Blank 88 on Friday. What a fitting birthday for the guy who was so good on
the 88's.
'Big Beat' bids a happy birthday to Fats Domino By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
Rock 'n' roll pioneer Fats Domino, who turns 88 on Friday, is a man of widely
celebrated gifts. Drawing attention to himself, alas, is not one of them. "Fats
is a very humble man, and very shy," says Joe Lauro, producer and director of
the documentary The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll, which
simultaneously makes its broadcast debut on PBS' American Masters and becomes
available on DVD on Domino's birthday. In contrast to Elvis Presley, Little
Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, to name a few early icons he preceded on the
charts, "Fats didn't have the rock 'n' roll craziness surrounding him," Lauro
says. "He's led a private life. Outside Domino's hometown, New Orleans -- where
"he's like a god," Lauro says -- that has translated to less coverage of his
historic contributions, Lauro posits; which made him think, to quote from one
of Domino's signature tunes, ain't that a shame. The Big Beat traces Domino's
life back to his childhood in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, following his evolution
into a hitmaker whose other classics include I'm Walkin' and his definitive
version of Blueberry Hill. Domino's key relationship with the noted jazz and
R&B musician and bandleader Dave Bartholomew, who co-wrote and produced much of
his material, is documented in interviews with Bartholomew and other
collaborating musicians, as well as live performance footage. "Fats didn't make
any effort to invent rock 'n' roll; it just sort of happened around him," Lauro
says. "He was playing rhythm and blues and had a great band and wrote songs
that were very accessible. Presley himself was among Domino's most ardent fans:
"There was great mutual respect between them. Elvis called (Domino) the king of
rock 'n' roll. Don Bartholomew, Dave's son and a musician and actor, believes
Domino's singing, informed by his French Creole heritage, influenced Presley's.
"The way Fats sang was all original; there was Cajun there, a kind of French
accent to it. It's hard to copy, but if you listen to some of Elvis' records,
where words are kind of shortened -- that's from Fats, I think. The younger
Bartholomew remembers Domino from his boyhood as "a kind and generous man who
always looked sharp. You know how some rappers wear a lot of bling? He did that
before anybody. And just a straight-up good person -- I never saw him mad.
Lauro nonetheless had to earn his subject's trust. "When I met Fats, he said,
'I don't want anybody documenting me. He was living in the same working-class
neighborhood where he grew up. The filmmaker bonded with Domino by "talking
about cooking" and playing him a compilation reel of Domino's favorite
boogie-woogie musicians. "He called me 'Video Joe.' When The Big Beat premiered
at 2014's New Orleans Film Festival, Lauro recalls, Domino "watched it, then
kind of grabbed my hand for a bit, then let it go. It got pretty personal. It
was a great moment.