Page 80 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2013

Little Richard influence, Esquerita (lt), They innovated new sounds in back-of-town roadhouses,
and a fan at the Dew Drop Inn, New sawdust dancehalls and wide-open dice joints. Through their work,
Orleans, 1962 a marginalized culture – the chitlin’ circuit – became the birthplace
Used with Author’s Permission
of an American treasure – rock ‘n’ roll.
Without daddy, the
Penniman family became Preston Lauterbach is the author of The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to
punchline-poor. According to Rock ‘n’ Roll. He’s provided the intro and some adaptations from his book
Richard, they pulled wood off here. He rarely performs in drag. He is working on a history of Beale
their house to burn on cold days. Street’s underworld and music, which will be published in 2014.
Twenty years old now, Richard
took a job at the Greyhound
station, washing dishes in the
cafeteria. Can you see it? Little
Richard in a hairnet and smudged apron, scraping half-eaten
chicken fried steaks and gravy mashed potatoes into the garbage,
those fiery fingers dishwater-wrinkled.
He wouldn’t stand there long. Little Richard’s longtime cohort
Percy Welch said that the trauma of Bud’s death, “led [Richard] to
come into rock ‘n’ roll.”
Even then it would take Richard years of chitlin’ circuit grinding
to achieve fame. He did it with a number that celebrated his drag
queen persona:
“Tutti Frutti, good booty,” the original began.
Little Richard was just one star who began to shine on the
crooked road. Many others traveled that path, propelled by crime
and culture – Louis Jordan, Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, T-Bone Isaac Hayes and his band brought the house down at Currie’s Club Tropicana in the
Walker, B.B. King, Ike Turner, Johnny Ace and James Brown. early 1950s Used with Author’s Permission

78 Blues Festival Guide 2013