terrific tale and memory! had the band not 'made it' early on, Fred may not have stayed on trajectory all those years, soon disappeared as another unknown, and never influenced anybody regarding RnR. they'd been doing the boogie beat all along in during and after the war, and Black certainly wasn't the only one to notice. here's 2 shots I salvaged long ago off an ebay sale of 3D ViewMaster slides from the Town Hall Party gang c1960 in Newhall, CA on a gratis weekend gig.Hell yeah!!
I met Fred in about 1985 in a dive bar in Greenfield, south of Bakersfield, while meeting up with a promoter to sign up for local music festival to raise money to help build the Bakersfield country music hall of fame. He was sitting at the bar and the promoter asked me if I wanted to meet him. I sat next to him and introduced myself and asked if I could buy him a drink. He said "scotch!"
When I asked him what advice he had for a young bass player, he said....
"Keep em coming!"
