By: Greg Mitchell It was Fats Domino Day in, of all places, New York City, on Thursday, with the Fat Man (who "invented" rock and roll as much as anyone) visiting the Big Apple for the first time in a couple of decades and receiving the key to the city from Mayor Michael Blomberg. But even that wouldn't normally be enough for the Times-Picayune to send a reporter all this way north. There had to be some music (or food), revelry or food involved somehow, and there was.
Fats, who was famously rescued from the post-Katrina flood in 2005, is the subject of a new all-star tribute album called "Goin' Home" and was in New York for a tribute concert. There was a previous tribute show in NOLA at the end of September which your humble correspondent happened to attend. Fats was there for that one, too, but did not perform, though he did mix with us in a garden and waved to the crowd repeatedly from the Tipitina's balcony as the giant banner bearing the likeness of Professor Longhair gazed on. (The next day, your correspondent visited Fats' house in the Ninth Ward for the second time in six months.)
But in New York, the Fat Man did perform, a little, singing about a minute of "Blueberry Hill" and backing Lloyd Price on the immortal "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (as he'd done on the record, half a century ago). Two of the Meters and Allen Toussaint, among others, sang his songs. Too bad his appearance on DAvid Letterman's show was axed due to the writer's strike. He was to croon "My Blue Heaven" with Norah Jones.
Anyway, you can read all about it in Keith Spera's four blog-like pieces,
here
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