Here's Little Richard - Little RichardI know that I am going to get several earfuls for this, but I have never really known what to make of Little Richard.
On the one hand, he's an extremely innovative and talented musician, an amazing, fun stage performer whose flamboyance and flare is not only unique, but pretty much always works in his favor.
On the other hand... the squeak.
You know what I'm talking about - that awful squeak sound he does at the end of about 20% of the phrases that he sings annoys the hell out of me. It's not his voice or his singing as a whole, I really love his voice, the grit and growl - even the "Whoooooo!" thing he does (maybe a little too) frequently is pretty cool - it's just that friggin' squeak! I want to give him some WD-40 to gargle with before he sings. Luckily, on this record, the squeak is at a minimum (it seems it has only gotten worse with age), but every time he does it, I instinctively cringe. To all of you that love Little Richards and are getting upset reading this, again, I don't dislike him, his voice, or his music... just that goddamned squeaking sound.
With all of that blaspheming out of the way, onto how I feel about the album as a whole.
I like it. The band is hopping, the tunes are all pretty good (which it's quite a feat to be able to write an entire album with only three chords at your disposal and still produce unique, fun, enjoyable tunes without sounding monotonous), and the energy is intense as hell.
I just really wish he would stop doing that whole "I stepped into the shower, turned on the water, and it was ice-cold" sound he does. If that bit was dropped from his act, I very possibly would be an active Little Richard fan. While, almost entirely due to the mouse-being-stepped-on-sound, I probably won't be running to re-listen to this record, nor to any other Little Richard records, I'm happy I listened to it, and will continue to enjoy his music as much as I can anytime I happen to hear it.
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