfaction." Right from the start, when members of the crowd run to begin dancing, and Richard catches them out of the corner of his eye, it is completely Dionysian, but almost deliberately calculated. When Richard takes his jacket off, he carefully folds it (while impishly ogling someone off camera), then loosening his collar and tie before he tucks in his shirt. Lewis's hushed diminuendo in the middle of the song becomes Richard's Singsprache on his knees, from which Richard explodes back into singing. He doesn't play piano much, perhaps realizing he could not compete with Lewis's bits of stage business, but by his standing in front of the band, they are able to follow his rhythms better, and the beat becomes one huge machine, as Mods and Rockers spin in the aisle.

I did not see these performances again until they, like so much else, were shared on YouTube. I was surprised to learn from the closing credits that the show had been "designed" by Alan Price, whose name has come up before in these posts.

What insouciance. What balls.