Not a rock hero
Fred Flentye traded the fast lane for domestic bliss, and surprising musical fulfillment
Domestic rock god Fred Flentye.
“This is not about some kinda rock hero, it’s so much deeper,” says Fred Flentye.
His is the story of a guitar god the world doesn’t know, come down from high, wild places to live a richer, more domestic life – and one that still rocks.
The South Bay native who resides in Redondo Beach began playing guitar at age 13. It was 1965.
“I used to strum a broom to Beatles and Stones,” recalls Flentye. “The neighbor played guitar, buddies across the street played, my buddies in school, close friends around the block…we were all pickin’ it up. I took lessons for six months on a $60 electric guitar, but I was learning faster with my peers. I told my dad, and he respected that, so he stopped paying for lessons and bought me a much more expensive guitar.”
“Frank my brother was drumming, and he had a snare and cymbal with a chain on it, like a little necklace chain on it for a sizzle sound, ya know…and we’d get like for a dime, get three songs and play to it,” Flentye said. “From day one we had a band…with brothers and friends, a neighbor across the street…we’re all playin’ electric, nobody had acoustic.”
It was Beatles, Stones Beach Boys and Motown. Then in 1968 Fentye caught the blues.
“When I hit the blues, all of a sudden I couldn’t listen to Beatles anymore…all of a sudden blues became ‘it,’” he said.
Most of all, it was about Santana and Hendrix.
“The first time Hendrix came to the Forum in 1969 we had fifth row seats. I’m just goin’ what is this? Ya know, you’re waitin’ for radio hits, and he’s not doin’ any of that, and he don’t sound like his record at all…and the following year he comes back, and we got third row seats. Yeah. It just blew my mind — all of a sudden I realized, ‘Oh, it’s not just about trying to be your record, and go out and push your record, you know.’ It was the day of the album.”
A year later the teenager was coming of age, and guitar was as akin to his fingers as sushi is to chopsticks.
“We had our bands and we were starting to squeeze into the Hollywood area…they had a lot of free concerts in Venice, Santa Monica Pier and Griffith Park…where people threw up sound systems and bands played for free…We got really good, I mean we were considered good,” he said.
Then Flentye got a taste of the road in a bustling R&B scene that would carry him around the country for the next four years.
“This one agent had these three bands, Drifters, Shirelles, Coasters,” he said. “We were the opener band and the band playin’ the music for the vocal groups. They drove their own car, we drove in our van. And these are black cats, so they had a little different lifestyle than us white boys out of Gardena, you know…We always had to worry about them breaking into our stash while we were playing our set, they’d be back there pickin’ up girls and stuff.”
The young guitarist watched the R&B vocal groups build a crowd’s with tension and release it. Ten-minute gospel jams were commonplace.
“It’d get ya goin’, get that stew bubblin’ and boilin’,” Flentye recalled. “Ya know, like James Brown does.”
Somewhere on the way to rock stardom, Flentye tired of the road. By 1978 he had settled into a quieter life, playing occupationally in top 40 bands. He was still touring Canada and Alaska, and playing the So Cal scene, but he had gotten serious with a girl named Judy and was on his way out.
“As I was raised domestic, I always had the pull to get tired of visiting or being on the road, or working in a nightclub on Thanksgiving, you know, or New Year’s Eve being without friends cuz you’re working – which is a gas too, but I just had that domestic pull,” he said.
He met Judy in October ‘78, by Christmas he was out of the band, he began working for Northrop the next February – got married, got the house, started the family, established a routine schedule.
There were a few stints with short-lived bands here and there. In the early ‘90s he formed a blues band with coworker and bassist Ed Lugo: The Blue Fuze. But with a marriage and a child at home, Flentye backed away from too much playing, so nothing really stuck.
Then kind of out of nowhere, by the time his son Jason was older and in high school, he’d borrow one of his dad’s acoustic guitars to play songs for class projects. Jason had learned some guitar, fooling around with his dad.
“Jason doesn’t play any open chords, he knows a little bit about that, but they’re like strange to him. He plays everything in the middle of the neck like an electric guitar player plays,” Flentye said.
Jason, his father and Lugo began to jam together. By the time Jason was in college, his close friend Jeff Blackman played drums and started to jam with them too. Jason’s acoustic guitar became like a companion, and he constantly wrote songs.
By 2002, the band Midnight Lamp was born. Jason fused his own generational influences with those of his father — kind of Sublime meets Jimi Hendrix. Midnight Lamp played parties and whatnot, and had some gigs at Sully’s in Torrance. They recorded an album, “Whatch You Know About The Scoop?”
In 2005 a leading vocal powerhouse, Joyce Isles, yet another coworker at Northrop, stepped into the Midnight Lamp sound. She could bounce and flow with the blues and funk leanings, and added her own substantial presence, which would alter and expand the band’s feel. She brought the soul of R&B.
The next piece of the puzzle came together when the Lamp was gigging at H.T. Grill in Redondo Beach, where Lugo’s wife worked. The cook asked them to play a gathering at his house, where they met sax player Steve Arnold, who jammed with them and fit right in.
The now complete band developed a thick, loud, blues-based, funky, soul, jam sound. Flentye likes to refer to the sound as “Power Soul.” They cut an EP titled “Charlie’s Coolin’ Down,” and an LP “Better Days Ahead,” which is virtually a Jason Flentye solo album with all originals, backed by each member of Midnight Lamp.
Fred Flentye finds himself gratefully settled into the band that makes perfect sense for his life at age 58. With little pressure, or zeal to hustle the band, he’s content jamming his ass off with his son and close friends.
Midnight Lamp has performed from BB Kings to Brixton, Saint Rocke, Sangria, Patrick Molloy’s, The Lighthouse, 705 – the South Bay list goes on and on. They’ve made a regular thing out of playing Cafe Boogaloo about twice a month, and will likely be performing there after the New Year.
People with astute ears in those local venues pick up on a powerful guitar player with a soul full of music.
“Music means everything to me, you know?” he says. “And playing guitar’s the coolest thing there is! Is there anything cooler? Tell me if there’s something cooler. There isn’t. You know, playing guitar is better than being president of the United States. Right? It’s better than being Hugh Hefner,” he said.
You can check out Midnight Lamp’s albums and hear Flentye’s guitar work on www.DirtyHippieRadio.com, where you’ll also find a couple of unique live albums taken from Brixton and BB Kings (which most accurately capture their current incarnation and sound). ER