RAMBLER - THE VERY LAST HOLLYWOOD FATS RECORDING

For any fan of american electric blues, this is royalty, an absolute collectors item. Why HOLLYWOOD FATS, also known as Michael Mann, remains in posthumous cultish like obscurity and isn't revered in death like fellow genius STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN is totally unexplainable to me. HOLLYWOOD FATS died in 1986 at the age of 32 from a heroin overdose, but in his short lifetime he managed to create what i personally regard as the ultimate combination of blues and rock'n'roll with the HOLLYFOOT FATS BAND album titled ROCK THIS HOUSE, which was released in 1979. It was to be the only HFB album under that name, not long after its release the band splintered and Fats began playing alongside JAMES HARMAN. The song featured in this video is one heck of an obscurity, it's a demo which was recorded on a portable tape machine during a rehearsal just one week before Hollywood Fat's death in 1986, around seven years after ROCK THIS HOUSE was released. RAMBLER is a lot more Texas blues sounding than the typical Fats style, which always leaned more towards Chicago. HOLLYWOOD FATS sounds so much like STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN here, but with the added advantage of a boogie woogie band backing him. This is it, the final song Hollywood Fats ever recorded. HOLLYWOOD FATS BAND had briefly re-united and were scheduled to play at the annual SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BLUES SOCIETY festival in Los Angeles the next week. Sadly Hollywood Fats didn't live long enough to make it there. Pardon me for the sound drop out half way through the song, remember just how primitive the method of recording was.