Southern Child
Southern Child is an unreleased album by Little Richard, scheduled to be released in 1972 as his third album for Reprise Records. It was going to be Reprise RS 2097. For unconfirmed reasons the album was shelved in favour of The Second Coming, released in October. The tracks comprising the album were released in 2005 from Rhino Records as part of their Complete Reprise Recordings collection.
Southern Child | |
---|---|
Studio album by | |
Released | January 2005 |
Recorded | April – May 1972 |
Genre | Country |
Label | Reprise |
Producer | Robert "Bumps" Blackwell |
History
The sleeve notes for the Complete Reprise Recordings had it that: "Cut at more or less the same time and in the same place as the Second Coming material, ten further songs were mixed, sequenced, assembled onto master reels, and delivered to Reprise. Having decided on the title Southern Child, the label even had the album art photographed: 'It was me milking a cow that they brought into the backyard of my home,' recalls Richard. But that was as far as it went. For reasons that remain hazy, Southern Child was never released... until now, more than 32 years after it was recorded".[1]
An eleventh track recorded at the same sessions but not selected for the album (Though released with The Complete Reprise Recordings) was a 4:11m instrumental, "Sneak the Freak".
Many of the tracks were copyrighted before the release of The Second Coming. Richard performed "Burning Up with Love" on The Merv Griffin Show before the release of The Second Coming; he also mentioned his "new" album, "The Southern Child", on the show.
Track listing
- "California (I'm Comin')" (Randy Ostin, Richard Penniman, Keith Winslow) – 3:16
- "If You Pick Her Too Hard (She Comes Out of Tune)" (Richard Penniman; another source credits Michael Deasy) – 3:51
- "Burning Up with Love" (Richard Penniman; another source credits Michael Deasy ) - 3:20
- "Ain't No Tellin'" (Randy Ostin, Richard Penniman, Keith Winslow) – 5:54
- "Last Year's Race Horse (Can't Run in This Year's Race)" (Richard Penniman) – 4:14
- "Southern Child" (Richard Penniman) – 2:56
- "In the Name" (Richard Penniman) – 2:57
- "Over Yonder" (Richard Penniman) – 3:54
- "I Git a Little Lonely" (Richard Penniman) – 1:43
- "Puppy Dog Song" (Richard Penniman, Chuck Rainey) – 8:40
Personnel
- Little Richard – vocals, piano (inaudible except on “The Puppy Dog Song”)
- Lee Allen – tenor saxophone
- Jim Horn – saxophone
- Sneaky Pete Kleinow – pedal steel guitar
- Earl Palmer – drums (drums inaudible on all tracks but “The Puppy Dog Song”)
- Michael Deasy - slide guitar
- Bob Love – unknown instrument according to Reprise Records
References
- Tom Vickers, The Complete Reprise Recordings liner notes, c. Warner Bros. Records, 2004.