gafa42
3
Haven't listened to a full Little Richard album before, but I'm really digging this. So much energy, and the piano playing is off the charts. 5/5.
I think in terms of influence and significance to music history, this is definitely a 5/5. I terms of personal enjoyment... I think I agree that these songs weren't really meant to be played back to back. I enjoyed each of the songs but I found them to be a little same-y.
Going into the wayback machine here. One of my struggles in my amateur music criticism is how to treat pre-Beatles/Dylan/Beach Boys rock music as i respect it more than like it (with the exception proving the rule being Jerry Lee Lewis’ Live at the Star Club album). With the 50s, I do better with jazz, country (Hank Williams) and pop (Frank Sinatra) than I do with rock. To some extent, I recognize that rock fans in the 50s just didn’t listen to music the way I do. The context of listening to an album such as this as an A-side/B-side exercise is more palatable than 30 minutes in a row, where just about anything from this era is skeletal and samey when compared to the revolution in sound about to come. For what it’s worth, this is the problem with early hip hop for me as well, where it really isn’t until Paul’s Boutique/3 Feet High/It Takes A Nation of Millions that I’m locked in and loaded. That’s a long-winded lead in to simply state I recognize the importance and influence, but this isn’t really for me. Tutti Frutti, Long Tall Sally, and Rip It Up absolutely rock. And the other tunes I’d bop my head to at the local diner. But as a digestible album, this is short yet still tiring. A case where the parts are greater than the sum. Some of those parts are damn good though, which is why this gets a 3.
This stuff'll make you a god-damn sexual tyrannosaurus, just like me. Rip It Up is great. It's a variation of the same song, 15 times, it's a good song, but it gets a bit much. 2 / 5 stars.
Fantastic early rock rave up!