Various Artists - Covered: Fats Domino & Dave Bartholomew, Volume 2: 1990-2012

Yesterday, I posted Volume 1 of my Covered Series focus on the songwriting team of Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew. Here's both the second and the last volume.

I already said most of what I wanted to say in my notes for Volume One. Refer to that if you want to know more about the artists here and some of their history together.

However, I do have comments about a couple of songs. One is that between the two volumes, I believe I have included all of the big hits written by Domino and/or Bartholomew. However, Domino did have a few hits that neither of them had a role in writing. The biggest of these by far is "Blueberry Hill." It's considered one of Domino's best known hits, maybe even his signature song. But it actually was first done in 1940, and was a hit for Glenn Miller and then again for Louis Armstrong. Domino merely revamped it into a rock and roll song.

I think the song "The Monkey" is an especially fascinating one. It was written just by Bartholomew. It  was released as a single performed by him in 1957, but it wasn't a hit. However, the lyrics are remarkable for its era. Remember, this was the time of McCarthyist witch hunts, when too much criticism could get a person blacklisted. By using the conceit of a monkey criticizing the human race, he was able to make some stinging social criticism. For instance, here's one of the verses that implicitly knocks the whole capitalist system:

And another thing you will never see
A monkey build a fence around a coconut tree
And let all the coconuts go to waste
Forbidding other monkeys to come and taste
Why, if I put a fence around this tree
Starvation would force you to steal from me

The whole song even subtly mocks racism, as well as creationism, since the monkey in the song knocks the idea that monkeys and humans are related, because monkeys don't see humans as being worthy of them. That cleverly turned the idea of humans thinking they couldn't be related to monkeys on its head. That's especially meaningful given that Bartholomew was a black man, just like Domino. Kudos to Elvis Costello for covering this obscurity decades later and giving it some more attention. I noticed on YouTube that he even played the song in concert with Bartholomew, which is nice.

One rule I had in putting these two volumes together is I didn't want to include two songs by the same artist. But I'll admit I bent that rule a bit, because Robert Plant sings lead on two of the songs here, even though he does it with two different bands.

This album is 44 minutes long.

01 Goin' Home (James Brown)
02 Be My Guest (Yellowman)
03 I'm Gonna Be a Wheel Someday (Sheryl Crow)
04 It Keeps Raining (Bitty McLean)
05 Real Gone Lover (Van Morrison & Linda Gail Lewis)
06 The Monkey (Elvis Costello)
07 Walking to New Orleans (Neil Young)
08 Valley of Tears (Robert Plant & the Soweto Gospel Choir)
09 Honey Chile (Lucinda Williams)
10 I Want to Walk You Home (Paul McCartney with Allen Toussaint)
11 Whole Lotta Loving (Lenny Kravitz with Rebirth Brass Band)
12 My Girl Josephine (Super Cat with Jack Radics)
13 I've Been Around (Lil' Band O' Gold with Robert Plant)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15833375/CoveredDominBarth_1990-2012_Volum2_atse.zip.html

For once, I didn't have to make a lot of edits to get a color photo of two songwriters together. The cover photo here is exactly as it originally appeared, with the two of them leaning against each other. However, I did make one edit, and that was to change the black background to a light blue one.