The musician that Neil Young said is Rock and Roll

One of the most prolific songwriters of the past decades, Neil Young entered rock history through his solo career and as a member of bands like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Buffalo Springfield.

He was still a kid when the genre began and grew up witnessing the evolution of music, eventually becoming part of it. Over the decades, he spoke about many artists from that era and once described one of them as the very definition of “Rock and Roll.”

The musician that Neil Young said is Rock and Roll

“He is great, he is still a madman, he is completely outrageous, Little Richard is Rock and Roll. If I could play it myself (one of his songs in a show it would be) ‘Send Me Some Loving’, that’s a great song, I think is on the other side of ‘Lucille,'” Neil Young told Much Music in 1991.

During the TV interview he could pick some songs to be played during the program. Besides “Send Me Some Loving”, he mentioned “Tutti-Frutti” and “Good Golly Miss Moly”. In the book “Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography“, the musician talked more about some of those songs. “Little Richard was great on every record back then. But his ballads, like ‘Send Me Some Lovin” – I just love the song. ‘Won’t you send me your picture…’ Great stuff. His emotion was so real, and the feel was so great.” “I heard ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ last night – oh, the fuckin’ beat’s just all over the place and it’s so rockin’ – boommmboom boom boom boom boom,” he said.

Considered one of the godfathers of Rock music, Little Richard released his debut album when Neil Young was 12 years-old. So he was one of Neil’s first influences, which showed him what was this new thing called Rock and Roll. Asked by a fan if he ever had the chance to meet Little Richard and Bo Diddley, Neil gave an enigmatic answer on his website, saying: “I met them. Don’t remember when, or was it in my dreams?”

One of the first records he ever bought was by Little Richard

Like most artists from his era, Neil Young was deeply influenced by artists like Little Richard who were one of the first to show the world what Rock music was. One of the first records the Canadian musician ever bought was, curiously, by the late legendary singer and pianist. “Well, the first records that I (bought), one of the earliest ones, I think, was all Jerry Lee Lewis records and Little Richard and those records.”

“Then, about the late ’50s – in early ’50s, I bought, you know, records by the Monotones and Buddy Holly and – what’s that – Ronnie Self and the Chantelles. All these great records, you know, R&B-type records. And then, Jimmy Reed. I bought all Jimmy Reed’s albums when I was in grade eight or nine or something, high school. I had all his early records. And, you know, I just bought – I really like R&B,” Neil Young said in an interview with Terry Gross.

Little Richard’s musical career started in 1947 and besides being a singer and pianist, he also was a minister. During his prolific and influential career, he released 19 studio albums which had hits like “Tutti Frutti”, “Long Tall Sally”, “Keep a Knockin'” and “Rip It Up”.

The final album he recorded was “Little Richard Meets Masayoshi Takanaka”, released in 1992. But the final one released was “Southern Child”, which was made available in 2005 but was recorded in 1972.

Jimi Hendrix, one of Neil Young’s biggest heroes played with Little Richard

During his career, Little Richard had a huge number of musicians working with him as part of his backing band. Curiously, in the early 1960s one of them was James Hendrix, who would later be known as the legendary Jimi Hendrix. He joined Richard’s band in the end of 1964 and in the beginning of the next year recorded with him in studio and one of the results of those sessions was the song was the version of Don Covay Soul ballad “I Don’t Know What You’ve Got (But It’s Got Me)”.

Neil Young’s bandmate Graham Nash was at a Little Richard concert around that time. He witnessed the singer and pianist arguing with Hendrix, whose stage behavior was starting to overshadow Richard’s own performance.

“Little Richard closed the show, and we would watch him from the side of the stage. One night I heard this argument before they went on: ‘Don’t you ever fucking do that again! I’m Little Richard, the king of rock ‘n’ roll, you fucking guy! Stop playing your fucking guitar behind your fucking head!’ And he was yelling at Jimi. It was this argument as they got in the elevator to go up. The volume decreased as they went, but you could still hear them arguing. I can hear it now. So that was Jimi. It was obvious he was a talented guy,” Graham Nash told Music Radar in 2012.

Richard wasn’t happy with Hendrix’s tardiness, wardrobe as well. At the same time, the guitar player was complaining over his pay. So Robert Penniman (Little Richard’s brother) ended up firing Jimi in July 1965.