Manitoba music veteran Owen Clark says back in the 1950s, Winnipeg teens were ready for the gritty, energetic sound of Little Richard, the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer who died Saturday morning.
“I remember being at the Half Moon up in Lockport with a group of kids from Tech Voc,” the 81-year-old drummer said Saturday, recalling he would meet with his high school buddies at the diner for hot dogs and soda pop.
“That particular night, nothing was played except Little Richard. All night long, the kids just kept pumping that jukebox with Little Richard tunes,” he recalled.
“Everybody was just dancing.… You could hardly move on the dance floor. There were people dancing out in the parking lots.”
Little Richard, born Richard Wayne Penniman, died at his home in Tennessee on Saturday. The 87-year-old had struggled with health issues for years, and died from bone cancer, according to his lawyer.
Clark remembers the days when Little Richard’s songs set the Winnipeg music scene on fire. Teenagers couldn’t get enough of his energetic style, which was a sharp departure from the big band sounds they grew up with.
“It was a lot grittier rock ‘n’ roll than Elvis or Pat Boone had out at that time, or even Bill Haley,” said Clark. “[It] had a real hard edge to it. And up until that point, we hadn’t heard many people actually screaming when they sang their tunes.”
Clark’s personal favourite was the 1956 hit Ready Teddy. He played the song over and over, learning the drum beats and trying to mimic the singer’s powerful, raucous sound.
“I could never get myself to do one of those soul screams that he does, but I could certainly get a growl in my voice to sing those tunes,” he recalls.
Clark said that practise drew him away from jazz to rock ‘n’ roll. He went on to play with early rock icons like The Ink Spots, The Platters, Harry Belafonte and Eartha Kitt.
Clark said Little Richard broke the colour barrier, as one of the first black performers to hit the Manitoba airwaves.
“We didn’t have many black people in Winnipeg, and they weren’t common to listen to on the radio,” Clark said, saying people north of the border had to tune in to blues stations from the U.S. to hear the raspy vocal styles that inspired Little Richard, who grew up in Macon, Ga.
The superstar was also one of rock’s earliest openly gay performers, known for his flashy, androgynous style of dress.
“I don’t remember anybody saying anything derogatory about him or his sexual [identity],” said Clark.
“They just loved the wild, colourful costumes and his flamboyant style. It was really exciting for teenagers of the ’50s,” he said.
“My parents thought it was pretty wild and different, and kinda laughed about it. I don’t know whether they were laughing at me dancing to it, or whether they were laughing at the recordings,” Clark said with a chuckle.
“I think it just became accepted.”
Clark said he still beats the drums from time to time. He’s also played in several landmark Winnipeg groups, as an original member of the Ron Paley Big Band, and with his own Owen Clark Band.
He finally got to see his original musical hero play a couple of decades ago, when Little Richard performed at Shooting Star Casino in Minnesota.
Clark said the aging musician showed obvious physical difficulties, allowing a younger member of the band to sing some of his more dynamic songs, as he took a breather.
“But he was still the outrageous Little Richard … with the flashy clothes, and the comments, and the piano stylings,” said Clark.
“I was glad that I got that chance to see him.”