Review: Fats Domino - Let The Four Winds Blow (1961)
Tracks: 1) Along The Navajo Trail; 2) You Win Again; 3) One Night; 4) I’m Alone Because I Love You; 5) Won’t You Come On Back; 6) Trouble Blues; 7) I Can’t Give You Anything But Love; 8) Good Hearted Man; 9) Your Cheating Heart; 10) Let The Four Winds Blow; 11) In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town; 12) Am I Blue.
REVIEW
Fats’ last ever entry into the Top 20 would be with the title track to this LP — a nice, light-hearted danceable romp that does not stray too far from the formula of ‘My Girl Josephine’, except for being even more lyrically simplistic. "From the east to the west / I love you the best" is as direct as it comes, delivered with the usual Fats charm — a light touch of irony added to the overall friendliness is all it takes. It is rather telling, though, that the song was not even freshly written, having been first recorded by Dave Bartholomew himself as ‘Four Winds’ back in 1955, when it expectedly had more of a mid-Fifties’ R&B swing to it. Comparing the two versions lets you understand why, in the end, Fats was the frontman and Dave was the crown songwriter behind the throne — but while the «Fats touch» does indeed have a magical nature, ‘Let The Four Winds Blow’ is hardly a great contender when it comes to originality.
Even so, it is quite obviously a highlight on the LP, which, once again, offers one big zilch in terms of concealed delicious goodies. This time around, Fats suddenly declares himself a fan of the country-western routine, kicking things off with a cover of ‘Along The Navajo Trail’ and then throwing on not one, but two Hank Williams songs, even if ‘You Win Again’ and ‘Your Cheating Heart’ both largely share the same melody. A bit later on, Fats would do ‘Jambalaya’, which is pretty much Hank Williams’ natural gift to Fats Domino — but these two psychological pieces are...well, maybe a bit too bitter for Fats’ good-natured style, with vibes that do not easily translate to his style. Particularly since 100% of the emphasis is on the vocals: musical arrangements are lazy, with Fats merely hammering out his classic rhythm pattern, while the rhythm and horn sections add monotonous metronomic backing. Then again, at least the subject of cheating is something Fats had had plenty of previous experience with — ‘Along The Navajo Trail’ is much weirder in that respect, as you really have to strain yourself to picture the proverbial « fat man» "riding through the slumbering shadows" and "dreaming by his smouldering fire". Fats Domino as Roy Rogers is truly one step down the ladder of believability from Fats as Hank Williams.
Possibly an even bigger surprise is Fats’ cover of ‘Trouble Blues’ by Charles Brown, essentially the same song as ‘Worried Life Blues’ and ‘Trouble No More’ (by everybody from Sleepy John Estes to Muddy Waters and The Animals). Surprise, because this is a very rare case of Fats directly tackling slow and moody 12-bar blues instead of turning it into feel-good New Orleanian boogie, as he usually does. For a bit of change, he even tries to sound as if he were really broken-hearted, instead of broken-hearted the New Orleanian way (where there’s nothing that can’t be cured with a bit of gumbo and a muffuletta sandwich). The result is good, but I’d still rather prefer the more authentic sound of an Otis Spann tinkling the ivories with Muddy Waters or Willie Dixon brewing dense Chicago gloom behind his back. We cannot take the idea of Fats Domino migrating to the colder climes of Illinois too seriously, anyway.
The rest of the tracks are mostly oldies’ covers, with the occasional orchestration (‘Am I Blue’) and the occasional sappiness (‘I Can’t Give You Anything But Love’); of the three remaining originals, it’s fun to hear ‘One Night’ with its original lyrics ("one night of sin is what I’m now payin’ for..."), if only to remind ourselves that the song, which we usually associate with Elvis, was another of those brilliant Dave Bartholomew creations. The other two, ‘Won’t You Come On Back’ and ‘Good Hearted Man’, are respectively clones of ‘My Girl Josephine’ and... uh, about half a dozen lesser Fats tunes with the same chord progression, so there’s nothing to be said, really. Overall, a pretty sad state of affairs, although Fats’ experimentation with 12-bar blues and country at least deserves some formal encouragement.
Only Solitaire reviews: Fats Domino