Fred is a friend from 40 years ago. Last time I was in touch with him I found him at the Rainbow Room next to the Whiskey a Go Go on Sunset. He invited us (I think my wife to be, Danny Noonan, and Cheryl were with me) up to his place in the Hollywood Hills and I supposed we reminisced a little, and that was that.
A few years before that I carried some equipment for his band for two gigs in my Datsun pickup. One was at the Beach House Bar at the foot of Lick(?) Pier, where the famous Avalon Ballroom (Lawrence Welk's joint) was. I parked close to the doors of the Ballroom on the pier itself.
Fred's band was playing the first set before Black Oak Arkansas. This was before BOA was a band of renowned. It was a fun gig for me, I was under age and they served me pitchers of beer and I danced to the music. Shortly after BOA came on we smelled smoke and then someone shouted FIRE from the stairwell. I ran outside to get my pickup and the flames were coming from underneath the pier next to my pick up. When I pulled up equipment was flying down the stairs. We packed up the pickup and went across the street and watched the pier burn. That's how I remember it 40 years back.
They played at the Whiskey one night and I remember trying to nail the bass drum down to the stage because the drummer was kicking it away from him. We invited some "groupies" to the band apartment after the gig, it wasn't really exciting or gratifying, as least for me.
That was that, I didn't see Fred or stay in touch aside from the Rainbow run in.
So now I find friends on Faceplant along with Danny Chapman, the singer- harmonica player of the Vanilla Rain, the band that Fred , Dennis, Larry, Dave and Danny were in that they started in Jr High. VR was a very good band for a High School Garage Band and I was a fan boy and then a friend. We had a good time and had the usual teener adventures living in the SFV.
I hung out with most of them as individuals and I was close to Fred for a short time and we talked about ourselves and the state of our existence like young guys do at that age. We were pretty full of ourselves.I had other close friends from the band but I'm talking about Freddy here.
Danny sent me a video and a "7inch" CD with five compositions recorded by Fred back in the 70s. I was almost afraid to listen out of being disappointed or something. It turned out a lot better than I expected. I was surprised by his vocals, I had never really heard him sing. He wasn't really singing up front when I knew him, he played guitar, lead guitar- his voice was his guitar. I remember his father telling him BB King was great but BB needed to get rid of his guitar.
So this CD features his songs sung by him and his voice is good!! He plays some "refrains," breaks on his guitar but it's part of the piece. He does not go off like a "Guitar God." The songs are complete compositions and the vocals and lyric are up front. The lyrics are personal and poetic. Sounds corny but I hear some of the Fred I remember when we had discussions and debates though that might be more than it really was. We were blowing off our anger and frustrations as kids growing into men. So the songs are sorting out experiences he had which is what most songs- poetry is about. These songs are of a further evolved Fred sometime after we hung out.
The music is influenced by the Beatles, maybe Bowie, Freddy Mercury, there's a cabaret sounding tune as a last cut. My favorite after the initial listening is the first one; "Open Up."
Fred is a definite Tenor, and has decent range. I'm not really a musician so take all this with a grain of salt. His guitar got better more assured, it has become more vocal, it has good expression.
I don't think the band on the recording is the old band that I hauled around.
The video is black and white film that was transferred to video, not great quality, but it shows Fred singing and playing guitar. The music is dubbed over the video. Fred's styling in an Edwardian suit. He had all the moves down. It's fun to watch, takes you back to the glam rock days.
I'm not sure what happened to his music career. Danny said something about it and he, Fred, just let it go for some time. I've done the same thing with painting and making art. I have the feeling if he hung in there he might have had a career or a living from music. I think he expected greater things and playing as a session musician or clubs was not what he wanted. I'm just guessing though.
So I like the music and I will listen to it some more, get into it a bit more.
Thanks Danny.
Danny's a great musician himself and has some stuff I will listen to Their old band mate Dennis does music and composes too. It's really stunning to hear this stuff! It will take time to take it all in.
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