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NEWS BEATS

“I have this theory that Fats Domino invented ska music,” Paul Kelly says, struck either by a wave of brilliance or jetlag or, most likely, both. (Or perhaps a subconscious memory of Paul McCartney once expounding the same theory—Ed.) “You can hear it in his right hand.

February 1, 1988
Vicki Arkoff

NEWS BEATS

Paul Kelly & The Messengers, Royal Crescent Mob, Julie Brown, The Drbogs

AUSSIE GOSSIP

“I have this theory that Fats Domino invented ska music,” Paul Kelly says, struck either by a wave of brilliance or jetlag or, most likely, both. (Or perhaps a subconscious memory of Paul McCartney once expounding the same theory—Ed.) “You can hear it in his right hand. In the West Indies, they obviously would have been picking up New Orleans radio stations, so the guitarists in Jamaica must have picked up on Fats Domino’s right hand to get that short beat. Ever notice that?”

Perhaps it was Kelly’s undesired sobriety that led to this revelation. Tapping his fingernails—still caked with Australian dirt—on a tabletop, it’s clear that he’s disappointed. He and his band, the Messengers, have been in America less than 24 hours and they’ve already learned—the hard way—that' L.A. bars close at the unforgivably early hour of two a.m. But already he’s feeling better because he’s only a Tijuana taxi honk away from the office of his childhood idol, Herb Alpert. As fate would have it, Kelly’s latest album, Gossip, is on Alpert’s A&M Records.

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