“Some cat was layin’ down some rock n roll...”
The young David Jones soaked up influences like a dry sponge and he found the music and attitude of Little Richard, among others, inspirational to say the least.
As a 15-year-old in 1962, Jones saw Little Richard live for the first time and then again the following year with The Rolling Stones as one of the support acts.
He listed the 1959 album, The Fabulous Little Richard, among his favourite 25 for a Vanity Fair feature in 2003.
Here’s Bowie talking about the content of today’s montage in 1991.
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“I sent away for a photograph of Little Richard when I was seven years old, it was called Star Pic and it took eight weeks to arrive and when it arrived it was torn…and I was absolutely broken-hearted.
The first record I think I bought was called I Got It, which he later re-wrote as She’s Got It. And ever since I saw that photograph, I realised he had so many saxophones in his band. So I went out and bought a saxophone intending that when I grew up I'd work in the Little Richard band as one of his saxophonists.
Anyway it didn’t work out like that, but without him I think myself and half of my contemporaries wouldn’t be playing music.”
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We’ll leave you with a Tweet posted by David’s son, Duncan Jones, earlier today:
“From what my dad told me about his love of this legend growing up, it’s very likely he would not have taken the path he did without the huge influence of Little Richard. One of the highest of the high. Enjoy whatever’s next, Superstar.”
FOOTNOTE: The framed picture of Little Richard bottom right, is the actual Star Pic mentioned above. Bowie once described it as his most treasured possession. © The David Bowie Archive.
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