He jumped atop piano's lid,
then danced and slid
on magic feet
to funky beat.
He pounded boogie-woogie keys
loud as you please,
his voice a scream,
a rebel's dream.
With "Tutti Fruity" on his lips,
he swung his hips
to crowd's delight,
and won the night.
|
Author Notes
The Atlantic City Pop Festival was held the first three days in August in 1969. Some of the featured acts included The Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Santana, Canned Heat, The Mothers of Invention, The Chambers Brothers, Iron Butterfly, the Byrds, Joe Cocker and Three Dog Night. On the third night, one act is not what one would have expected in this line-up. Little Richard performed.
Little Richard was in his late 30's at that point, and his hits were all over a decade old. Many in the audience considered him a fish out of water. Nobody knew quite what to expect. And then he came on stage, as flamboyant as he ever had been, and he performed some of his greatest 50's hits, like Tutti Fruity and Good Golly, Miss Molly. Talk about winning a crowd over. People were almost instantly on their feet, dancing and screaming along as he first stood at the piano, pounding out the notes, and then jumped atop the piano to dance. I've honestly never seen anything like it before or since.
The minute poem consists of three four line verses in rhyming couplets. The first line of each verse is 8 syllables in iambic meter, and the next three lines are 4 syllables. It is a minute poem because that is a total of 60 syllables. I find its beat quite appropriate to Little Richard's exuberant music.
|
|
