The Price of Freedom

"I gave you all of my money," LLOYD PRICE complains in his 1952 debut single "LAWDY MISS CLAWDY," a foundational rock and roll record (with piano by FATS DOMINO and drums by EARL PALMER) that spent seven weeks atop the R&B charts, crossed over to white audiences (or, rather, white audiences crossed over to it) and caught the attention of everyone from a young ELVIS PRESLEY to, Price always believed, the draft board, which two years later sent him to Korea, far away from those white audiences. He made it back soon enough, and bigger hits, much bigger hits, would follow in a career that would continue to draw integrated crowds and eventually lead him to, among many other places, the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME. Through all of it, Price, who died last week at 88, was determined not to repeat the mistake he made with the fictional Miss Clawdy in that first recording. He would never again give anyone all his money. And that—his astonishing 1958 single "STAGGER LEE" notwithstanding—may be his greatest continuing influence, one that resonates as loudly in 2021 as it did in the 1950s and '60s.

Price wrote much of his own material and owned his copyrights from early in his career. He started an indie label, KRC, in 1956, and another, DOUBLE L, in 1962; the latter label released WILSON PICKETT's first recordings. He was legally emancipated from his parents when he was 17 so he could sign his own contracts. "I never wanted a manager or an agent," he told the New York Times in later years, "because I wanted to understand myself what the business was all about." After his own run of hits ended, he owned a New York nightclub and co-promoted, with DON KING, two of MUHAMMAD ALI's most celebrated fights, the "Rumble in the Jungle" with GEORGE FOREMAN and the "Thrilla in Manila" with JOE FRAZIER. In conjunction with the former fight, he co-produced ZAIRE '74, a three-day music festival in Kinshasa that featured JAMES BROWN, BILL WITHERS, B.B. KING, MIRIAM MAKEBA and CELIA CRUZ. Price, who always considered himself underappreciated, believed he paid a price for his independence. He considered declining his induction into the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME in 1998 because he thought it had taken too long. "There’s still resentment toward me because I controlled all my own songs" he said. "Shouldn’t the creators get a share of their creations? I think that’s right. And I believe you have to stand up for what you think is right."

My friend COURTNEY E. SMITH stands up for Price's importance, especially as a civil rights figure, in this great Twitter thread.

RIP.

Whitesnakecharmer

Two things about TAWNY KITAEN's miraculous appearance in WHITESNAKE's "HERE I GO AGAIN" video, which is one of the main reasons anyone listened to Whitesnake or watched MTV in the late 1980s, and which rewarded its star with the consolation prize of a much-too-short life of celebrity, scandal and redemption.

1. It was a front handspring, not a cartwheel. Front handsprings are more difficult, whether you're doing them on an exercise mat in a gym, on a balance beam or, as the case may be, across the hoods of two Jaguar XJs. A former high school gymnast, Kitaen was prepared for any of those situations. PAULA ABDUL was on set to help with the choreography, Kitaen would recall. "She asked me to show her what I had. So I did a few things and she turned around to [director] MARTY [CALLNER] and said she's got this and doesn't need me and she left. That was the greatest compliment."

2. She's on screen in the video for less time than you may remember. It's mostly a live video of the band. No one talks about that part. I have no idea what the band, led by Kitaen's future husband DAVID COVERDALE, paid her for this and the three other videos she appeared in, but it wasn't enough.

Most influential video actor of all time? A godmother, in a way, to the likes of MEGAN THEE STALLION and CARDI B? An unwise career choice after starring in a movie opposite TOM HANKS? Or a choice that left a mark her film career might never have? Did you watch her on repeat? Do you still hum that chorus? Pay your respects now. RIP.

Etc Etc Etc

QUESTLOVE takes the Los Angeles Times, and all of us, to sampling school. A booming Twitter thread on the culture and economics of the art... DISTROKID claims it distributes between 30 and 40 percent of all new music—35,000 songs every day... BLACK BANDCAMP, a crowdsourced directory of Black artists and producers and Black-owned record labels, has relaunched as the BLACK ARTIST DATABASE... BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN and NONA HENDRYX chat with NPR Music's LAUREN ONKEY about girl groups, remixers, music critics and assorted other topics in a Zoom panel recorded Saturday as part of the LAND OF HOPE AND DREAMS seminar, a three-week-long online event celebrating the work and the world of veteran critic DAVE MARSH. A sobering message, from Springsteen, to me and my peers: "If they won't pay for the music, I doubt they're going to pay for the music writing. That's my guess"... Saturday's VAX LIVE all-star concert raised $302 million... British jazz drummer MOSES BOYD at NPR Music's (Virtual) TINY DESK... The FBI has released its file on KURT COBAIN, all 10 pages of it. "The centerpieces," Rolling Stone reports, "are two letters, sent from names that have been redacted, urging the Bureau to investigate Cobain's 1994 death as a murder, rather than suicide." The FBI declined, saying that would be a matter for local authorities.

Rest in Peace

ANDREW BERNARD, saxophonist for 1960s one-hit wonder JOHN FRED & HIS PLAYBOY BAND and co-writer and co-producer of that one hit.