Monday 25 April 2011

The Fat Man


I've had a bunch of music post ideas knocking around for a while.. gonna start off with some stuff today by Fats Domino.  He tends to be remembered for tunes like 'Blueberry Hill' and did record a lot of more middle of the road popular R'n'B but some of his 50's tunes were solid rockin' New Orleans rock'n'roll. He was also a massive influence on Jamaican music.. particularly in songs like 'The Big Beat' and 'Sick and Tired'. I was well into old Rock and Roll before I got into punk and the two overlapped for me.. I never bought into any of the punks v Teds rubbish of the late 70's (apart from dodging gangs of teds late at night on my way home from gigs in Camden Town!).. The first records I bought were Fats Domino and Elvis LP's and the first gig I went to was Fats at the Hammersmith Odeon in May '78, (a couple of weeks before I went to see X-Ray Spex and Adam & the Ants at the Roundhouse.. from 'Be My Guest' to 'Beat My Guest'!)).


Fats is still hanging in there in New Orleans, (having survived Hurricane Katrina..) He gave up touring a long time ago and just enjoyed living on the royalties he'd racked up over his 40 years of recording...  great stuff.  Here are a few of my favourites.. all solid mono direct from the 45's.


The Big Beat

 
Sick and Tired


Be My Guest


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