Wednesday, December 29, 2010

I see what I want, and baby what I want is you...


Broadmoor was a label Dave Bartholomew started up in the late '60's. It's named after a neighborhood in New Orleans up by Napolean Ave. where it runs into Broad and Fontainebleau. There weren't a lot of releases on the label, maybe 10 or so.

People tend to forget that Fats Domino was the second biggest selling artist of the 1950's, surpassed only by Elvis. And Dave Bartholomew was the man behind all of those recordings on the Imperial label, in fact he was The Man in New Orleans up until 1960 or so. Every Imperial label record made in the city has Dave Bartholomew's imprint all over it.

I'm speaking of the gods here. Cos Matassa has said a number of times that Mr. B and Fats started it all. Of course Cos himself had nothing to do with any of it, he only recorded Roy Brown's original version of "Good Rockin' Tonight" in 1948 and his studio on Rampart was recently declared a Rock & Roll Landmark. Living Treasures all, Cos, Fats, Mr. B., is that clear?

Anyway, in 1967 Fats was apparently between record labels and cut two 45's with Bartholomew for Broadmoor. Just like old times.

In my opinion this the most enjoyable of those recordings. I don't know why, but it makes me smile every time I hear it. Maybe it's just that Fats is so beautiful, ya know? Sorry about the quality of the scan, metallic gold ink on teal is almost impossible to reproduce, it's the same problem I have with 45's on the Alon label. The song is called "Work My Way Up Steady".

Hope ya'll enjoy....

7 comments:

  1. Wow! I'm familiar with all of Fats' major-label recordings, but did not know this one. I'd love to hear the others he did for Broadmoor. Thanks!

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  2. Jon...I rather like the other recordings Fats did for Broadmoor, they're just a bit old fashioned in a big band sort of way. The flip of this single is actually pretty funny....chances are I'll post it sooner rather than later.

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  3. Sooner . . . sooner . . . I was listening to this - it came up unexpected in an iTunes shuffle - I was thinking, man, that's some creamy NOLA goodness, who is that? Duh. Man could flat sing (not sing flat) and the big beat keeps you rockin' in your seat, for shit sure.

    "They call me, they call me the Fat Man because i weigh two hunned pounds!"

    The first expensive record I ever bought was the Rock And Rolling With Fats Domino EP on Imperial including "The Fat Man" for $20 (those are mid-1970's bicycle-flower-delivery dollars, mind you) at House Of Oldies in Greenwich Village, Carmine Street. That place was amazing, it's where I copped all my Chuck Berry 45's back when I Just Had To Have 'Em. I remember listening to the Carl Perkins Columbia LP there which i just could NOT afford. When that reissue came out a few years later I was on it like white on rice, what a great album. Bob Abramson, a mensch, and he put up with my teenage self for hours on end back in the day.

    The Fats EP I'm talking about has this cover art, but this photo shows the LP:

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7h4U2mB5CAo/TLJ0FOzQlqI/AAAAAAAAA0k/fh_kRX-extg/s1600/domino03.jpg

    Jeez, I'm hogging Memory Lane, aren't I?

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  4. Jer...those Fats Ep's are all pure gold. They widened Memory lane several years back, so don't worry, you ain't hoggin' nothing.

    Is that shop the same place as what a friend refers to as the Village Oldies? He lived in Manhattan in the late seventies.

    ana...

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  5. No, Village Oldies is the place that started on Bleecker St. and is now on West 3rd, now called "Bleecker Bob's Golden Oldies." (Note: both proprietors named Bob, House Of Oldies = Bob Abramson, Village Oldies = Bleecker Bob.) The third major establishment in the 70's Greenwich Village oldies record scene was known as The Golden Disc, plus there was also a cool place named Strider's - both of those had **deep** 45 shelves. Then there was mail-order via the Goldmine magazine's endless pages of small-print advertisements, either by "set-sale" or mail-in blind auction. eBay made some HUGE changes in the rare record scene, let me tell you.

    Bleecker Bob's was also definitely an essential store at that time but more because that was where the punk scene started filtering in. I got my copy of the first indie B-52's 45 there, for example, and I got my import Clash 45's either there or some other place I forget now one by one as they were released and brought over.

    Lenny Kaye worked there and met Patti Smith there, so it was certainly a VERY important place in the record scene at the time, but Bleecker Bob was a TOTAL AND COMPLETE ASSHOLE (still is, I bet) and the prices were pretty exorbitant on the stuff I was interested in, so they didn't get much of my business, just indie and import 45's for the most part.

    I'd be remiss if I didn't shout out the great J&R Music World (maybe it was called J&R Record World back then, I'm not sure.) Located opposite City Hall, just over the Brooklyn Bridge, it was then a storefront with a small electronics shop at street level and the basement filled with LP bins. $3.69 + 0.30 tax = $3.99 per new single LP, mid-70's prices. Once I found J&R (thank you , Mitchell Zeller) and I got stopped by security that one time, I gave up stealing records from Korvette's and just started buying them.

    Korvette's security was actually so bad that you could turn a cash profit on stealing records there - I know people who would steal two copies and return one for a refund! But I got greedy one time and they spotted the huge bulge in my coat and scared the crap out of me in the security office. I think I was trying to get Quadrophenia AND Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - and a couple other things! - up under there.

    J&R now occupies nearly every store front on their original block and also has a purpose-built building on the corner. They have sections dedicated to audio, computer, home appliances, CD's, even books now, I think. Quite the booming enterprise now; I knew them when.

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  6. Jer...I checked with my pal, and yeah I was wrong about the name. He remembers the House of Oldies with great fondness. Also the salsa shop in the 42 St subway station [???] and the Golden Disc.

    He says he used to buy punk imports at a tiny place called Rocks In Your Head, because the owner traveled regularly to London and carried back new releases in his luggage.

    I also heard a loooong story about a shouting match with "that fucking asshole" Bleeker Bob. He says they had a huge doberman attack dog behind the counter, and that there should have been a sign outside saying "masochists only".

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  7. Rocks In Your Head was ab fab, no doubt about that. And I wish I had known then what I know now about Joe Bataan and Eddie Palmieri, that store in the subway station was VERY cool but I wasn't really hip to Latin sounds just yet.

    My absolutely FAVORITE place back then to crate-dig, however, was out in Brooklyn off of Eastern Parkway, a little storefront full of true Jamaican reggae wax. Man I miss that place.

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