Little Richard
In an era when music was big, big LP records, big radiograms, big bands, big trombone, and big suits, little Richard was the biggest of the little big men. His hair was the full-on triple wave bouffant and his moustache ,earrings and makeup were an affront to all respectable people who tuned into the wireless to be educated. 
Good thing Little Richard eschewed all that, because his great gift from the grave was to instil in all of us the infectious virtuosity of his voice, his technique and laughter. To give us a sense of fun. To demonstrate how to not just play the piano, but demonstrate with hands, elbows and feet, how to make the piano a pulsating, syncopating instrument of sexual potency. Rolf never achieved this with the wobble board. Without Little Richard there may not have been an Elvis, and for some brief period (some say a decade) people as great, as significant, as Elton John and Paul Macartney pointed to little Richard as the inspiration. The diminutive little black guy put sex into rock. Before little Richard it was just rock n roll. Bill Haley and three chords? Little Richard took a boppin hillbilly deep south rock of Chuck Berry and the Mississippi blues, from Howlln Wolf and John Lee Hooker somewhere else. He was the first, BB (Before Bowie) to make it effeminate, androgynous and definitely, (please , God-forbid), homosexual. 
For Little Richard batted for the other team, in a new genre of music that Liberace wouldn’t touch with Benjamin Brittens baton. And why? cos he was flamboyantly and devilishly gay. And being an American he went to God. Found him boring, and went back to being entertaining. He realised that his gay-ness was just the pure expression of self and he didn’t need to be embarrassed by it. He could just worry about being black in an entrenched racist society instead. Rather than worry he laughed.
Playing second fiddle, Liberace and Elvis.
WE all need a bit of Little Richard in our heads these days. We need a little bit of tutti frutti, and lop bop a loo la a lop bam boo… cos with out it, we might just think that the past sixty odd years of modernism, was just an experiment in which bankers, billionaires and really b grade politicians bought us nowhere with the neo-liberal dream to end up with nothing. And that would be really depressing. And who needs to be depressed when there’s so much good that could be happening in the world. Like great music, and breaking down barriers, between race, gender, sexuality and religion.
No wonder governments haven’t declared last Monday as ‘Little Richard Day’. With coronavirus, such a thing might makes us think of more important things than money, mortgages and lock-down. We might question the Feds decision to embrace science for corona virus and eschew science for more Coal and GAS. Good thing that Little Richard karked it in the states, cos they’ve got this corona thing under control and know how to redirect their politics to ensure everyone gets a fair go.
Rolf, Australian own Little Richard. (sort of)
The same might happen here, but with pubs and clubs closed, funding for the arts stiffed, and thinking and imagination capped, we might have a a few little Richards ourselves. But don’t hold your breath, the post corona age will ensure we’re all steeped in fear, and deep worry, and for those unaffected by the corona crisis , who will grow richer still, there is JOY.
Billionaires will be SAFE in the post corona world. 