What were the differences between The Upsetters and James Brown’s band?
CC: See, the difference between the Little Richard band, The Upsetters, and James Brown’s band, James Brown’s band had to wear tuxedos … [in Little Richard’s band] we’d wear loud clothes because we had to dress up like gay guys. We had to dress like gay guys in order to play the white clubs, so we wouldn’t be a threat to the white girls — so the white audience wouldn’t see all those colored boys digging ’em. But because we looked like a bunch of gay guys, we were harmless. We were no threat, or they thought we were no threat (laughs). But we would dress like that and everything, and that’s the strategy Richard used to play the white clubs. Now, right there in the ’50s and ’60s, James Brown wasn’t playing for no white folks. His crowd was colored, black. But Richard had the black and white crowds, ’cause Richard’s thing literally was more comedy. (Sings “Uncle John”) … you know, silly stuff. It was different, too. You know “Long Tall Sally”? What about “Long Tall Sally”? CC: There is, o
