Dave Davies, who covered Little Richard with the Kinks in 1964, remembers the late singer: 'He pounded the shit out of the piano, and his voice was so stunning'
“I’d never heard anybody sing like that. It was so screechy and loud. He made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.”
The band performed “Long Tall Sally” — a song co-written by Little Richard, Robert “Bumps” Blackwell, and Enotris Johnson — at the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool; you can watch footage above. “Gonna tell Aunt Mary about Uncle John/He says he got the blues but he has a lot of fun,” Davies, his brother, Ray, and bassist Pete Quaife sing, setting up a blistering harmonica solo by Ray.
Davies met Little Richard only once — in the Eighties, at L.A.’s Hyatt House, where the singer was living at the time. “I met him in an elevator and I was too star-struck, and he just stared through me with his wonderful, glaring eyes,” Davies remembers. “I just said, ‘Hello,’ and he said, ‘I know who you are.’ I said, ‘You’re a big idol of mine.’ I was like a little kid, hypnotized.”
When asked to characterize Richard’s overall impact on rock & roll, Davies uses the words “rebellious” and “abandoned.” “We all felt that when you heard Little Richard, you felt like you were going somewhere,” he says. “You didn’t know where or even care, but you always sensed it would be somewhere wonderful. There’ll never be another.”
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