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I think there’s something fascinating about Fats Domino-his music is truly the bedrock for rock ‘n’ roll, but there’s an authenticity and integrity there that doesn’t fit the genre’s biggest stars. What follows is my excessive email correspondence with Fats Domino’s ASCAP Award-winning biographer.Īmerican Standard Time: First congratulations on the documentary Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock n Roll. We have, after all, gone into depth with Lloyd Price, and our own Greg Vandy is now a successful music biographer himself. The documentary brought me to ask our American Standard Time editors if I could interview the author of Blue Monday, Rick Coleman. At 53 minutes, though, a fan of the genre may come away wishing for much more. The documentary, available for stream here, is compelling. And this month, American Masters, the PBS series, is airing a documentary about Fats Domino, Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll, strongly influenced by this book. All of which makes Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock ‘n’ Roll a remarkable accomplishment in music biography. But the man at the center, the man whose music still sounds most complete and powerful, is rarely explored or deconstructed. Those who imitate Fats Domino or water down his beat, his delivery, lend themselves to tomes about rock and rebellion. Something about Fats Domino, the ever-loving foundation of American roots and rock, is inscrutable, or at least untranslatable.