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readerpants 's review for:
The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Authorised Biography
by Charles White
GOSH. I don't even know how to rate this rollercoaster. It sure is something.
The format is almost entirely transcriptions of interviews with Little Richard, other musicians, family members, etc, with these occasional contextualizing bridge passages from the biographer. Hagiography to the max.
The first half feels weirdly similar to Delaney's 1984 or Times Square Red Times Square Blue: the two men are COMPLETELY different, as are their worlds, but the straightforward, super explicit, unapologetic and oddly undramatic details of wild-ass queer sexual shenanigans read very similarly, and of course they're published around the same time.
And then that last third of the book, ending with his preaching about how rock is the devil's music and the evils of homosexuality... gosh.
Content warnings for a whole lot of sex and a whole lot of homophobia... truly a wild ride!
The format is almost entirely transcriptions of interviews with Little Richard, other musicians, family members, etc, with these occasional contextualizing bridge passages from the biographer. Hagiography to the max.
The first half feels weirdly similar to Delaney's 1984 or Times Square Red Times Square Blue: the two men are COMPLETELY different, as are their worlds, but the straightforward, super explicit, unapologetic and oddly undramatic details of wild-ass queer sexual shenanigans read very similarly, and of course they're published around the same time.
And then that last third of the book, ending with his preaching about how rock is the devil's music and the evils of homosexuality... gosh.
Content warnings for a whole lot of sex and a whole lot of homophobia... truly a wild ride!