At the time, the 1950s stars in the festival were at low points in their career (other than Jerry Lee Lewis, who got a second wind as a country music star). New musical trends had passed them by, and 1950s didn't really kick in until the 1970s. Most of them spent much of the year performing at small motels and hotels in Las Vegas. Despite this, Little Richard was known for having a massive ego, and it showed at this concert.
Kim Fowley, a famous music producer, was the emcee for the festival, and helped manage things backstage. In a later interview, he recalled, "One thing that happened was Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard all came up to me at the same time backstage and 'We all think all four of us are the king of rock and roll and how are you going to solve that problem in the introduction?' So, one became the king of jungle rock, one became the king of across the tracks rock, somebody became the grammar king rock, etc..., and suddenly everybody had slightly different items of introductions. They had concerns about billing since each one wanted to be the king of rock and roll that night, so I had to amend each mention. The visual of all four of them in front of me…egomaniacs whose time had passed demanding to be kings of rock and roll."
Later on, Jim Morrison of the Doors and Doors manager Bill Siddons met with John Lennon and festival promoter John Brower to decide who would go on last. (As an aside, this seems to be the only time it's known for sure Morrison and Lennon met, although unfortunately nobody thought to take any photos of them together.) The Doors had signed a contract stating they would close the festival. But after that, Lennon unexpectedly joined the bill. The Doors wanted to go on before Lennon, because they feared the famous Beatle would take all the attention, and much of the crowd would leave after his set ended. But Lennon had been told the Doors would go on last, and he wanted to keep it that way. He was feeling nervous and didn't want the added pressure of being the closing act.
While this was being discussed, Little Richard walked by and overheard the group talking. Brower later recalled, "Richard came right out and said, 'I will close the show, the way the show should be closed, by me, the King. You know that, Mr. Lennon. You know that, Mr. Promoter. You know that, Mr. Doors. I am the King and I should close the show.' Now, all four of us were standing there with our jaws dropped, especially Lennon and Morrison who were getting absolutely spanked, and I just said, 'Richard you’re on next.' So, he walked off, and in his incredible melodious soprano, about 25 feet away, he said, 'I am the King. You know that!'"
As an aside, the dispute between Lennon and the Doors was resolved a short time later when Brower talked to Morrison and Siddons in private. He claims that he said, "I’m not having John Lennon close the show. He'll play when he wants to play. If you don't want to play, just go back to the hotel. You don't even have to, I don't care. I just have to take care of John Lennon. You get it? John Lennon." The fame of Lennon and the Beatles was so great at that time compared to the Doors that that settled the dispute.
Egotistical or not, Little Richard was known to put on an energetic, exciting show. He certainly did that this time. The likes of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and the Doors all watched the performance with great interest from the sides of the stage. In the documentary, Robby Krieger, lead guitarist for the Doors, said, "Little Richard just tore it up. I remember he did the last couple of songs standing on the piano. ... I was standing with Jim [Morrison] and he goes, 'Man, we gotta follow that?'"
This recording is unreleased. As was the case for most of the recordings from this festival, the vocals were low in the mix, so I boosted them with the use of the UVR5 audio editing program.
This album is 28 minutes long.
01 talk (Little Richard)
02 Blueberry Hill (Little Richard)
03 Lucille (Little Richard)
04 talk (Little Richard)
05 Good Golly, Miss Molly (Little Richard)
06 talk (Little Richard)
07 Rip It Up (Little Richard)
08 talk (Little Richard)
09 Tutti Frutti (Little Richard)
10 Keep A-Knockin' (Little Richard)
11 Hound Dog (Little Richard)
12 Jenny, Jenny (Little Richard)
13 Long Tall Sally (Little Richard)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/HuHnZd94
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/mxA11hSVNEztr64/file
The cover photo is a screenshot I took from the 2022 documentary about this festival.
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