Saturday Night Attitude Dancing at the 2022 Birthday of Two Pioneering Legends of Music, Johnny Cash and Fats Domino

by Robert Wilkinson

For our Saturday night musical birthday show, February 26 is the birthday of two pioneers of their own unique styles of music! Yes, “the Man in Black,” Mr. Johnny Cash, shares a birthday with a pioneer of N’awlins style rock and roll, Mr. Antoine “Fats” Domino. We’re listening to outlaw country and southern boogie woogie piano rock!

We’ll begin today’s tribute with a huge shout-out to Johnny Cash (February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003), one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was an actor, author, and singer-songwriter across many musical genres, including country, rockabilly, rock and roll, blues, folk, and gospel. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the gospel Hall of Fame.

Truly a pioneer of “outlaw country,” along with Willie, Waylon and “the boys,” his rich baritone-bass voice was compelling, as was his life story. Rebellious, somber, serious, and humble, he did a LOT of concerts behind prison walls, Folsom Prison being the most famous. Today we have a few early performances, and a few classic ones with Willie and “the Highwaymen.”

From 1956, Johnny Cash launching his super star with the original Sun recording of "I Walk The Line.”

From that same year, on Ozark Jubilee, JC looking very young doing a live performance of "I Walk The Line.”

This was the “B” side of “I Walk the Line,” and became an equally gigantic hit for Johnny! Here’s a great live performance, either from 1956 or 1957, of “Get Rhythm”

From 1957 on The Jimmy Dean Show, Johnny and the Tennessee Three performing “Folsom Prison Blues”

Some kind of awards ceremony in the 50s gave us this live performance of “Folsom Prison Blues”

From 1958, “the man in black” (not wearing black) in another live tv performance on Town Hall Party of “I Walk the Line”

From late 1958, another performance on Town Hall Party, the hit from his third album, “Don’t Take Your Guns to Town”

In November 1958, he was on Town Hall Party and gave us a performance of these three! “Get Rhythm,” “You’re the Nearest Thing to Heaven,” and “I Was There When it Happened.”

For an extra treat, from sometime in the 50s, “the man in black” in a great live PBS performance of “I Walk the Line” (Sorry about the audio, but back then television sound technology wasn’t very good!)

From 1959 on the Town Hall Party, Johnny performing “Folsom Prison Blues” and what looks to be the first song of that night, “I Got Stripes”

On the same show, not necessarily the one above, Johnny doing a gag on his old Sun Records partner, Elvis! Johnny Cash Spoofing Elvis

Repaying the favor, from much later, here’s an audio-only clip of Elvis poking Johnny Cash! Elvis Spoofing Johnny Cash

This video is from the late 50s on Tex Ritter’s Ranch Party television show, with Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two doing a fairly rockabilly version of his hit “Get Rhythm”

Most don’t know that the theme from the television show Bonanza actually had lyrics! Here’s a great live clip of Johnny in the 50s performing the theme song from “Bonanza”

You want tough? This is a gritty audio-only track from 1960 called “Transfusion Blues”

From the Grand Ole’ Opry in 1962, Johnny live performing “Big River” Boom chicka boom!

From 1963, Johnny live on television giving us a short version of his monster hit, “Ring Of Fire”

From 1968, the official music video of Johnny Cash cranking out “Ring of Fire”

From 1969, live on his television show, here’s Johnny and his fellow Sun Records alumnus from the 50s, the awesome Roy Orbison, performing an interesting acoustic duet of “Pretty Woman.” Thanks for the link, Alexei! And for this one as well! The Class of 55 Sing "Rock and Roll"

Also from The Johnny Cash Show, the Sun Records “Million Dollar Quartet” minus Elvis plus Roy Orbison doing their tribute to Elvis on the 1977 Cash Christmas Special! Yes, it’s Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins live taking us to church with “This Train”

While chasing down more on the Class of 55, I found Johnny, Jerry Lee, Roy, and Carl joining with June Carter, John Fogerty, Rick Nelson, and others in a 49 minute 1989 Dick Clark special set in Memphis. For your enjoyment, a great video about the birth of rock and roll with great performances! "Coming Home - A Rock and Roll Reunion"

From 1967, Johnny Cash with his equally legendary and talented wife June Carter Cash performing their massive hit! “Jackson” and from the Johnny Cash Show a couple of years later, he and June doing what they did best! “Jackson”

From 1973 in Australia, Johnny and June Carter Cash performing Bob Dylan’s classic “It Ain’t Me Babe”

From Prague in 1978, Johnny and June live doing the legendary Tim Hardin classic “If I Were A Carpenter”

We’ll close this segment focusing on Johnny’s early years with the 38 minute “Legends in Concert” program Johnny Cash – The Man In Black – The Early Years

Now for the Highwaymen! From the legendary 1985 Farm Aid concert, the iconic “Highwayman”

We move forward 5 years to Long Island in 1990 for a classic show! Here are some great videos of Willie, Waylon, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash doing the classic hit "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys." We'll follow this with Kris singing his hits "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and "Me and Bobby McGee." I found a segment of them doing "Crazy." live in Scotland, and we'll go back to Nassau county for a version of “Folsom Prison Blues” before we close this segment with an apt song, "Living Legend."

Our final two from that 1990 Long Island show, the group honoring the Guy Clark classic, “Desperados Waiting On A Train.” Of course, no Highwaymen concert would be complete without a performance of the Vaughn Monroe classic, “Ghost Riders in the Sky”

I don’t know if this is part of the Johnny Cash/Willie Nelson hour and 13 clip from 1988 of the VH1 storytellers titled Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson – VH1 Storytellers. In any case, it’s 53 minutes of awesome music! Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson – Storytellers

Here's Willie and Johnny Cash on VH1 doing Johnny's gigantic hit "The Ring of Fire," followed by an audio-only clip of them doing Willie's composition "Crazy." We now take this into a great video performance of "Folsome Prison Blues."

I suppose it’s true that if Johnny Cash covers one of your songs, it's no longer yours. This is a gritty performance of the U2 hit "One”

For our finale, a poignant duet with Joe Strummer right before he died, less than a year before Johnny left the stage. One of the truly great songs of all time written by Bob Marley the Prophet, here’s "Redemption Song”

For our encore, we have the entire 93 minute concert of The Highwaymen Live in Las Vegas - Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings. Kick back and enjoy the legends!

For our second encore, the entire 33 song set from the Nassau Colliseum in 1990! The Highwaymen Live in Nassau 1990 - Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings

*********

We now turn our huge Happy Birthday spotlight on another legend of our time, the amazing Antoine Dominique “Fats” Domino Jr, (February 26, 1928- October 24, 2017) perhaps the greatest New Orleans R&B and rock and roll piano player of all time. First, a little history from Wikipedia:

His father was a well known violinist, and Domino was inspired to play himself. He eventually learned from his uncle, jazz guitarist Harrison Verrett. Fats released five gold (million-copy-selling) records before 1955. Domino also had 35 Top 40 American hits and has a music style based on traditional R&B ensembles of bass, piano, electric guitar, drums, and saxophone…..

One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records.[1] Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 hits….. During his career, Domino had 35 records in the U.S. Billboard Top 40, and five of his pre-1955 records sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.

He’s considered one of the earliest pioneers of rock and roll due to his million-selling 1950 hit “The Fat Man,” (which sounds like it’s from the same genre as the classic “Stag-O-Lee”) but his greatest years were from 1955-1960 when he released a string of hits including “Ain’t That A Shame,” “Blueberry Hill,” “I’m Walkin’,” “Valley of Tears,” "Whole Lotta Loving," "I Want to Walk You Home," and “Walkin’ to New Orleans,” along with many more.

If you don’t know who this American classic is, well, you’re in for a treat! Though he joined the Greatest Rock and Roll Band Not on Urth in 2017, his music is immortal! For your enjoyment, Fats Domino!

From November 1956 on The Ed Sullivan Show, a great performance of “Blueberry Hill”

From The Perry Como Show in May 1957, Fats in a definitely live ”hep” performance of “Valley of Tears,” “It’s You I Love,” and “I’m Walkin’”

Here he is lip synching in a 50s Alan Freed jukebox movie of “Ain’t That A Shame”

Also from some undefined point in the 50s, a live performance of “I’m Ready”

Also from some point in the late 50s, “Ain’t That A Shame” and “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

From March 1962, Fats live on The Ed Sullivan Show performing a raucous short version of “Let the Four Winds Blow” and for his second set of the same show, a short medley of “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)” and “You Win Again”

Jumping forward a decade, from what looks like The Mike Douglas Show in December 1973, Fats doing his trailblazing hit “The Fat Man”

From the 1980 Hague Jazz Festival, Fats doing “Blue Monday” and from the same gig, a rousing version complete with seriously wailing saxes of “I’m Walkin’”

We have a six-pack from Universal Amphitheater in 1985! First, a great performance of Fats doing “My Girl Josephine”

A great version of his legendary hit, “Blueberry Hill”

“I Want To Walk You Home”

“The Fat Man”

That show featured Ricky Nelson doing a walk on so they could perform a duet of a song they both made into major hits! “I’m Walkin’”

We’ll close this brief set with “Walkin’ To New Orleans”

From Austin City Limits in 1986, a great performance of “Blue Monday”

Live at a French festival in 1987, a performance of “I'm Gonna Be A Wheel,” “I'm In Love Again,” and “My Blue Heaven.”

From 1999 at the New Orleans Fest, Fats in a live performance of “Shake Rattle and Roll”

Here are a few studio versions of some of his greatest hits set to stills.

First, from January 1950, the original boogie-woogie studio version of “The Fat Man”

From November 1961, the studio version of “I Hear You Knocking”

Here’s the audio-only 1964 studio version of “Kansas City”

For the final number, get up and dance!! From 1958, the original audio-only studio 45 of “Whole Lotta Lovin’”

Last year I had what is said to be the last filmed performance of The Fat Man, a 56 minute documentary from 2005 about Hurricane Katrina, the fear that Fats Domino died in that disaster, and some amazing music. It’s the story of a resolute community hanging tough! This year Fats Domino – Walkin’ Back to New Orleans is nowhere to be found. So instead, here’s a mid-80s 11 minute mini-documentary courtesy of the BBC that’s very entertaining! Fats Domino and Jools Holland – “Walkin’ To New Orleans

For our encore, his entire 1 hour and 11 ACL performance! Fats Domino Live on Austin City Limits - 1986

So here’s a great big thanks to Johnny and Fats for being two of the originals and giving us both immortal and infinitely danceable tunes. You were both part of the soundtrack of my childhood!

© Copyright 2022 Robert Wilkinson

from Aquarius Papers - Global Astrology https://ift.tt/zeDNU82
via IFTTT