50 Years a Fats Domino

www.tftw.freeuk.com £1/10/0d - £1.50 - €2.44 - $2.25 Issue No. 48 April 2006 A fixed mind in an ever changing world… 50 YEARS A FATS I can still recall my astonishment in 1956 when I discovered, on buying the EP “Blues for Love vol. DOMINO FAN 2” that he was black! There was his photo on the by Neil Foster cover (a rather slim Fats) so there could be no mistake. As I write, Domino’s 78th birthday has just passed, 2006 is the 50th anniversary of my first I was abysmally ignorant then – I didn’t know what purchase of a Domino disc (“Blueberry Hill” on a R & B was, or the Blues, or Jazz. I had no idea 78) and there are news items about Hurricane what a chord was and was extremely puzzled by Katrina and how President Bush was warned journalistic complaints about “three-chord about it in advance; also, how New Orleans has rubbish”, when they mentioned Rock’n’Roll. defiantly held its annual Mardi Gras Festival (but (Would four chords be all right? I wondered.) there is a lot of damage and destruction in the Crescent City that has still not been cleared.) The B-side of “Blueberry Hill” was “I Can’t Go On (Rosalie)”and a family friend commented on I read with incredulity on Keith’s website that two hearing this, “That’s a three-chord song.” So it is, readers visited New Orleans some time ago but a lot subtler than it seems to be, if you listen (before the floods, of course) and were astonished closely to the way Domino sings around the beat to discover that the local Tourist Office had never and the similar way the tenor sax varies the heard of Fats Domino: to many of us the symbol driving solo. of the city! Furthermore, the people who rescued him from his mansion after the floods didn’t know The next record to who he was, either! engage my attention was “When My Dreamboat Comes Home”, which was once played on the BBC’s “Two Way Family Favourites”, probably because of the message in the title (that’s also why they played Pat Boone’s “I’ll Be Home”). At the time, like a lot of people, I used to listen to Jack Jackson’s “Record Roundup” on Radio Luxembourg and he always used to end his programme with “So Long” by Fats. It was with great joy that I discovered that was on the B-side of the 78 I had bought. When I met John Day, the leader of the Rock’n’Roll group I was later to join, he told me I think the trouble is that Fats is too self-effacing how much he loved that record. He was an Anglo- and modest and always has been. He lets his Indian, born in Bombay (or Mumbai, as they now music speak for him. call it). He told me how he used to cycle through jungle paths to a café which was one of the very So, what can I do to trumpet the merits of the few places to have a jukebox and on it was “So man? Well, I am not going to regurgitate the Long”. Naturally, he had little money but used biographical/discographical details that you have what little he had to play that record. read a thousand times but what I can do is to tell a few (true) stories from my past involving him. I saw “The Girl Can’t Help It”, of course, with the 1 unforgettable scene where the camera moves chosen. (Incidentally, I noticed a copy of this book through the swirling dancers and alights on going for $199.95 on Amazon if anybody really Domino’s smiling face, pounding out “Blue feels they must have a pristine copy – H) Monday”. Of course, he has his detractors, like Dr John I soon discovered that his records were good (Mac Rebennac) who seems convinced that Fats double-siders: there was often a boogie-woogie has never acknowledged his debt to Professor instrumental on the B-side like the superb “La La”, Longhair. I also have a vivid memory of standing the flip of “Ain’t That A Shame”. in a Toxteth pub in the late ‘60s when “Blueberry Hill” was playing and listening to the conversation of two baffled and scornful, middle-aged regulars, who obviously only knew the Gene Autry version (1941). I was almost tempted to join in the conversation by quoting the title of a Fats’ record, “I Want You To Know” but it was obvious that these old vegetables never would know. Fats Domino – I salute you! If it wasn’t for you, I would never have learned about the Blues, Rhythm and Blues and Boogie Woogie piano. I would never have become interested in the tenor sax (the neighbours might have welcomed that!) When I eventually joined John Day’s group, the and my life would have been a lot poorer and less first number I played was an instrumental version fun. Hope you live to be a hundred! of “I Want To Walk You Home”, as it was another three-chord song I could easily play on the sax. THE END There are so many other tracks I could mention: “I’m In Love Again” with its wonderful interplay between sax and piano, “It Keeps on Raining” (I used to know a girl who bought two copies of that record, in case one wore out!), “Whole Lotta Lovin’”, “Be My Guest” (interesting story about that one: the guy who wrote it, Tommy Boyce, was facing being thrown out of his house by his father, unless he got a job. He wrote this song, pitched it to Domino’s agent and the rest is history), “Wait and See” (listen to the way that bass comes padding through), “Valley of Tears” (our leader, John Day, preferred Holly’s version but I think he was wrong) and one of the neglected gems, “Natural Born Lover” (yes, it’s got strings in but it is a haunting song and very different to most of The Organ for the Swedish his output). Rock'n'Roll Club Over the years Fats has been pushed as a EDITORIAL BOARD: Rock’n’Roller (the LP “Fats Rock and Rollin’”) and Bo Berglind, Thomas Boy, Claes-Håkan Olofsson, as a twister, even! (the LP “Twistin’ the Stomp”) Erik Petersson & Tony Wilkinson but it’s still the same old Fats playing in the same EDITOR & PUBLISHER: old way. His sole concession to fashion, as far as Bo Berglind, Box 185, SE-432 24 Varberg, I know, was when he changed his distinctive “flat- Sweden top” hairstyle to an Afro-Cuban cut, on the advice of some members of his band. Phone: Swedish code + 46 034067 5050 e-mail: [email protected] John Broven’s book on New Orleans music has Internet: www.americanmusicmagazine.com the title of one of Domino’s pop-oriented hits, “Walking to New Orleans” and a photo of the great man on the front. I can’t think of any other New Orleans artist that the author could have 2 or so later at the long gone Music Machine at the Peter Brough unfashionable end of Camden Town where (via the medium of Archie Camden meets Somers Town, otherwise known Andrews) says as Mornington Crescent. The man of attitude in abundance was louder still, destroying one speaker completely. Outside after the gig a girl stood upon the steps maternally cradling her boyfriend’s head whilst he poked his fingers into his ears, no doubt in a vain attempt to make them function. “Not so loud tonight, was he?” I said mockingly to the pair as I passed, leaving them to gaze incredulously at each other as I disappeared into the darkness. Fast forward three decades; 'Tales From The Woods's veteran contributor Shaky Lee Wilkinson and I were at The Garage in the Highbury Corner “HOLD THE THIRD area of old London town. A 73-year-old Link was GAGE!” in town without his luggage (lost by the airline company), in studded black pants and leather jacket - black naturally - he cussed out the airline 'Tales From The Woods' raises a glass and says in language not suitable for your grandmother. He farewell to the legendary Link Wray who died prowled that stage like a caged wild animal whilst upon the 5th November 2005 (although the news kicking out tortured riffs laced with tons of was not released to the press, for reasons feedback. I would not see ‘The Rumble’ man unknown, for around two weeks), aged 76 from again but what an abiding memory. natural causes. A vast collection of Woodies would witness a very Link certainly brought out conflicting opinions frail, sick looking Link unable to walk without the within the Rock'n'Roll fraternity regardless of age. aid of crutches at the 2005 Ponderosa Stomp, For the most part the broadsheets got it all wrong New Orleans, Louisiana. Still angry, still in their otherwise well-intentioned obituaries; I untameable and still too loud. Going to miss you don’t know if he got a mention in the redtops but Link, you were one of my heroes if you ain’t somehow I very much doubt it. Me, I loved him, already guessed. the man was addicted to noise; a seventy plus year guitar hoodlum, irascible and possessing Rock'n'Roll attitude in surplus. The first time I got to see Link Wray was way back in the seventies; the rockabilly revolution had reached its zenith, the gig was at the Dominion, Tottenham Court Road, the darling of the ‘billy crowd, seen as the great hope for the future of rockabilly/Rock'n'Roll, Robert Gordon was in town.

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