LITTLE RICHARD BIOPIC CELEBRATES A ROCK PIONEER

The king of rock ‘n’ roll didn’t die at Graceland in 1977. He died just three years ago in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and he never really got the crown he deserved.

That’s the persuasive case made by Lisa Cortés’ documentary “Little Richard: I Am Everything,” an insightful biography of an unlikely hero who emerged in the buttoned-down Eisenhower era.

Cortés argues that Little Richard created the template for the rock icon and she’s got the receipts, tracing his musical and stylistic influences through everyone from the Beatles to David Bowie, Elton John and Lizzo. If there was a king, he was it.

“Sorry, y’all. It wasn’t Elvis,” contributor Billy Porter notes dryly.

Appropriate for a member of rock royalty, Little Richard was a personal mess. He alternated from flamboyant, orgy-attending, shirtless singer to reserved Christian fundamentalist who declared rock was “devil’s music.” This film drives directly into the contradiction.

We go from Richard Penniman’s poor home in Macon, Georgia, as one of 12 kids, getting his minister father’s disapproval for being different — and later, of course, approval once his son was making money — to his rise as the undercelebrated architect of rock.

But Cortés’ film is also the story of American rock itself, the way transistor radios allowed teens in the ‘50s to rebel against their parents’ staid music and how Black music was appropriated by white bands. Little Richard arguably suffered the most — his howl absorbed, his piano-pounding adopted, his androgynous look swiped.