Southern Child


Southern Child is an unreleased album by Little Richard, scheduled to be released in 1972 as his third album for Reprise Records. For unconfirmed reasons the album was shelved, first in 1972, to give way to “Second Coming “, released in October, and the tracks comprising the album were released in 2005 from Rhino Records as part of their Complete Reprise Recordings collection.

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".
An eleventh track recorded at the same sessions but not selected for the album was a 4:11m instrumental, "Sneak the Freak".
Interestingly, many of the tracks were copyrighted before the release of Second Coming.
Also interesting, that Richard performed "Burning Up with Love" on The Merv Griffin Show before the release of Second Coming; he also mentioned his "new" album, "The Southern Child", on the show.

Track listing

  1. "California " – 3:16
  2. "If You Pick Her Too Hard " – 3:51
  3. "Burning Up with Love" - 3:20
  4. "Ain't No Tellin'" – 5:54
  5. "Last Year's Race Horse " – 4:14
  6. "Southern Child" – 2:56
  7. "In the Name" – 2:57
  8. "Over Yonder" – 3:54
  9. "I Git a Little Lonely" – 1:43
  10. "Puppy Dog Song" – 8:40

    Personnel