The most ahead-of-his-time rock ‘n’ roller in world history has passed on — a gay (i.e., “bisexual”) guy who wore makeup, flashy duds and a foot-high pompadour, and who recorded a hit 1955 song that was covertly about anal sex…c’mon! Every rocker who followed in Little Richard’s wake (i.e., everyone) has acknowledged his seminal lordship and influence. In a break-out time of bland repression and all through the decades that followed, Richard Wayne Penniman stood alone, flew his own flag, made the usual mistakes, kept pushing, kept going. Little Richard, James Brown, Chuck Berry…their legends endure.
