PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Fats Domino, Architect Of Rock 'N' Roll, Dead At 89

Finally gonna find his thrill.... one of the old time guys who set up the ground rules!

Fats was the headliner in the lounge at Harrah's Reno in about 1971 and I was in the show group that was second billing to him. He did two primetime shows, we did one. Our other shows were something like 6 PM and 3 in the morning or something. He made 25K per week and paid his guys Nevada scale which was about $285/week at that time. Still good money for a sideman. The room manager told me he was into the casino for big bucks and was working it off. They took his entire check less payroll to his guys and left him $500 walking around money and he was cut off from the tables. In the 70's we all know who was running the casinos.

Musically, I never liked him and seeing him live for weeks I liked him even less but the crowd still loved him.

He wasn't the only one either. We watched Bill Cosby one afternoon sitting at a roped off blackjack table playing all 7 hands for five grand each. That's 35K a hand. In the 70's. The pit boss told me he was down over 200K. I left and don't know where he wound up. Well, we do now don't we?

As yes, Nevada. The shows! The glamor! The parties!

If you survived.

Fats was a legendary entertainer, enjoy his music.

Bob

Vale Mr Domino.

He was certainly an entertainer to many.

I liked Fats Antoine Domino for his New Orleans style. There were better but there were many more worse. But I never had the pleasure of gigging with him or opening for his act.

Re: Casinos

I don't get the gambling thing. I played on Cruise Ships for 3 years and I often gig in one of those Native American Casinos here in Florida.

The first thing a person notices is that this isn't the Casino of early James Bond films. Nobody is having a good time playing. Which makes sense, because almost everybody is losing. By the expressions on their faces, it's like an addiction.

Of course we all know the house always wins. Somebody has to pay for the building, the utilities, the personnel, the stockholders, the management and so on. I guess it's initially the hope that you will be the one out of thousands that come out ahead.

When I worked on the cruise ships we roomed near the casino, salon, and other cruise staff employees and subcontractors. The dealers used to say that the passengers come on board with a certain amount of money to lose, and they will play in the casino for as long as it takes to lose it all.

Me? I did it once, many years ago, for the experience. Had a gig out in Vegas, played the nickel slots (they still used coins back then) and got bored about the time the roll of nickels was gone. Oh they would give me 4 nickles and take away 6 until there was none left.

Full disclosure: When I worked on the cruise ships, we would take a cab to the Condado area of San Juan. The cab driver would give us a voucher for 2 free drinks and for the casino to match $5 if we bought $5 in chips. So we would put our $5 in our pockets, play the house's $5 until we either lost it, or rarely won a bit, cashed ours and any we may have won, then went down to the lounge to drink our two free ones and to hear the great Latino bands, which is the reason we went in the first place.

I like all kinds of music, Salsa is one of those kinds, and the best Salsa music comes from Puerto Rico IMHO followed by Nuyorico, and in third place Miami. Note: I haven't been to Cuba but I'm sure they are right there in a tie with Miami.

Back on topic.

Listening to Fats I hear a lot of classic New Orleans piano chops, but smoother than the norm. Listening to modern NOLA artists like Dr.John I can hear the influences from Fats Domino, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, and the other great NOLA piano pioneers.

And for a man born in the 1920s when we much less about nutrition and medicine, 89 was a good run. R.I.P. Fats.

Insights and incites by Notes

One Beatles member to be particularly influenced by the New Orleans singer was Paul McCartney
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/fats-domino-dead-the-beatles-paul-mccartney-lady-madonna-inspired-elvis-presley-a8019511.html

Bob,

Out here in Oklahoma, the Native Americans blow their government checks and are broke by the 5th of each month. It's really sad to see.

Donny

I used to spend every weekend in Macau. Now 5 x the size of Las Vegas. I've only walked through a couple in all that time. They're used for money laundering, but since the crackdowns on corruption in China, they have had to move towards more family entertainment. No tax in Macau and the government gives its citizens cash handouts...

I used to stay at a more of less empty hotel in the Philippines that had a casino. Every night the big cars would drive up with rich Chinese Filipinos. It made its money from gambling.

I've always hated casinos ever since I saw people on the one armed bandits in Australia. Miserable places. It also helped kill Australian live music. The one armed bandits just make the bars so much money that they are everywhere.

I guess if someone wants to give away his/her money, they have a right to do so.

Everybody knows the house wins. If they don't, they must have been living under a rock.

I don't understand the drive to do it, but there are plenty of things about human nature I don't understand.

I see people smoking cigarettes, and I don't understand that. I see the prices on the windows of convenience stores, and think of the thousands of dollars spent in a year on a habit that has been proven to be detrimental to ones health.

I see people buying houses in flood zones when they know that the floods come every decade or so.

I could go on and on.

And I'm sure I do things that others think are just as stupid.

Like I said, I don't understand human nature.

Notes

I couldn't post when Don Williams, one of my top 5 country singers passed. Fats is not one of my top 100 (he's certainly top 1000) favorite artists, but I admired him immensely.

Fifteen or twenty years ago, my wife and I went to see Fats Domino in San Antonio. We had a great time, thoroughly enjoyed it. Big bonus: the bandleader was Dave Bartholomew, who co-wrote many (most?) of Fats' compositions, as well as, to me, 3 of the greatest rock 'n' roll songs ever.

One of my enduring memories of the concert is how young and very enthusiastic the audience was. Full of teens, twenties, and thirties, mostly Hispanic. I had a rush, thinking I was witnessing the ground floor of something similar to England the year before the British invasion. Alas, no.

A couple of years prior to that concert, while traveling, I bought a 4 CD box set of Fats Domino for $19.95! I was astonished at how under-priced it was, to the point that I asked the manager if the price was correct. (Such sets at the time usually went for $50 to $100.)

Those CD's were a revelation to me, exposing me to many songs, written by Fats, that were simple, different, and clever.

I put great stock in those that can come up with simple little tunes, also catchy and different rhythms. In my opinion, there are very few of these people.

He could and he did.

I like the way he left room for tuneful instrumental breaks (especially sax). I personally think that the simple break melodies were an influence on Brian Wilson (Beach Boys) who did the same thing.

Fats Domino had a remarkable life. Publicly, he seemed happy, and humble. For a man with a 4th grade education to become one of the 10 original inductees of the Rock 'n' Roll hall of fame is quite an accomplishment.

He was much more than "Blueberry Hill" (though I love the piano play on that one)!

(I was astonished that a man who was 300 pounds as a teenager, could live to age 89!)



Many (maybe most) of you here are into augmented 13th's. These are probably way too simplistic for you. But if anyone is curious, here are some songs that I think are really clever,and maybe off the beaten track. They're all pretty short, a couple of minutes, except for "Natural Born Lover", which goes about 4. I tried to pick copies that sound pretty good.

The 3 aforementioned rock classics (IMO):

"Blue Monday" Fats Domino (1955) (written by Dave Bartholomew)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEXaCRLYJzM

"I Hear You Knockin'" Smiley Lewis (1955) (written by Dave Bartholomew)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIeY7J9kjg0

"One Night" Elvis Presley (1958) (written by Dave Bartholomew, originally "One Night Of Sin", (1952) by Smiley Lewis; Elvis sanitized the lyrics, then made an absolutely filthy record that blows away the original)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o74j7t1tKs


Interesting tracks by Fats (all written or co-written by Fats)

"I'm Ready" Fats Domino (1959) This one cooks; note that the 2nd tune is better than the 1st!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2eZZBMt1CQ

"My Girl Josephine" Fats Domino (1960)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LztbPQb_P9w

"It Keeps Raining" Fats Domino (1961)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORqyWzyxNSs

"Be My Guest" Fats Domino (`1959) (an origin of Ska (Jamaica) music!; horns get the best tune!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff5IYXby3Z4

"Natural Born Lover" Fats Domino (1960) (fantastic piano play!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zO4Obt4SOs



Covers I love!: (all songs written or co-written by Fats)

"I'm In Love Again" Ricky Nelson (1958) (James Burton on guitar!!!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaqtFrJ9M_8

"Please Don't Leave Me" Fontane Sisters (1956) (arranged by Billy Vaughn; Fat's wife called this the "woo-woo" song. Fat's reply, "I couldn't think of any words." IMO he didn't need any!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm3M9cylneU

"I Can't Go On (Rosalie)" Dion and the Belmonts (1958) (Love this doowop!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKZUPE-7BT4

"Bo Weevil" Teresa Brewer (1956) (ignore horrid ending)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBrI6zPyH2g

"Let The Four Winds Blow" Brenda Lee (1961) (16 year old Brenda, sax)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6HcGu_PKR0


Not written by Fats, but it's his version / arrangement:

"When My Dreamboat Comes Home" Brenda Lee (1960) (15 year old Brenda, sax)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e53t9KfkYI8


edit: fixed incorrect link for "One Night"

R.I.P. Fats Domino

I might be showing my age here - but growing up, he was one of my grandfather's favourites that he always had playing in the house. When I hear "Ain't That A Shame" and "My Girl Josephine", I always feel a little bit of nostalgia

I loved Fat's concert with Ricky Nelson on YouTube. They do a few songs together and Ricky is backed by Fat's band. The saxes are absolutely awesome.

Donny

Try this link:

https://youtu.be/Yk0Lt_7RANU

I got a tip from Ricky Nelson years ago at The Sawdust Festival in Laguna, while we were busking. It was cool.


Regards,


Bob