WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.799 So if you were to walk into a room full of music 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:06.379 historians today. Right. And just ask them to 00:00:06.379 --> 00:00:08.500 name the true king of rock and roll. Oh, you 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:10.339 would immediately start a fight. You really would. 00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:14.279 A massive fight. Because most people, naturally, 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:15.939 are going to say Elvis Presley. I mean, he is 00:00:15.939 --> 00:00:18.739 the brand. He is the image, the absolute icon. 00:00:18.960 --> 00:00:23.219 Exactly. But if you could travel back in time 00:00:23.219 --> 00:00:28.160 to, say, 1969 to this. specific press conference 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:31.820 in Las Vegas. And if you asked Elvis himself 00:00:31.820 --> 00:00:34.280 that exact same question, you would actually 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:36.700 get a very different answer. It's really one 00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:39.539 of the most telling moments in all of music history. 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:41.840 A reporter at that press conference actually 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.420 called Elvis the king right to his face. Which 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:46.320 you'd expect him to just accept, right? Right. 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:48.359 But Elvis didn't just accept the compliment. 00:00:48.500 --> 00:00:51.200 He actually stopped the proceedings. He pointed 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:53.719 to the back of the room where this short, kind 00:00:53.719 --> 00:00:56.399 of heavy set, very unassuming man was standing 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:59.840 quietly. And Elvis said, no, that's the real 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:02.250 king of rock and roll. and the man he was pointing 00:01:02.250 --> 00:01:05.469 to was Antoine Domino Jr., better known to the 00:01:05.469 --> 00:01:08.930 world as Fats Domino. Fats Domino. And I feel 00:01:08.930 --> 00:01:12.709 like that single moment perfectly encapsulates 00:01:12.709 --> 00:01:17.430 this strange paradox of Fats Domino. He is arguably 00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:20.609 the most successful, most influential, and yet 00:01:20.609 --> 00:01:23.750 somehow the most unassuming figure in the entire 00:01:23.750 --> 00:01:26.620 history of American music. It really is a paradox. 00:01:26.780 --> 00:01:28.819 I mean, we associate rock and roll with rebellion. 00:01:29.079 --> 00:01:31.760 Oh, absolutely. Smash guitars, trashed hotel 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:35.000 rooms, dangerous sexuality. We think of Jerry 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.540 Lee Lewis literally setting his piano on fire 00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:40.019 or little Richard screaming on top of the speaker. 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:42.840 Yeah, total chaos. But the man who arguably built 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:45.099 the architecture for all of that. The man who 00:01:45.099 --> 00:01:48.040 sold more records than literally any other 1950s 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:51.000 rocker except for Elvis was this shy homebody. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:53.540 The guy who preferred cooking in his room. Exactly. 00:01:53.659 --> 00:01:56.079 Cooking spicy beans on a hot plate in his hotel 00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:58.739 room rather than partying with groupies. So what 00:01:58.739 --> 00:02:00.659 we're going to do today in this deep dive is 00:02:00.659 --> 00:02:02.959 spend the time trying to really square that circle. 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:05.879 Because when you look at the source material 00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:08.379 we've gathered, the biographical records, the 00:02:08.379 --> 00:02:10.719 discography analysis, the historical accounts 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:13.159 of his life, the numbers associated with Fats 00:02:13.159 --> 00:02:16.080 Domino are just staggering. They really are. 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:18.819 We are not talking about some niche underground 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:21.500 artist here. We are looking at sales estimates 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:25.159 ranging from 65 million all the way up to 110 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:28.580 million records. Which just for context is absolutely 00:02:28.580 --> 00:02:32.000 astronomical for the mid 1950s. The record buying 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.520 market just wasn't what it became later in the 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:36.539 80s or 90s. Right the infrastructure wasn't there. 00:02:36.580 --> 00:02:40.000 It wasn't. To move 65 million units in the era 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.939 of 45 rpm singles is a level of dumb that is 00:02:43.939 --> 00:02:47.659 almost unfathomable today. I mean, between 1955 00:02:47.659 --> 00:02:52.520 and 1960 alone, he had 11 top 10 US pop hits. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.219 11. He was an absolute machine. The hit factory. 00:02:56.379 --> 00:02:58.840 But our mission today is not just to sit here 00:02:58.840 --> 00:03:00.500 and list his chart positions. We want to understand 00:03:00.500 --> 00:03:03.340 the entire arc. How a kid from the Lower 9th 00:03:03.340 --> 00:03:05.360 Ward in New Orleans, who spoke Creole before 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:07.960 even spoke English, managed to essentially invent 00:03:07.960 --> 00:03:11.159 a genre. and bridge the racial divide of a deeply 00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:13.580 segregated America while doing it. Exactly. And 00:03:13.580 --> 00:03:15.879 influence everyone, from the Beatles to the creators 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:18.479 of Jamaican ska music. And then, on top of all 00:03:18.479 --> 00:03:20.819 that, literally survive the devastation of Hurricane 00:03:20.819 --> 00:03:23.719 Katrina in his 70s. Right. And I think that word 00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:26.120 survival is really the through line for this 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:28.439 whole deep dive. Because if you listen to Fats 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:31.129 Domino's music, it sounds happy. It's joyous. 00:03:31.349 --> 00:03:34.330 It's incredibly uplifting music. But his actual 00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:37.550 life was fundamentally about surviving, surviving 00:03:37.550 --> 00:03:41.310 grinding poverty, surviving the notoriously cutthroat 00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:44.469 mid -century music business, surviving actual 00:03:44.469 --> 00:03:47.590 racial violence at his own concerts, and eventually 00:03:47.590 --> 00:03:50.270 surviving the literal flood waters of history. 00:03:50.479 --> 00:03:53.060 So to really understand how he did all of that, 00:03:53.300 --> 00:03:55.939 we have to start where the sound itself starts. 00:03:56.340 --> 00:03:58.280 You really can't understand what became known 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:00.860 as the big beat, that rolling rhythm that changed 00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:03.060 the world without understanding the specific 00:04:03.060 --> 00:04:05.740 soil it grew out of. We need to go to New Orleans. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.000 Specifically, the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:11.560 in the late 1920s. Yeah. Let's set that scene 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:14.000 for the listener because the location is everything 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:16.300 here, isn't it? It is entirely foundational. 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:18.399 The Lower Ninth Ward isn't just a neighborhood. 00:04:18.540 --> 00:04:20.600 At that time, it was almost a separate ecosystem 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:23.120 within New Orleans. It's geographically downriver. 00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:25.819 Historically, it was very isolated. It was working 00:04:25.819 --> 00:04:28.800 class and honestly semi -rural in parts. So when 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:31.300 Antoine Domino Jr. is born there in Figuary of 00:04:31.300 --> 00:04:34.699 1928, he is not being born into that glamorous 00:04:34.699 --> 00:04:37.120 jazz age French quarter scene that we always 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:39.199 see in the movies. Not at all. He was born at 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:41.240 home. And he was actually delivered by his own 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:43.899 grandmother, who is a local midwife. Wow. And 00:04:43.899 --> 00:04:46.199 the cultural makeup of that household is a crucial 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:48.720 detail from the historical records. We often 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:51.240 think of New Orleans as this general blended 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:54.120 gumbo of cultures, but the Domino family was 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:57.100 specifically French Creole. Right, which carries 00:04:57.100 --> 00:04:59.720 very specific linguistic and cultural traits. 00:05:00.019 --> 00:05:02.899 Exactly. That distinction matters immensely for 00:05:02.899 --> 00:05:05.579 his musical development. His first language wasn't 00:05:05.579 --> 00:05:07.970 English. It was Louisiana Creole. He grew up 00:05:07.970 --> 00:05:10.250 in a house where French was the primary mode 00:05:10.250 --> 00:05:12.529 of everyday communication. And how does that 00:05:12.529 --> 00:05:14.730 language background translate into his music? 00:05:15.009 --> 00:05:17.410 Well, think about the rhythm of language. The 00:05:17.410 --> 00:05:19.449 cadence of Louisiana Creole, which creates this 00:05:19.449 --> 00:05:21.649 incredible phonetic bridge between French and 00:05:21.649 --> 00:05:24.949 African linguistic structures, that cadence is 00:05:24.949 --> 00:05:26.949 arguably the very first music he ever heard. 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:29.920 It sets up a totally different way of hearing 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:32.300 the world, rhythmically speaking, than a kid 00:05:32.300 --> 00:05:34.600 growing up in Memphis or Chicago. That makes 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.019 so much sense. Now, his father, Antoine Callis 00:05:37.019 --> 00:05:40.279 Domino, was a part -time violin player who worked 00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:42.399 at a local racetrack, so there clearly was music 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:45.240 in the bloodline. But from the source material, 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:47.639 it sounds like music wasn't the center of his 00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:50.100 childhood initially. It was mostly about labor. 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:54.100 It was a very hard, very practical life. He attended 00:05:54.100 --> 00:05:56.560 the Louis B. McCarty School for a bit. but he 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:59.459 didn't stay long. Like a lot of kids in his neighborhood 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:01.600 during the Depression era, he dropped out early 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.079 to help support the family. And his job was delivering 00:06:04.079 --> 00:06:07.040 ice, right? Yes. He worked as a helper to an 00:06:07.040 --> 00:06:10.079 ice delivery man. Now, I want you to really picture 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:13.100 what that job entails in the 1930s and early 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:15.740 40s in the Deep South. Right. This is long before 00:06:15.740 --> 00:06:17.839 modern refrigeration is in every home. Exactly. 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:21.379 People had ice boxes. So you are hauling massive, 00:06:21.620 --> 00:06:25.199 heavy blocks of solid ice with these giant iron 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:28.579 tongs all day in the sweltering New Orleans heat. 00:06:28.740 --> 00:06:31.639 It's brutal, grinding physical labor. It is. 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:33.779 But if you look at it from a pianist's perspective, 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:36.420 it is also a massive workout. You are developing 00:06:36.420 --> 00:06:38.920 incredible forearm strength and grip strength. 00:06:38.980 --> 00:06:41.180 Oh, that's a great point. When we talk later 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:45.019 about his... specific piano style, that relentless 00:06:45.019 --> 00:06:48.360 hammering rolling power he had. A lot of music 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:51.199 historians believe that physical endurance directly 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:53.879 stems from those formative years hauling ice 00:06:53.879 --> 00:06:56.939 blocks. He had incredibly strong heavy hands. 00:06:57.100 --> 00:06:58.920 So the start for the music didn't actually come 00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:02.259 from formal lessons at a conservatory. It came, 00:07:02.459 --> 00:07:04.759 as it often does in these blues and jazz origin 00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:07.949 stories, from a relative. Right. Around 1938, 00:07:08.189 --> 00:07:10.410 when Antoine is about 10 years old, this old 00:07:10.410 --> 00:07:13.050 upright piano comes into the house and his brother 00:07:13.050 --> 00:07:15.629 -in -law, a man named Harrison Verrett, steps 00:07:15.629 --> 00:07:17.810 into the picture. And from everything I read... 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:20.199 Harrison Verrett seems like the unsung hero of 00:07:20.199 --> 00:07:22.819 this entire story. He really is. Verrett was 00:07:22.819 --> 00:07:25.699 a jazz guitarist. He was a working, gigging musician 00:07:25.699 --> 00:07:28.279 who intimately knew the local New Orleans club 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:30.959 scene. And the fact that a guitarist, not a classical 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:33.600 pianist, taught Fats how to play is profoundly 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:35.639 significant. Why is that? What's the difference 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:37.319 in the teaching approach? Well, a traditional 00:07:37.319 --> 00:07:39.199 piano teacher back then might have sat him down 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:41.620 and taught him formal scale, sheet music theory, 00:07:42.139 --> 00:07:45.079 proper upright posture. Very rigid. Right. But 00:07:45.079 --> 00:07:48.839 a guitarist? A working rhythm guitarist teaches 00:07:48.839 --> 00:07:51.220 you rhythm. They teach you how to lock into a 00:07:51.220 --> 00:07:54.360 groove with a band. It's a much more percussive, 00:07:54.699 --> 00:07:57.120 functional approach to the instrument. Exactly. 00:07:57.720 --> 00:07:59.920 Verrett showed him the basic chords, showed him 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:02.579 the underlying structure of the blues, but he 00:08:02.579 --> 00:08:05.459 strongly encouraged him to play by ear and to 00:08:05.459 --> 00:08:09.160 physically feel the music. It was a purely practical 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:11.860 street level education. And Antoine just took 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:14.160 to it with absolute obsession. The accounts say 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:16.959 he wasn't just practicing. He was devouring the 00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:18.860 instrument. He was completely absorbed. And by 00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:20.899 the time he was just 14 years old, he wasn't 00:08:20.899 --> 00:08:22.519 just entertaining his family in the living room 00:08:22.519 --> 00:08:25.160 anymore. He was out playing in actual bars and 00:08:25.160 --> 00:08:27.860 honky tonks in New Orleans. 14 years old, that 00:08:27.860 --> 00:08:29.860 has to be a pretty rough environment for a young 00:08:29.860 --> 00:08:32.940 kid. Oh, it was. The smoke, the alcohol, the 00:08:32.940 --> 00:08:35.299 late nights, the rowdy crowds. But it's also 00:08:35.299 --> 00:08:37.000 an incredible training ground. Yeah. It's the 00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:39.419 University of the Honky Tonk. You learn things 00:08:39.419 --> 00:08:41.460 on those stages you absolutely cannot learn in 00:08:41.460 --> 00:08:44.340 a classroom. You learn how to keep a drunk, restless 00:08:44.340 --> 00:08:47.279 crowd entertained and dancing. You learn very 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:49.980 quickly that if you stop playing, or if the rhythm 00:08:49.980 --> 00:08:52.799 drops, the energy in the room dies. So you have 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:54.919 to keep the momentum going no matter what. Exactly. 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:58.000 So he develops this continuous, highly rhythmic, 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:00.940 hypnotic style of playing. He basically learns 00:09:00.940 --> 00:09:03.779 to be a human jukebox. And this is exactly where 00:09:03.779 --> 00:09:07.059 the fat's persona really begins to form. He wasn't 00:09:07.059 --> 00:09:09.470 a front man. or a singer yet, right? He was strictly 00:09:09.470 --> 00:09:13.309 a sideman, a utility player. Right. But in 1947, 00:09:13.710 --> 00:09:16.309 a local bandleader named Billy Diamond starts 00:09:16.309 --> 00:09:18.690 hearing rumors about this kid. And the story 00:09:18.690 --> 00:09:21.509 goes that Diamond was actually invited to a backyard 00:09:21.509 --> 00:09:24.190 barbecue specifically so he could hear young 00:09:24.190 --> 00:09:26.470 Antoine play the piano. Which is just the most 00:09:26.470 --> 00:09:28.889 quintessential New Orleans way to be discovered. 00:09:29.289 --> 00:09:31.269 It's not a polished demo tape. It's not a formal 00:09:31.269 --> 00:09:33.610 industry showcase. It's a backyard barbecue. 00:09:33.809 --> 00:09:36.009 It really is perfect. So Billy Diamond hears 00:09:36.009 --> 00:09:38.159 him play and He immediately realizes this kid 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:40.940 is an absolute rhythm machine. He hires him on 00:09:40.940 --> 00:09:42.840 the spot to play with his band at the hideaway 00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:46.399 club. And the pay for this life -changing gig? 00:09:46.659 --> 00:09:49.399 Three dollars a week. Three dollars? I mean, 00:09:49.539 --> 00:09:51.340 even adjusting for inflation, that is barely 00:09:51.340 --> 00:09:54.080 anything. It was tiny, but for Antoine, it wasn't 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:55.980 about the money yet. It was about getting regular 00:09:55.980 --> 00:09:58.960 stage time. And Billy Diamond is actually the 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:00.980 one who looked at this young, slightly overweight, 00:10:01.220 --> 00:10:03.639 very jovial kid and said, we're going to call 00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:06.220 you Fats. It was a nickname that kind of linked 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:09.559 him to other piano greats, right? Like Fats Waller, 00:10:09.620 --> 00:10:12.259 who was hugely famous at the time. It was definitely 00:10:12.259 --> 00:10:16.220 a nod to Fats Waller, but it also just fit Antoine's 00:10:16.220 --> 00:10:19.379 demeanor perfectly. Fats sounds friendly. It 00:10:19.379 --> 00:10:21.879 sounds disarming. It sounds like a guy you just 00:10:21.879 --> 00:10:24.000 want to hang out and have a drink with. It took 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.220 the edge off the intense music he was playing. 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:28.600 him approachable. Very approachable. And that 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:31.519 name stuck forever. But the real transformation, 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:33.980 the leap from being a great local piano player 00:10:33.980 --> 00:10:36.419 to a national recording artist, happens a couple 00:10:36.419 --> 00:10:39.559 of years later in 1949. And this involves a man 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:42.100 named Lou Chud and a brand new independent label 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:45.500 called Imperial Records. Now, this relationship 00:10:45.500 --> 00:10:48.440 with Imperial Records is fascinating to me because 00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:51.600 usually when we discuss early rock and roll contracts 00:10:51.600 --> 00:10:54.019 and these deep dives, it's a complete horror 00:10:54.019 --> 00:10:57.809 story. Oh, absolutely. was rampant. Right. We 00:10:57.809 --> 00:10:59.669 expect to hear that he signed away his life, 00:11:00.110 --> 00:11:02.450 his publishing, and his soul for a cheap Cadillac 00:11:02.450 --> 00:11:04.990 and a handshake. But the source material shows 00:11:04.990 --> 00:11:07.629 that is not what happened here at all. No. And 00:11:07.629 --> 00:11:09.710 this is a critical distinction that separates 00:11:09.710 --> 00:11:12.909 Fatt's dominoes trajectory from so many of his 00:11:12.909 --> 00:11:16.049 peers, particularly black artists of that specific 00:11:16.049 --> 00:11:18.779 era. So how did the deal work? Well, Luchud was 00:11:18.779 --> 00:11:21.059 starting this new label in Los Angeles. He was 00:11:21.059 --> 00:11:23.919 hungry for regional talent. He signed F .A .T 00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:26.320 .S., but the contract they drew up stipulated 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:28.480 that F .A .T .S. would be paid royalties based 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:31.340 on actual record sales, not just a flat session 00:11:31.340 --> 00:11:33.620 fee. Let's really explain why that matters so 00:11:33.620 --> 00:11:36.299 much. Because to a modern listener, getting royalties 00:11:36.299 --> 00:11:38.419 just sounds like standard industry practice. 00:11:38.679 --> 00:11:42.419 Today it is, sure. But in 1949, for a regional 00:11:42.419 --> 00:11:46.259 R &B artist, it was exceptionally rare. The absolute 00:11:46.259 --> 00:11:48.500 standard practice back then was called The Buyout. 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:51.419 Where they just pay you once? Exactly. A label 00:11:51.419 --> 00:11:54.000 would give a musician maybe 50 or 100 bucks, 00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:56.159 have them record four songs in an afternoon, 00:11:56.279 --> 00:11:58.879 and say, thank you very much, goodbye. And if 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:01.159 that record went on to sell a million copies, 00:12:01.700 --> 00:12:04.399 the label kept every single penny of the profit. 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:06.879 The artist got nothing more than that initial 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:09.259 50 bucks. Which happened to so many legends. 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:11.519 It happened to Little Richard. It happened to 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:14.379 countless bluesmen. But by securing a royalty 00:12:14.379 --> 00:12:17.620 deal, Fats ensured that his commercial success 00:12:17.620 --> 00:12:19.899 would actually translate directly into personal 00:12:19.899 --> 00:12:22.440 wealth. It meant he was a stakeholder in his 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:24.940 own career, not just day labor for the studio. 00:12:25.340 --> 00:12:27.799 And that partnership bore fruit almost immediately. 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:30.480 The very first recording session they did in 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:33.480 December 1949 produced a song called The Fat 00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:36.940 Man. The Fat Man. Now, this track is highly significant. 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:39.820 It is a major contender in music history for 00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:42.279 the title of first rock and roll record. Right, 00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:44.320 because historians fight about this constantly. 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:47.659 Some say it's Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston. Some 00:12:47.659 --> 00:12:50.279 say it's Elvis with That's Alright. But The Fat 00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:53.379 Man has a very, very strong claim to that title. 00:12:53.720 --> 00:12:56.919 It predates both of those. And it was a collaboration 00:12:56.919 --> 00:12:58.960 with Dave Bartholomew. We really need to talk 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:01.539 about him. Yes, the Domino Bartholomew partnership. 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:04.720 If Fats Domino was the raw talent and the voice, 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:07.159 Dave Bartholomew was the architect. He was a 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:09.840 brilliant trumpeter, a bandleader, a songwriter, 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:13.000 and a producer. They were the Lennon and McCartney 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:15.899 of New Orleans R &B. So how did the Fat Man come 00:13:15.899 --> 00:13:17.879 together? They actually took a traditional blues 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:22.120 song called Junker Blues. Now Junker... in this 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:25.559 specific local context meant a junkie, a drug 00:13:25.559 --> 00:13:29.080 addict. It was a very dark, slow, gritty, blues 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:31.519 song about heroin addiction and going to prison. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:34.080 Which is definitely not radio -friendly pop material 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:36.100 for 1949. Not at all. You couldn't play that 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:38.919 on mainstream radio. So, Dave and Fats took the 00:13:38.919 --> 00:13:41.440 basic melody and the chord structure, completely 00:13:41.440 --> 00:13:43.419 cleaned up the lyrics to make it a boastful, 00:13:43.539 --> 00:13:46.139 fun song about a fat man who loves the girls 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:48.720 and having a good time, and they significantly 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:51.289 sped up the tempo. But reading the musical analysis, 00:13:51.610 --> 00:13:53.970 the real magic isn't just the tempo change. It's 00:13:53.970 --> 00:13:57.649 the execution. It's entirely the execution. Fats 00:13:57.649 --> 00:14:01.070 plays this aggressive rolling piano. And then 00:14:01.070 --> 00:14:03.289 he does this incredibly unique vocal trick on 00:14:03.289 --> 00:14:06.529 the track. He starts singing wah, wah, wah, basically 00:14:06.529 --> 00:14:09.210 imitating the sound of a muted trumpet with his 00:14:09.210 --> 00:14:11.750 voice. Now, why do that? Why imitate a trumpet 00:14:11.750 --> 00:14:14.870 when your producer, Dave Bartholomew, literally 00:14:14.870 --> 00:14:16.950 plays the trumpet? Why not just have Dave play 00:14:16.950 --> 00:14:19.090 a solo? That's the genius of it. It was about 00:14:19.090 --> 00:14:22.330 texture and vibe. It was playful. It added this 00:14:22.330 --> 00:14:25.970 highly stylized human percussive element to the 00:14:25.970 --> 00:14:28.250 melody that a brass instrument wouldn't have 00:14:28.250 --> 00:14:30.610 captured in the same way. But more importantly, 00:14:31.070 --> 00:14:33.169 Listen to the rhythm section on that recording. 00:14:33.490 --> 00:14:35.830 Listen to the back beat. That heavy accent on 00:14:35.830 --> 00:14:38.289 the two and the four. Exactly. That accent is 00:14:38.289 --> 00:14:40.649 the sound of rock and roll being born. It is 00:14:40.649 --> 00:14:42.850 distinctly different from the swing jazz or the 00:14:42.850 --> 00:14:44.549 big band sounds that came right before. It's 00:14:44.549 --> 00:14:47.470 much harder. It's simpler. It aggressively drives 00:14:47.470 --> 00:14:49.610 forward. And the public completely understood 00:14:49.610 --> 00:14:52.950 it. The record sold a million copies by 1951. 00:14:53.080 --> 00:14:55.600 Which was practically unheard of for a debut 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:58.700 R &B single by an unknown regional artist. But 00:14:58.700 --> 00:15:01.200 here's the fascinating thing about Fats Domino's 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:03.620 mindset. He never thought he was inventing a 00:15:03.620 --> 00:15:05.799 new genre. Right, he didn't see himself as a 00:15:05.799 --> 00:15:09.259 pioneer of rock. No. To him, this was just what 00:15:09.259 --> 00:15:12.000 they played in the clubs in New Orleans. He famously 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:14.559 said years later, rock and roll is nothing but 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:17.740 rhythm and blues. He didn't see the dividing 00:15:17.740 --> 00:15:19.879 line that the record executives and the marketers 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:22.179 eventually created to sell the music to white 00:15:22.179 --> 00:15:25.759 teenagers. That initial massive success really 00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:28.419 kicks off what the historical sources call the 00:15:28.419 --> 00:15:31.519 imperial years. Because this definitely wasn't 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:34.419 a one -hit wonder situation. Fats and Dave Bartholomew 00:15:34.419 --> 00:15:37.039 basically built a hit factory. It was a machine 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.399 in the truest sense of the word. They assembled 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:42.200 this core group of elite studio musicians, guys 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:44.659 like Herbert Hardesty on tenor sax, Lee Allen 00:15:44.659 --> 00:15:47.899 on sax, the legendary Earl Palmer on drums. These 00:15:47.899 --> 00:15:49.860 guys played on almost everything Imperial put 00:15:49.860 --> 00:15:51.580 out. They must have had incredible chemistry. 00:15:51.740 --> 00:15:54.220 They developed almost telepathic musical communication. 00:15:54.519 --> 00:15:56.679 And at the absolute center of all of it was that 00:15:56.679 --> 00:15:59.320 defining New Orleans sound. We keep using that 00:15:59.320 --> 00:16:01.320 phrase, the New Orleans sound or the big beat. 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:03.759 I'd love to get just a little bit technical for 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:06.440 a minute here. What specifically are we hearing? 00:16:06.990 --> 00:16:10.309 If you put on a classic Fats Domino record, what 00:16:10.309 --> 00:16:12.269 is the musical fingerprint that identifies it? 00:16:12.470 --> 00:16:14.629 It all comes down to one fundamental element. 00:16:15.990 --> 00:16:19.509 The piano triplet. This is the absolute DNA of 00:16:19.509 --> 00:16:22.309 his style and of New Orleans rock. Okay, bring 00:16:22.309 --> 00:16:24.549 that down for us. So in traditional 44 -time, 00:16:24.610 --> 00:16:27.789 which most pop music uses, you count the beats. 00:16:28.129 --> 00:16:31.710 One, two, three, four. And a lot of the boogie 00:16:31.710 --> 00:16:35.169 -woogie or swing music that predated Fats, the 00:16:35.169 --> 00:16:37.500 rhythm is what we call dotted. It has a bounce 00:16:37.500 --> 00:16:39.779 or a lilt to it. Kind of a swing and feel. Right. 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:41.879 But Fats did something structurally different. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:44.220 He filled the empty space between those main 00:16:44.220 --> 00:16:46.159 beats with triplets. So instead of a straight 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:48.779 one, two, it's more like triplet, triplet. Precisely. 00:16:48.899 --> 00:16:50.559 You count it as one and a C and a three and a 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:53.759 four and a. His right hand is furiously hammering 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:56.100 these full chords three times for every single 00:16:56.100 --> 00:16:58.350 beat. That sounds exhausting to play. Remember 00:16:58.350 --> 00:17:00.370 those giant blocks of ice? That's where the stamina 00:17:00.370 --> 00:17:02.970 comes from. Playing those right hand triplets 00:17:02.970 --> 00:17:06.109 creates this massive wall of sound. It's thick, 00:17:06.349 --> 00:17:08.470 it's rolling, it feels like a heavy wheel that 00:17:08.470 --> 00:17:10.569 just never stops turning. And what's the left 00:17:10.569 --> 00:17:12.390 hand doing while the right hand is running a 00:17:12.390 --> 00:17:15.259 marathon? The left hand is locking in perfectly 00:17:15.259 --> 00:17:18.039 with Earl Palmer's kick drum to hit that heavy 00:17:18.039 --> 00:17:21.680 backbeat. So you have this incredibly solid heavy 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:25.160 anchor on the bottom and this rapid rolling hypnotic 00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:27.819 motion on top. It physically makes you want to 00:17:27.819 --> 00:17:30.160 move. You simply cannot sit still when you hear 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.420 it played right. And he wasn't just using this 00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:34.920 signature style for his own solo records? Yeah. 00:17:35.049 --> 00:17:37.470 I was genuinely surprised to learn from the sources 00:17:37.470 --> 00:17:40.069 that he was secretly the driving force behind 00:17:40.069 --> 00:17:43.109 other massive hits as a session player. Oh, yes. 00:17:43.589 --> 00:17:45.890 Before he was a massive household name pop star, 00:17:45.950 --> 00:17:48.769 he was the absolute go -to piano guy in New Orleans. 00:17:49.170 --> 00:17:51.950 For example, in 1952, a young artist named Lloyd 00:17:51.950 --> 00:17:54.849 Price recorded a song called Lottie Miss Clottie, 00:17:55.069 --> 00:17:58.079 which is a hugely seminal R &B track. massive 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:01.880 track, and the iconic piano intro on that record, 00:18:02.220 --> 00:18:05.180 that is Fats Domino Pling. He was only paid union 00:18:05.180 --> 00:18:07.859 scale for that session just as a sideman, but 00:18:07.859 --> 00:18:10.539 his sound completely defined the entire record. 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:12.980 So he was kind of spreading that triplet virus 00:18:12.980 --> 00:18:14.980 throughout the whole music industry before the 00:18:14.980 --> 00:18:17.519 general public even really knew his face. Exactly. 00:18:17.829 --> 00:18:20.950 But the true crossover, the exact moment he stops 00:18:20.950 --> 00:18:24.509 being just a regional R &B star and becomes an 00:18:24.509 --> 00:18:27.690 undeniable American pop icon, happens in 1955 00:18:27.690 --> 00:18:30.269 with the release of Ain't That a Shame. Right. 00:18:30.430 --> 00:18:32.690 This is the big watershed moment. It really is. 00:18:33.150 --> 00:18:35.130 And to understand why it was such a big deal, 00:18:35.309 --> 00:18:37.150 we have to look at how the music industry tracked 00:18:37.150 --> 00:18:40.990 success back then. In 1955, Billboard magazine 00:18:40.990 --> 00:18:43.650 maintained strictly separated charts. Segregated 00:18:43.650 --> 00:18:46.210 charts. Functionally, yes. The pop chart was 00:18:46.210 --> 00:18:48.250 for white artists playing to white audiences. 00:18:48.750 --> 00:18:50.750 The R &B chart, which used to be called the Race 00:18:50.750 --> 00:18:52.730 Records chart, was for black artists. They were 00:18:52.730 --> 00:18:55.150 essentially two completely segregated commercial 00:18:55.150 --> 00:18:57.650 worlds. So for a black artist from the R &B chart 00:18:57.650 --> 00:19:00.730 to cross over into the pop top 10 was a monumental 00:19:00.730 --> 00:19:03.480 hurdle. Incredibly difficult. It meant that white 00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:06.039 teenagers were actively going to record stores 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:08.539 and buying the physical record, despite the fact 00:19:08.539 --> 00:19:11.259 that mainstream white -owned radio stations often 00:19:11.259 --> 00:19:14.519 refused to play it. And ain't that a shame? Broke 00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:16.720 completely through that wall. It hit the top 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:19.259 10 on the pop charts. But this success brings 00:19:19.259 --> 00:19:23.579 us to the Pat Boone problem. Ah, yes. This is 00:19:23.579 --> 00:19:25.799 a story that gets told in pretty much every rock 00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:28.920 history class. It is the absolute textbook example 00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:32.319 of industry sanitization. Pat Boone was this 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:36.019 very popular white, clean -cut, sweater -wearing 00:19:36.019 --> 00:19:39.640 crooner. His record label saw Fats Dominoes, 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.559 ain't that a shame, rapidly climbing the R &B 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:44.579 charts and crossing over. And they wanted a piece 00:19:44.579 --> 00:19:46.769 of that money. Of course. But they thought, well, 00:19:46.869 --> 00:19:48.970 that's a really catchy song, but the singer is 00:19:48.970 --> 00:19:51.950 too rough, too urban for our mainstream white 00:19:51.950 --> 00:19:54.930 radio affiliates. So they literally had Pat Boone 00:19:54.930 --> 00:19:57.650 record a note -for -note cover version to release 00:19:57.650 --> 00:19:59.410 to the white market. And let's be honest here. 00:19:59.490 --> 00:20:02.289 The Pat Boone version is, well, it's very different. 00:20:02.440 --> 00:20:05.759 It's extremely polite, it completely lacks the 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:08.759 swing, the grit, the soul of the original. Pat 00:20:08.759 --> 00:20:11.259 Boone even wanted to change the title to, isn't 00:20:11.259 --> 00:20:14.039 that a shame, to be grammatically correct. But 00:20:14.039 --> 00:20:16.599 the producer stopped him. Oh wow. I didn't know 00:20:16.599 --> 00:20:19.460 that. Yeah. But because of the deeply entrenched 00:20:19.460 --> 00:20:21.940 racial segregation of the radio industry at the 00:20:21.940 --> 00:20:25.059 time, Pat Boone's sanitized version received 00:20:25.059 --> 00:20:27.660 massive airplay and actually went to number one 00:20:27.660 --> 00:20:30.799 on the pop chart. Now that has to be infuriating. 00:20:30.980 --> 00:20:33.299 You write this brilliant song, you create this 00:20:33.299 --> 00:20:35.859 entirely new sound, and the guy who just copies 00:20:35.859 --> 00:20:39.069 it gets the number one slot. the mainstream glory. 00:20:39.390 --> 00:20:41.430 You would certainly think so and for many of 00:20:41.430 --> 00:20:43.869 Fats contemporaries, like Little Richard, this 00:20:43.869 --> 00:20:46.369 practice of white artists covering their songs 00:20:46.369 --> 00:20:49.089 was a source of massive lifelong resentment. 00:20:49.950 --> 00:20:52.069 But Fats Domino had a very different perspective 00:20:52.069 --> 00:20:53.829 on the whole situation. Remember that royalty 00:20:53.829 --> 00:20:55.829 deal we talked about? Right, the songwriting 00:20:55.829 --> 00:20:58.910 royalty. Exactly. Fats was the credited songwriter 00:20:58.910 --> 00:21:01.529 on Ain't That a Shame, so every single time Pat 00:21:01.529 --> 00:21:03.890 Boone sold a record, Fats Domino got a check 00:21:03.890 --> 00:21:06.289 in the mail. Oh, that changes everything. Because 00:21:06.289 --> 00:21:09.029 Pat Boone sold millions of copies to that huge 00:21:09.029 --> 00:21:12.470 mainstream audience, Fats made an absolute fortune 00:21:12.470 --> 00:21:14.710 off a record he didn't even sing on. There's 00:21:14.710 --> 00:21:16.730 actually a famous anecdote in the source material 00:21:16.730 --> 00:21:19.069 about this, right? About a concert. Yes, it's 00:21:19.069 --> 00:21:21.829 a legendary story. Fats was performing on stage 00:21:21.829 --> 00:21:24.109 one night, and he noticed Pat Boone was actually 00:21:24.109 --> 00:21:26.710 in the audience. So Fats calls him out, introduces 00:21:26.710 --> 00:21:29.349 him to the crowd, and then Fats holds up his 00:21:29.349 --> 00:21:32.529 hand, points to this massive glittering diamond 00:21:32.529 --> 00:21:34.930 ring on his finger, and says into the microphone, 00:21:35.549 --> 00:21:39.150 Pat Boone bought me this ring. That is just such 00:21:39.150 --> 00:21:42.390 an incredible flex. It's so practical. He completely 00:21:42.390 --> 00:21:45.309 refused to let his ego get in the way of the 00:21:45.309 --> 00:21:47.769 business side of things. It perfectly shows his 00:21:47.769 --> 00:21:50.420 temperament. He wasn't looking to start a cultural 00:21:50.420 --> 00:21:52.859 war. He was looking for long -term success and 00:21:52.859 --> 00:21:55.720 security. And frankly, the Pat Boone cover ended 00:21:55.720 --> 00:21:57.880 up acting like a gateway drug for mainstream 00:21:57.880 --> 00:22:00.660 listeners. How so? Well, white teenagers would 00:22:00.660 --> 00:22:02.839 buy the Boone version, realize the underlying 00:22:02.839 --> 00:22:05.299 song was fantastic, and then they'd go looking 00:22:05.299 --> 00:22:08.279 for the original artist. Eventually, Phat's original 00:22:08.279 --> 00:22:10.700 version actually outsold Boone's in the long 00:22:10.700 --> 00:22:13.900 run. That is real justice right there. So by 00:22:13.900 --> 00:22:17.740 1955, the money is just pouring in. The sources 00:22:17.740 --> 00:22:20.380 say Fass is making something like $10 ,000 a 00:22:20.380 --> 00:22:22.940 week on tour. Which is staggering money for that 00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:25.500 era. He's buying pink Cadillacs. He's buying 00:22:25.500 --> 00:22:28.680 diamond horseshoe stick pins. Oh, he loved his 00:22:28.680 --> 00:22:31.539 jewelry. The accounts say he owned 50 custom 00:22:31.539 --> 00:22:35.180 tailored suits, 100 pairs of shoes. He was absolutely 00:22:35.180 --> 00:22:37.579 living the high life of a superstar. But I think 00:22:37.579 --> 00:22:39.579 we really need to pivot here and look at the 00:22:39.579 --> 00:22:43.180 actual reality of that touring life because it's 00:22:42.730 --> 00:22:45.490 It sounds glamorous, $10 ,000 a week, the suits, 00:22:45.910 --> 00:22:49.009 the cars, but the conditions under which he had 00:22:49.009 --> 00:22:51.789 to earn that money were genuinely terrifying. 00:22:52.029 --> 00:22:53.910 This is the part of his story that often gets 00:22:53.910 --> 00:22:56.509 completely glossed over because Fats was known 00:22:56.509 --> 00:22:59.150 as being so nice and unbothered. People just 00:22:59.150 --> 00:23:01.170 assume his tours were smooth sailing. Right. 00:23:01.230 --> 00:23:03.450 But he was a black man traveling constantly through 00:23:03.450 --> 00:23:05.970 the deep south in the mid 1950s. It was incredibly 00:23:05.970 --> 00:23:08.990 dangerous. Jim Crow laws were in full brutal 00:23:08.990 --> 00:23:10.690 effect. Despite being one of the most famous 00:23:10.690 --> 00:23:13.109 musicians in the country, he legally could not 00:23:13.109 --> 00:23:15.470 stay in the very hotels where he was performing. 00:23:15.650 --> 00:23:18.049 Couldn't eat in the restaurants either. No, he 00:23:18.049 --> 00:23:20.089 often couldn't even use the front door of the 00:23:20.089 --> 00:23:22.359 venues he was selling out. He had to carry his 00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:24.859 own food on the bus, which is actually partly 00:23:24.859 --> 00:23:26.880 why he developed that habit of cooking in his 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:29.180 own rooms. It wasn't just some quirky culinary 00:23:29.180 --> 00:23:32.319 preference. It was a basic survival necessity. 00:23:32.599 --> 00:23:35.259 And the concerts themselves were massive cultural 00:23:35.259 --> 00:23:38.539 flashpoints. The research mentions several full 00:23:38.539 --> 00:23:41.299 blown riots breaking out at his shows. And it's 00:23:41.299 --> 00:23:43.460 not because Fats was inciting the crowd with 00:23:43.460 --> 00:23:46.099 radical speeches. Not at all. It was simply because 00:23:46.099 --> 00:23:48.910 of who was in the audience. Rock and roll, at 00:23:48.910 --> 00:23:51.549 its core, was the great cultural integrator of 00:23:51.549 --> 00:23:54.789 the 1950s. Teenagers drawn to the big beat didn't 00:23:54.789 --> 00:23:57.529 care about local segregation ordinances. White 00:23:57.529 --> 00:23:59.849 kids and black kids were showing up to the exact 00:23:59.849 --> 00:24:02.650 same dance halls to see Fats play. And that mixing 00:24:02.650 --> 00:24:05.269 was seen as a threat. A huge threat. The kids 00:24:05.269 --> 00:24:07.309 would be drinking, they'd start dancing, and 00:24:07.309 --> 00:24:09.509 the physical ropes that local police used to 00:24:09.509 --> 00:24:11.710 literally separate the races on the dance floor 00:24:11.710 --> 00:24:14.130 would inevitably get torn down in the excitement. 00:24:14.519 --> 00:24:17.019 The local authorities viewed this as a dangerous 00:24:17.019 --> 00:24:19.960 breakdown of the entire social order. There is 00:24:19.960 --> 00:24:23.059 a very specific incident detailed in the sources 00:24:23.059 --> 00:24:24.920 that happened in Fayetteville, North Carolina 00:24:24.920 --> 00:24:28.539 in 1956. That event was essentially a war zone. 00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:31.660 The local police became so enraged by the integrated 00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:34.500 dancing that they fired actual tear gas directly 00:24:34.500 --> 00:24:36.880 into the crowd to violently break up the concert. 00:24:37.079 --> 00:24:40.680 Tear gas at a dance? Yes. And the venue's ventilation 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:43.039 system sucked the tear gas straight onto the 00:24:43.039 --> 00:24:45.940 stage. Fats and his band were completely blinded, 00:24:46.059 --> 00:24:48.519 choking. Fats actually had to physically jump 00:24:48.519 --> 00:24:50.700 out of a back window just to escape the gas and 00:24:50.700 --> 00:24:53.420 the chaos. He severely injured his leg in the 00:24:53.420 --> 00:24:55.779 fall. You just have to try and imagine that surreal 00:24:55.779 --> 00:24:57.980 contrast. You're up there singing Blueberry Hill. 00:24:58.059 --> 00:25:01.279 which is quite possibly the most harmless, sweet, 00:25:01.380 --> 00:25:03.980 romantic song imaginable, and you end up having 00:25:03.980 --> 00:25:06.579 to dive out of a window to escape police tear 00:25:06.579 --> 00:25:09.259 gas. It entirely reframes his legacy. We look 00:25:09.259 --> 00:25:11.599 at the vintage footage, the big smile, the chubby 00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:14.440 face, the relaxed posture at the piano, and we 00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:16.819 automatically code him as safe. But his mere 00:25:16.819 --> 00:25:19.700 presence on those stages was a deeply radical 00:25:19.700 --> 00:25:22.819 political act. He was actively desegregating 00:25:22.819 --> 00:25:26.119 America one dance floor at a time, often at tremendous 00:25:26.119 --> 00:25:29.000 personal risk. He was actually banned from playing 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:31.559 in several major cities. Griffith Stadium in 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:33.660 Washington, D .C. canceled his scheduled show 00:25:33.660 --> 00:25:36.480 outright, citing public safety concerns. Because 00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:39.140 the music was just too powerful to contain. He 00:25:39.140 --> 00:25:40.880 was a lightning rod, whether he wanted to be 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:43.359 or not. Speaking of Blueberry Hill, we definitely 00:25:43.359 --> 00:25:46.039 have to discuss that specific song. It came out 00:25:46.039 --> 00:25:49.099 in 1956, and it essentially became his permanent 00:25:49.099 --> 00:25:51.299 signature tune. But what's fascinating is that 00:25:51.299 --> 00:25:53.079 he didn't write it, and it wasn't even a new 00:25:53.079 --> 00:25:55.960 song. No, it was a very established standard 00:25:55.960 --> 00:25:59.099 from way back in 1940. The Glenn Miller Orchestra 00:25:59.099 --> 00:26:01.799 had done a version. Gene Autry, the famous singing 00:26:01.799 --> 00:26:04.359 cowboy, had recorded it. It was a very stiff, 00:26:04.859 --> 00:26:07.579 formal, almost cornball melody. So why did Fats 00:26:07.579 --> 00:26:10.299 Domino decide to record it? Well, this is where 00:26:10.299 --> 00:26:12.660 the true genius of Fats and Dave Bartholomew 00:26:12.660 --> 00:26:15.279 shines. They took this incredibly stiff square 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:18.079 song and forcefully wrestled it into that rolling 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:23.170 128 New Orleans triplet groove. They slowed the 00:26:23.170 --> 00:26:26.410 tempo down, they made it ache. When Phat sings 00:26:26.410 --> 00:26:29.509 that opening line, the moon stood still. He holds 00:26:29.509 --> 00:26:32.369 that note with the slight creole inflection and 00:26:32.369 --> 00:26:34.809 the piano just beautifully rolls underneath it 00:26:34.809 --> 00:26:37.769 like a rising tide. It transforms from a cowboy 00:26:37.769 --> 00:26:41.109 tune into this deeply soulful lament. And the 00:26:41.109 --> 00:26:44.109 public response was monumental. It went to number 00:26:44.109 --> 00:26:46.269 one on the R &B charts and stayed there for an 00:26:46.269 --> 00:26:49.309 astonishing 11 weeks. It went to number two on 00:26:49.309 --> 00:26:51.839 the mainstream pop charts. It eventually sold 00:26:51.839 --> 00:26:54.940 over five million copies worldwide. It really 00:26:54.940 --> 00:26:57.440 proved that this new rock and roll genre wasn't 00:26:57.440 --> 00:26:59.200 just about shouting in fast tempos. It could 00:26:59.200 --> 00:27:01.480 be a ballad. It could be tender. It proved the 00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:04.299 genre had emotional range. And that specific 00:27:04.299 --> 00:27:07.359 song, more than any other, cemented him as a 00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:10.240 true global superstar. Which brings us right 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:12.220 back to our original discussion about the King, 00:27:12.619 --> 00:27:15.200 because Elvis Presley clearly knew all of this 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:17.700 history. Elvis was a massive student of the music. 00:27:18.019 --> 00:27:19.980 He grew up in the South listening to the exact 00:27:19.980 --> 00:27:22.819 same high -powered R &B radio stations. When 00:27:22.819 --> 00:27:25.700 Elvis finally met Fats in person in 1959 and 00:27:25.700 --> 00:27:28.960 then later at that famous 1969 Vegas press conference, 00:27:29.539 --> 00:27:32.069 his deference to Fats wasn't fake humility. It 00:27:32.069 --> 00:27:34.990 was genuine respect. Completely genuine. Elvis 00:27:34.990 --> 00:27:37.029 famously told reporters, I can't sing like Fats 00:27:37.029 --> 00:27:39.930 Domino Cam. He recognized that the rhythmic feel, 00:27:40.150 --> 00:27:42.450 that innate swing was something Fats just owned 00:27:42.450 --> 00:27:45.470 naturally in his bones. Elvis had to consciously 00:27:45.470 --> 00:27:48.700 learn how to rock. Fats was the rock. And it 00:27:48.700 --> 00:27:51.079 wasn't just American artists like Elvis who recognized 00:27:51.079 --> 00:27:54.279 this. The whole British invasion movement, which 00:27:54.279 --> 00:27:56.440 history usually claims for killing off the careers 00:27:56.440 --> 00:27:59.460 of the 1950s American rockers, was actually led 00:27:59.460 --> 00:28:02.619 by massive Fats Domino superfans. The Beatles 00:28:02.619 --> 00:28:05.680 absolutely worshiped him. John Lennon cited Fats' 00:28:05.980 --> 00:28:08.180 version of Ain't That a Shame as literally the 00:28:08.180 --> 00:28:10.200 very first song he ever learned to play on the 00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:12.259 guitar. That's incredible. But Paul McCartney 00:28:12.259 --> 00:28:14.619 is really the ultimate disciple here. If you 00:28:14.619 --> 00:28:17.480 listen closely to the Beatles song Lady Madonna, 00:28:17.700 --> 00:28:20.200 which which was released in 1968. What do you 00:28:20.200 --> 00:28:22.039 immediately hear? You hear that piano rhythm? 00:28:22.299 --> 00:28:24.279 Dun, dun, dun, dun. It sounds exactly like a 00:28:24.279 --> 00:28:26.880 Fats Domino record. Because it is, stylistically. 00:28:27.460 --> 00:28:29.940 McCartney wrote Lady Madonna specifically as 00:28:29.940 --> 00:28:32.619 a tribute to Fats. He was actively trying to 00:28:32.619 --> 00:28:35.359 write a Fats Domino song. McCartney even alters 00:28:35.359 --> 00:28:37.920 his vocal style on the track. He sings in this 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:41.119 much lower, throatier register to mimic Fats' 00:28:41.180 --> 00:28:42.940 delivery. And the most beautiful part of that 00:28:42.940 --> 00:28:45.880 story, the perfect closure to that loop, is that 00:28:45.880 --> 00:28:48.420 Fats heard leading Madonna on the radio, loved 00:28:48.420 --> 00:28:50.960 the song, and decided to cover it himself. Yes. 00:28:51.150 --> 00:28:53.450 The Beatles copy Fats Domino, so Fats Domino 00:28:53.450 --> 00:28:55.549 covers the Beatles copying him. It's like Inception. 00:28:55.769 --> 00:28:58.190 And Fats cover version of Lady Madonna actually 00:28:58.190 --> 00:29:01.269 became his very last charting single in 1968. 00:29:01.369 --> 00:29:03.849 It was just this lovely full circle moment of 00:29:03.849 --> 00:29:06.210 mutual artistic respect. Now here is a musical 00:29:06.210 --> 00:29:08.390 connection from the source material that absolutely 00:29:08.390 --> 00:29:11.049 floored me. We entirely expect the Elvis connection. 00:29:11.150 --> 00:29:13.150 We completely understand the Beatles influence. 00:29:13.650 --> 00:29:16.490 But I did not expect to find a direct link between 00:29:16.490 --> 00:29:19.230 Fats Domino and the creation of Jamaican ska 00:29:19.230 --> 00:29:21.599 and reggae music. Oh, this is one of the most 00:29:21.599 --> 00:29:24.059 fascinating butterfly effects in all of music 00:29:24.059 --> 00:29:26.119 history. To really understand how this happened, 00:29:26.359 --> 00:29:28.160 you have to look at the geography. Okay, lay 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:31.049 it out for us. Jamaica is an island nation. In 00:29:31.049 --> 00:29:34.730 the 1950s, they did not have a robust local recording 00:29:34.730 --> 00:29:37.730 industry of their own yet, but they had radios. 00:29:38.390 --> 00:29:40.970 And atmospheric conditions dictate that on clear, 00:29:41.190 --> 00:29:44.569 warm nights, the massive high -powered AM radio 00:29:44.569 --> 00:29:47.349 signals from New Orleans, specifically stations 00:29:47.349 --> 00:29:50.609 like WNOE, would literally bounce off the ionosphere, 00:29:50.910 --> 00:29:53.089 skip straight across the Gulf of Mexico, and 00:29:53.089 --> 00:29:55.680 beam perfectly into Jamaica. So you have Jamaican 00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:58.460 teenagers sitting on the beach in Kingston picking 00:29:58.460 --> 00:30:01.000 up New Orleans radio. Exactly. And because Fats 00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:03.279 Domino was the undisputed king of New Orleans 00:30:03.279 --> 00:30:06.839 radio, his records were in incredibly heavy rotation. 00:30:07.259 --> 00:30:09.500 So all these young Jamaican musicians, the kids 00:30:09.500 --> 00:30:11.359 who would grow up to invent ska and rocksteady, 00:30:11.660 --> 00:30:14.460 were intently studying his specific rhythm. What 00:30:14.460 --> 00:30:16.339 specifically were they latching onto in his sound? 00:30:16.420 --> 00:30:18.980 It's the shuffle. Fats had this habit of heavily 00:30:18.980 --> 00:30:21.660 accentuating the offbeat, the and of the musical 00:30:21.660 --> 00:30:24.599 beat. One and two endy. If you take a standard 00:30:24.599 --> 00:30:27.019 Fats Domino Boogie Woogie track, slow the tempo 00:30:27.019 --> 00:30:29.740 down just a little bit, and visually chop that 00:30:29.740 --> 00:30:32.259 rolling piano rhythm into a sharp staccato guitar 00:30:32.259 --> 00:30:34.140 strum. You get the signature skank guitar sound 00:30:34.140 --> 00:30:37.480 of ska music. You get the absolute foundation 00:30:37.480 --> 00:30:40.220 of Jamaican pop music. And the Jamaican artists 00:30:40.220 --> 00:30:43.130 openly acknowledged this debt. Artists like Yellow 00:30:43.130 --> 00:30:46.549 Man specifically cited him. The legendary reggae 00:30:46.549 --> 00:30:49.650 singer Justin Hines explicitly named his backing 00:30:49.650 --> 00:30:52.349 group the Domino's. Wow, so not because they 00:30:52.349 --> 00:30:54.950 liked playing the board game dominoes. No, strictly 00:30:54.950 --> 00:30:57.269 because they wanted to honor Fats Domino. You 00:30:57.269 --> 00:31:00.470 can draw a direct sonic straight line from the 00:31:00.470 --> 00:31:02.569 working class Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans 00:31:02.569 --> 00:31:06.309 all the way to Bob Marley. That is the very definition 00:31:06.309 --> 00:31:09.329 of global influence. But as we move the timeline 00:31:09.329 --> 00:31:12.390 forward into the 1960s, the musical landscape 00:31:12.390 --> 00:31:14.849 in the United States begins to drastically change. 00:31:15.430 --> 00:31:18.230 Fats officially leaves Imperial Records in 1963. 00:31:18.730 --> 00:31:21.269 Yes, Imperial was sold off and Fats ended up 00:31:21.269 --> 00:31:24.589 moving over to ABC Paramount. And this move marks 00:31:24.589 --> 00:31:27.059 the beginning of his commercial decline. It is 00:31:27.059 --> 00:31:29.960 a classic tragic case of a giant record label 00:31:29.960 --> 00:31:32.480 buying a legacy artist and completely failing 00:31:32.480 --> 00:31:34.200 to understand what made them great in the first 00:31:34.200 --> 00:31:36.259 place. They tried to modernize him, didn't they? 00:31:36.599 --> 00:31:38.619 Which, in the music business, usually means ruin 00:31:38.619 --> 00:31:40.839 him. They pulled him out of the gritty New Orleans 00:31:40.839 --> 00:31:44.000 studios, they took him up to Nashville, and they 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:46.039 forcibly layered on what we call the country 00:31:46.039 --> 00:31:49.059 -politan sound. What does that entail? Slick 00:31:49.059 --> 00:31:52.500 s - sterile production, huge sweeping string 00:31:52.500 --> 00:31:55.619 sections, very polite white backing vocal choirs. 00:31:56.099 --> 00:31:58.559 They basically tried to strip away the rhythm 00:31:58.559 --> 00:32:01.180 and blues and turn him into a middle of the road 00:32:01.180 --> 00:32:04.319 pop crooner. They took all the dirt and the grit 00:32:04.319 --> 00:32:07.200 completely out of the mix. They polished the 00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:10.480 soul right off his records and it failed miserably. 00:32:10.740 --> 00:32:13.559 The big hits just stopped coming and simultaneously 00:32:13.559 --> 00:32:16.380 the massive wave of the British invasion completely 00:32:16.380 --> 00:32:18.420 took over the charts. Which is deeply ironic. 00:32:18.539 --> 00:32:20.559 considering the British bands all worshiped him. 00:32:20.700 --> 00:32:23.339 It's highly ironic, but the teenage record buyers 00:32:23.339 --> 00:32:25.640 wanted loud guitar bands with long hair now. 00:32:25.980 --> 00:32:28.460 They didn't want solo piano players in tailored 00:32:28.460 --> 00:32:31.259 suits. Fats rapidly began to look to the mainstream 00:32:31.259 --> 00:32:34.079 like a relic of the 50s. But unlike so many of 00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:36.299 his peers who either burned out on drugs, went 00:32:36.299 --> 00:32:39.200 completely broke, or spent decades desperately 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:41.980 chasing the fleeting spotlight, Fats just went 00:32:41.980 --> 00:32:45.140 home. He really did. He retreated back to the 00:32:45.140 --> 00:32:47.599 exact place he started. the Lower Ninth Ward. 00:32:48.319 --> 00:32:50.640 He bought a double plot of land right in his 00:32:50.640 --> 00:32:53.819 old neighborhood and built this massive sprawling 00:32:53.819 --> 00:32:56.460 mansion. The famous yellow brick house. Right, 00:32:56.599 --> 00:32:59.279 with the big initials FD built right into the 00:32:59.279 --> 00:33:02.700 front facade. And once he was there, he essentially 00:33:02.700 --> 00:33:04.660 just stayed there. He actually became famous 00:33:04.660 --> 00:33:07.099 in the industry for actively not touring. He 00:33:07.099 --> 00:33:09.420 turned down millions and millions of dollars 00:33:09.420 --> 00:33:11.759 in lucrative booking offers over the decades. 00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:14.200 He was invited to perform at the White House. 00:33:14.359 --> 00:33:16.960 He often just wouldn't go. He'd be invited to 00:33:16.960 --> 00:33:19.319 headline major international festivals. He'd 00:33:19.319 --> 00:33:21.980 politely decline. And his reasoning for turning 00:33:21.980 --> 00:33:25.059 down all this money and prestige was so brilliantly 00:33:25.059 --> 00:33:27.960 simple. It's hilarious. His main excuse was always, 00:33:28.079 --> 00:33:30.200 I can't get any food that I like anywhere else. 00:33:30.519 --> 00:33:32.700 I mean, if you have ever had authentic New Orleans 00:33:32.700 --> 00:33:34.579 cooking, you completely understand his point. 00:33:34.960 --> 00:33:37.599 You are not going to get a good spicy crawfish 00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:40.440 etouffee in a hotel in London. You're really 00:33:40.440 --> 00:33:44.039 not. He was deeply a creature of habit. He just 00:33:44.039 --> 00:33:46.569 loved his neighborhood. He'd drive his bright 00:33:46.569 --> 00:33:49.490 pink Cadillac slowly around the block. He'd spend 00:33:49.490 --> 00:33:51.890 his days cooking massive pots of food for his 00:33:51.890 --> 00:33:54.009 friends and neighbors. He wasn't acting like 00:33:54.009 --> 00:33:57.029 an untouchable celebrity. He was just Mr. Antoine 00:33:57.029 --> 00:33:59.329 to the neighborhood. And he stayed securely in 00:33:59.329 --> 00:34:02.170 that pocket for decades. Through the 70s, the 00:34:02.170 --> 00:34:05.450 80s, the 90s, he collected his massive accolades. 00:34:05.670 --> 00:34:08.010 He was in the very first class and inducted into 00:34:08.010 --> 00:34:10.730 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. He got 00:34:10.730 --> 00:34:13.269 the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. 00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:16.280 But after the ceremonies, he always went straight 00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:18.280 back to that yellow brick house in the Ninth 00:34:18.280 --> 00:34:20.460 Ward. Which, tragically, brings us to August 00:34:20.460 --> 00:34:24.000 of 2005. Hurricane Katrina. Yes. This is the 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:26.460 moment where the biographical story of a musician 00:34:26.460 --> 00:34:29.420 radically pivots into a harrowing survival epic. 00:34:29.500 --> 00:34:31.599 It really does. We all know the historical facts 00:34:31.599 --> 00:34:33.599 of Katrina. We know the Lower Ninth Ward was 00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:36.699 the absolute epicenter of the destruction. The 00:34:36.699 --> 00:34:39.139 levees failed. The water came rushing in with 00:34:39.139 --> 00:34:41.139 catastrophic force. But the question everyone 00:34:41.139 --> 00:34:44.840 asks is... Why did he stay? He was wealthy. He 00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:47.340 had the resources to evacuate. It came down to 00:34:47.340 --> 00:34:50.400 loyalty, and it came down to health. His wife, 00:34:50.679 --> 00:34:52.659 Rosemary, who he had been married to since he 00:34:52.659 --> 00:34:55.500 was a teenager, was in very poor health at the 00:34:55.500 --> 00:34:59.010 time. Fats was terrified that the stress of a 00:34:59.010 --> 00:35:01.269 chaotic evacuation would be too much for her. 00:35:01.489 --> 00:35:04.050 He didn't want to risk moving her. Exactly. And 00:35:04.050 --> 00:35:06.230 furthermore, he thought, like so many native 00:35:06.230 --> 00:35:08.130 New Orleanians did, that they could just ride 00:35:08.130 --> 00:35:11.230 the storm out. They had successfully ridden out 00:35:11.230 --> 00:35:13.809 dozens of hurricanes in that house over the decades. 00:35:13.969 --> 00:35:16.969 But Katrina wasn't a normal hurricane. No. Because 00:35:16.969 --> 00:35:19.530 the levees broke, the water didn't just rain 00:35:19.530 --> 00:35:22.369 down from the sky. It violently surged up from 00:35:22.369 --> 00:35:25.530 the ground. The floodwaters rapidly rose to the 00:35:25.480 --> 00:35:28.739 very roof line of his mansion. And for several 00:35:28.739 --> 00:35:31.880 agonizing days, there was just complete radio 00:35:31.880 --> 00:35:34.960 silence. The entire world literally did not know 00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:37.380 if Fats Domino was dead or alive. I remember 00:35:37.380 --> 00:35:39.139 watching the news reports during that week. People 00:35:39.139 --> 00:35:41.300 were actively writing his obituaries on the air. 00:35:41.380 --> 00:35:43.780 It was very grim. Someone actually took a can 00:35:43.780 --> 00:35:46.699 of spray paint and wrote, RIP Fats, you will 00:35:46.699 --> 00:35:48.900 be missed right on the front of his flooded house. 00:35:49.559 --> 00:35:51.599 Everyone naturally assumed the word that he had 00:35:51.599 --> 00:35:55.420 drowned trapped inside. But he hadn't. No. As 00:35:55.420 --> 00:35:58.519 the water furiously rose, he and his family had 00:35:58.519 --> 00:36:00.800 managed to climb up to the second floor and then 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:02.760 eventually into the upper reaches of the house. 00:36:03.380 --> 00:36:05.860 They were completely trapped without power or 00:36:05.860 --> 00:36:09.480 food. It took until September 1st, several days 00:36:09.480 --> 00:36:12.059 after the storm initially hit, for a Coast Guard 00:36:12.059 --> 00:36:14.719 helicopter to finally spot them. You just have 00:36:14.719 --> 00:36:18.150 to picture the profound intensity. of that specific 00:36:18.150 --> 00:36:21.349 image. This man who literally built rock and 00:36:21.349 --> 00:36:25.510 roll, who sold 65 million records, now 77 years 00:36:25.510 --> 00:36:27.989 old, having to be physically hoisted up into 00:36:27.989 --> 00:36:30.469 a military helicopter from the complete wreckage 00:36:30.469 --> 00:36:32.500 of his life. And honestly, the story gets even 00:36:32.500 --> 00:36:34.380 more surreal immediately after the rescue. They 00:36:34.380 --> 00:36:37.199 were flown out and dropped off at a massive triage 00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:39.800 shelter in Baton Rouge. It was complete chaos. 00:36:40.340 --> 00:36:43.239 Thousands of displaced, traumatized people. And 00:36:43.239 --> 00:36:44.639 do you know who actually came to pick them up 00:36:44.639 --> 00:36:47.260 from the shelter? DeMarcus Russell. Yes. DeMarcus 00:36:47.260 --> 00:36:48.840 Russell, the starting quarterback for the LSU 00:36:48.840 --> 00:36:50.539 football team. How does that connection even 00:36:50.539 --> 00:36:53.750 happen? It turns out, Jamarcus Russell was dating 00:36:53.750 --> 00:36:56.550 Phat's granddaughter at the time. So in just 00:36:56.550 --> 00:36:59.510 one of the most bizarre twists of fate imaginable, 00:36:59.989 --> 00:37:02.630 the legendary king of rock and roll ends up sleeping 00:37:02.630 --> 00:37:05.050 on the couch of a college quarterback's apartment 00:37:05.050 --> 00:37:08.570 for three nights simply because he has literally 00:37:08.570 --> 00:37:11.150 nowhere else to go. He gave a quote to the Washington 00:37:11.150 --> 00:37:13.469 Post shortly after that where he just said, we've 00:37:13.469 --> 00:37:15.750 lost everything. And it was completely true. 00:37:16.059 --> 00:37:18.880 His beautiful grand pianos were entirely destroyed 00:37:18.880 --> 00:37:21.820 by the floodwater. Decades of original master 00:37:21.820 --> 00:37:24.579 tapes were ruined. His gold and platinum records 00:37:24.579 --> 00:37:27.360 were washed away. The prestigious National Medal 00:37:27.360 --> 00:37:29.260 of Arts that President Bill Clinton had awarded 00:37:29.260 --> 00:37:32.539 him was lost in the toxic mud. He was, in that 00:37:32.539 --> 00:37:35.360 moment, just another displaced refugee. But the 00:37:35.360 --> 00:37:38.070 ensuing recovery... really showed how much he 00:37:38.070 --> 00:37:40.070 deeply meant to the culture. It was incredibly 00:37:40.070 --> 00:37:42.409 touching. The whole country rallied. President 00:37:42.409 --> 00:37:44.690 George W. Bush actually traveled personally to 00:37:44.690 --> 00:37:47.489 New Orleans just to present Fats with a shiny 00:37:47.489 --> 00:37:49.510 new replacement for that lost medal of arts. 00:37:49.969 --> 00:37:52.530 The recording industry rapidly minted brand new 00:37:52.530 --> 00:37:54.849 gold records to replace the ones he lost. But 00:37:54.849 --> 00:37:57.789 you can't just replace a sense of safety. The 00:37:57.789 --> 00:38:00.949 trauma he endured was very real. Oh absolutely. 00:38:01.250 --> 00:38:03.230 He was scheduled to be the grand closing act 00:38:03.230 --> 00:38:06.769 at the New Orleans Jazz Fest in 2006, which was 00:38:06.769 --> 00:38:10.469 the highly emotional first festival after the 00:38:10.469 --> 00:38:14.250 storm. It was billed as this massive triumphant 00:38:14.250 --> 00:38:16.650 homecoming. And what happened? He just couldn't 00:38:16.650 --> 00:38:19.449 do it. He physically got to the venue, but he 00:38:19.449 --> 00:38:21.710 suffered a massive anxiety attack backstage. 00:38:22.190 --> 00:38:24.289 The pressure, the trauma of the past year, it 00:38:24.289 --> 00:38:26.550 was just too overwhelming. He ultimately walked 00:38:26.550 --> 00:38:29.090 out onto the stage, gave a small wave to the 00:38:29.090 --> 00:38:31.510 crowd, and walked off. He didn't play a single 00:38:31.510 --> 00:38:34.460 note. It is heartbreaking. But I imagine the 00:38:34.460 --> 00:38:36.500 crowd understood. They completely did. Frankly, 00:38:36.619 --> 00:38:38.179 the crowd didn't even care that he didn't play. 00:38:38.300 --> 00:38:40.159 They just cheered wildly because they were so 00:38:40.159 --> 00:38:42.179 relieved he was simply alive and standing there. 00:38:42.300 --> 00:38:44.800 He lived for another decade after that, largely 00:38:44.800 --> 00:38:47.360 out of the public eye, until he passed away in 00:38:47.360 --> 00:38:50.340 October of 2017 at the age of 89, from natural 00:38:50.340 --> 00:38:53.420 causes. A very peaceful end to an incredibly 00:38:53.420 --> 00:38:56.800 turbulent century of living. And when the official 00:38:56.800 --> 00:38:59.750 obituaries finally ran, Robert Kreskow, who is 00:38:59.750 --> 00:39:02.650 a notoriously tough, very famous music critic, 00:39:03.050 --> 00:39:05.090 wrote something I thought was incredibly poignant. 00:39:05.730 --> 00:39:09.230 He described Fats Domino as a shy, differential, 00:39:09.630 --> 00:39:13.010 uncharismatic man who nevertheless invented New 00:39:13.010 --> 00:39:15.030 Orleans rock and roll. You know, calling him 00:39:15.030 --> 00:39:17.550 uncharismatic feels a bit like a slap in the 00:39:17.550 --> 00:39:19.889 face at first glance. But considering everything 00:39:19.889 --> 00:39:21.630 we've talked about, I think I understand the 00:39:21.630 --> 00:39:23.650 distinction he's making. Right. It's really not 00:39:23.650 --> 00:39:25.670 an insult at all. It's an astute observation 00:39:25.670 --> 00:39:29.130 of his specific style of greatness. Fats Domino 00:39:29.130 --> 00:39:31.530 wasn't Mick Jagger strutting across a stadium 00:39:31.530 --> 00:39:34.010 stage. He wasn't Prince. He didn't have this 00:39:34.010 --> 00:39:36.429 overwhelming, arrogant persona. He didn't need 00:39:36.429 --> 00:39:38.860 to be that guy. Exactly. His charisma wasn't 00:39:38.860 --> 00:39:41.659 located in his hips or in a massive ego. His 00:39:41.659 --> 00:39:43.639 charisma was entirely in his fingers. It was 00:39:43.639 --> 00:39:46.039 in that driving triplet. He proved to the world 00:39:46.039 --> 00:39:48.539 that you absolutely didn't have to be an unpredictable, 00:39:48.539 --> 00:39:51.400 dangerous star to be a foundational legend. You 00:39:51.400 --> 00:39:54.159 just had to have the beat. So, as we wrap up 00:39:54.159 --> 00:39:56.460 this deep dive into his life, how do you think 00:39:56.460 --> 00:39:59.059 we should properly view the legacy of Fats Domino 00:39:59.059 --> 00:40:01.969 today? I really think we need to view him fundamentally 00:40:01.969 --> 00:40:05.030 as the bridge. He is the crucial missing link 00:40:05.030 --> 00:40:08.369 in American music. Without Fats Domino, you simply 00:40:08.369 --> 00:40:10.909 do not get from the acoustic blues and boogie 00:40:10.909 --> 00:40:14.530 woogie of the 1940s to the explosive rock and 00:40:14.530 --> 00:40:17.929 roll of the 1960s. He literally paved the road 00:40:17.929 --> 00:40:20.250 that Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and countless 00:40:20.250 --> 00:40:23.010 others happily drove down. And he did all of 00:40:23.010 --> 00:40:25.389 that without ever losing his cool? Never. Without 00:40:25.389 --> 00:40:27.849 ever abandoning his beloved neighborhood and 00:40:27.849 --> 00:40:30.550 without ever fundamentally changing who he was 00:40:30.550 --> 00:40:33.110 as a person. He was the quiet king. The quiet 00:40:33.110 --> 00:40:35.570 king who managed to make the loudest, most joyous 00:40:35.570 --> 00:40:37.969 music in the world. So here's my final challenge 00:40:37.969 --> 00:40:40.829 to you, the listener. When this deep dive ends, 00:40:41.550 --> 00:40:43.429 don't just automatically let the app roll over 00:40:43.429 --> 00:40:45.789 to whatever the next show is. Take a moment. 00:40:46.070 --> 00:40:48.150 Go find the original recording of The Fat Man 00:40:48.150 --> 00:40:50.829 or put on Blueberry Hill. Turn the volume all 00:40:50.829 --> 00:40:53.710 the way up. Turn it up loud. And don't just casually 00:40:53.710 --> 00:40:56.369 listen to the vocal melody. Listen deeply to 00:40:56.369 --> 00:40:58.929 the engine of the song. Listen to that relentless 00:40:58.929 --> 00:41:01.150 piano trip at rolling underneath everything. 00:41:01.469 --> 00:41:05.170 One and a, two and a. Feel that massive physical 00:41:05.170 --> 00:41:09.269 drive because that specific sound is the actual 00:41:09.269 --> 00:41:11.650 heartbeat of rock and roll and it is still beating 00:41:11.650 --> 00:41:13.840 just as strong over 70 years later. And while 00:41:13.840 --> 00:41:15.500 you're listening, just try to imagine the man 00:41:15.500 --> 00:41:18.460 actually playing it. Sitting there, smiling warmly, 00:41:18.780 --> 00:41:21.679 a huge diamond ring flashing on his hand, probably 00:41:21.679 --> 00:41:23.179 just thinking about what he's going to cook his 00:41:23.179 --> 00:41:24.940 friends for dinner that night. It's a perfect 00:41:24.940 --> 00:41:26.679 image. Thanks for joining us on this Journey 00:41:26.679 --> 00:41:28.300 to the Source material. We'll see you next time.