Little Richard Meets Jefferson Airplane

By 1970, Joety Covington had replaced Spencer Dryden as Jefferson Airplane's drummer. He had also been drumming for Hot Tuna. Joey had written a couple of tunes he wanted to record with the Airplane, and one of them, he felt, could use a rocking piano in the style of Little Richard. Surprisingly (or maybe not), not all of the others in the band agreed.

Back in San Francisco, most of the band members gathered at Wally Heider's to record Joey's two new songs: "Whatever The Old Man Does Is Always Right" and "Bludgeon Of A Bluecoat (The Man)." Joey had performed the latter, an uptempo, straight-ahead rock and roll song, with Hot Tuna and, recently, with the Airplane in concert. He'd written it to celebrate the life of Ruben Salazar, a Mexican-American journalist whose life was snuffed out at age 42, during the August 1970 National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam war. Salazar was sitting in a bar in East L.A. minding his own business when police, pursuing a man with a rifle, shot a tear gas cannister through the door, killing Salazar. Joey, although never particularly political, was motivated after reading about the incident, and figured the Airplane would be happy to record a song with topical content.

Some of the group, though, arriving at the studio, were more than a bit surprised to find that Covington had arranged on his own for a guest piano player to come in for the session, none other than the legendary Little Richard. None of the Airplane had ever had a relationship with the rock and roll pioneer, although just about all of them claimed him as an early influence and they'd met him the previous summer at the Atlantic City Pop Festival. Joey reasoned that the song needed a Little Richard-style piano and figured, well, why get an imitation when he could get the real deal?

Joey Covington in 1999

Joey Covington: I called a friend of mine, Bumps Blackwell [Richard's manager], who said, "Call Little Richard's mom."

So I called her and I said, "Mrs. Penniman, my name is Joey Covington and I'd like your son to play piano on my song."

She said, "Well, I'll have to talk to Richard about that."

So I talked to her for a couple of months and one day Little Richard calls up and goes, "Uh, Joey Covington? My mama likes you. I hear you want me to come up and play on one of your songs with this Jefferson Airplane band."

I said, "Yeah, Richard, I'd love to bring you up here."

He said, "You name a date and I'll be there. You gotta come get me at the airport and can I bring two of my friends?"

I said, "Fine." So I turned it into a party. I had Magnolia Thunderpussy cater it and she brought in some dancers and strippers and chicken.

Bill Thompson: Little Richard said, "Man, I'm hungry. I'd like to get something." Joey actually sent out for fried chicken and watermelon. And Little Richard liked it!

Little Richard

Pat "Maurice" Ieraci: I had to pay the cost, the plane and hotel fares, the whole thing, bringing up all the equipment. I had to rent three studios. Wally Heider at that time had three studios, A, B and C. Two on the ground floor, one on the top floor. There was so much leakage, and so much distortion, that I had to rent all three studios at one time. It was recorded live. We had the band members with their guitars in one studio, with Richard. In another studio we had some of the amps with microphones, so we didn't have the leakage.

Maurice also filmed the lively session (without sound) for posterity, but in the end, the Airplane never released the track. Joey's suspicion at the time was that the others in the group resented him calling in someone like Little Richard, a symbol of the old rock and roll world rather than the new, to play on an Airplane recording without consulting with them first. Jack admits that they objected to Little Richard being brought in, but for reasons having more to do with Joey than with the larger-than-life icon.

Jack Casady: I love Little Richard. I've still got Little Richard's first album. I used to see Little Richard at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. regularly. But we couldn't understand why he was there. "Why, Joey, are you bringing Little Richard into an Airplane session? What are you doing?" Yes, it's a great thing to do and all of that, but I think we felt at the time that it wasn't the right thing to do, because if you're going to make a Jefferson Airplane album what are you doing bringing Little Richard in? And furthermore, what is Joey Covington doing bringing in Little Richard? To be really honest about it, it probably had to do with the fact that Joey Covington brought him. It just didn't sit right.