Fats Online

[JOE9IRON]

I HAD THE GREAT FORTUNE TO MEET AND BE ENTERTAINED BY FATS BACK IN THE MIDDLE 60'S AT THE HOLLYWOOD PALACE IN MAPS MD. WHENEVER I HEARD ANY OF HIS MUSIC ON THE RADIO, I WOULD STOP AND GIVE IT MY FULL ATTENTION. HIS MUSIC CROSSES ALL LINES OF COLOR AND I AM GRATEFULL THAT HE IS OK. I HOPE HE LIVES TO BE OVER A HUNDRED. HE IS TRULY A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN, A HUMANITARIAN AND IN MY OPINION A GREAT VOCALIST AND LYRISIST. THANK YOU FOR YOUR WONDERFUL MUSIC AND UP-LIFTING PERSONALITY. ALL MY BEST. JOE.

[whstroud]

When I was a teenager growing up in the little Delta town of McGehee, AR Fats was one of the most-played musicians on the juke box at the all-white teen center in the Amnerican Legion hut. What we did not know then was that during those times, Fats himself was playing live less than a quarter mile away at the T-99 Club in South McGehee. Other greats to play the T-99 were B,B, King, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Little Milton and Jimmy Reed. I'll be 65 next month and it still upsets me that segregation kept us from musical experiences that people all over the world would have killed for. I have found a couple of guys who either slipped into the T-99 or hung around outside to hear the music, but back then they were careful not to tell anyone what they were doing. If anybody has memories of these times I would love to hear from them. I am writing a book about life in the Delta in the 40s, 50s and 60s. (By the way, Monty Rial, one of my closest friends from those days, couldn't open his mouth without starting to sing a Fats song. Monty went on to become an inventor who developed new methods of extracting natural gas and built companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars.)
_________________
Bill Stroud
http://web.mac.com/whstroud