0 thoughts on “Fats Domino at 85”

1. I recently screeded on rediscovering the music my parents listened to when I was a kid. I’d forgotten Fats! "Walking To New Orleans," "Ain’t That A Shame," "My Blue Heaven." I can’t believe I didn’t remember how often I heard his music, although of course I know several of his songs by heart.

   Oddly, now that I think of it, my John Birch dad dug quite a few Black artists. Fats Domino, Fats Waller, The Mills Brothers, Nat King Cole, Ray, Ella, Louie. Not any vaguely political stuff (and he also dug Al Jolson’s blackface numbers). My mom (a fellow Bircher who eventually turned into a flaming liberal) played a lot of early Motown. No "What’s Goin’ On" or "Bitches’ Brew" in our home, to be sure, but still a pretty good mix for people who also had every George Winston album.

   (Actually Ray Charles does slip a political reference into "What’d I Say" — "tell your mother / tell your pa / we’re gonna send you back to Arkansas." That’s assuredly about the national guard and the backasswards governor of Arkansas, but it’s done very subtly so people like my parents who didn’t care for Angry Black music probably missed it.)

   Huge thanks for the heads-up on Fats. I’ll be listening to a library CD of his stuff soon. Probably won’t be getting an Al Jolson CD, though.

   Log in to Reply

2. @JMF – I’ve been having fun with birthday lists. I flipped out when I noted today was Irwin Shaw’s 100th. Of course, the main coverage of this is coming from foreign language papers. Typical.

   Now that you mention it, I should have used "Ain’t That a Shame." I also really like "Kansas City."

   That’s interesting about your Bircher dad. But I don’t think those people think of themselves as racists. Ditto with the Tea Party. They don’t hate blacks. They just want to get the welfare scum (who hang out in dark alleys with unlawful deer). It is just that in their mind, they are black.

   Log in to Reply