Fred Neil
Encyclopedia
Fred Neil was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer, and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularly "Everybody's Talkin'
Everybody's Talkin'
"Everybody's Talkin" is a folk rock song released by Fred Neil in 1966 that became a global success for Harry Nilsson in 1969, reaching #2 and #6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and Pop Singles chart respectively and winning a Grammy after it was featured on the soundtrack for the film...

", which became a hit for Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...

 after being used for the film Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John...

. Though highly regarded by contemporary folk singers, he was reluctant to tour (something he shared with Nilsson), and mainly spent the last 30 years of his life assisting with the preservation of dolphins.

Biography

Born in Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...

, Neil was exposed to music at an early age, travelling around the US with his father who was a representative for Wurlitzer
Wurlitzer
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....

 jukeboxes. Neil was one of the singer-songwriters who worked out of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

's Brill Building
Brill Building
The Brill Building is an office building located at 1619 Broadway on 49th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, just north of Times Square and further uptown from the historic musical Tin Pan Alley neighborhood...

, a center for music industry offices. While composing at the Brill Building for other artists, Neil also recorded six mostly rockabilly-pop oriented singles for different labels as a solo artist. He wrote songs that were taken by early rock and roll artists such as Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...

 ("Come Back Baby" 1958) and Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

 ("Candy Man" 1961).

He met Vince Martin
Vince Martin (singer)
Vince Martin is an American folk singer and songwriter.He first recorded with the Tarriers in 1957, on the hit single Cindy, Oh Cindy. He became more widely known with his duo recordings with Fred Neil in the early 1960s...

 in 1961, and they formed a singing partnership; his first LP, Tear Down The Walls (1965) was recorded with Martin. During 1965 and 1966 Neil was joined on many live sets by the Seventh Sons, a trio trio led by Buzzy Linhart
Buzzy Linhart
Buzzy Linhart is an American rock performer and musician.Born William Linhart in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he began honing his craft playing percussion for symphony at the age of seven, switching to vibraphone at ten...

 on guitar and vibes. Neil released Bleecker & MacDougal
Bleecker & MacDougal
Bleecker & MacDougal, issued by Elektra in 1965, is the debut album from Fred Neil, a pioneer folk rock musician. The recording, which unlike many folk albums at the time featured electric guitar backing, had a significant influence on the folk rock movement...

on Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....

 in 1965, reissued in 1970 as A Little Bit of Rain. Fred Neil (released in 1966, relaunched in 1969 as Everybody's Talkin) was recorded during his residences in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

 and Coconut Grove, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, respectively (although for the latter, one session took place in Los Angeles).

After "Everybody's Talkin'", Neil's best-known song is "The Dolphins", which was later recorded by several artists including Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...

, for whom Neil was a major influence. Interested in dolphins since the mid 1960s, when he had begun visiting the Miami Seaquarium, with Ric O’Barry in 1970 Neil founded The Dolphin Research Project, an organization dedicated (according to Neil himself) to stopping the capture, trafficking and exploitation of dolphins worldwide. Increasingly involved in that pursuit, Neil progressively disappeared from the recording studio and live performance, with only occasional performances in the rest of the 1970s.

Later life and death

Neil left Woodstock in the mid 1970s and spent his remaining decades on the shores of southern Florida, involved in The Dolphin Project. After playing with Stephen Stills at New York City's Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

 in 1970, Neil began a long retirement, performing in public mostly at gigs for the Dolphin Project Revue in Coconut Grove, although in 1977 he played a benefit show for the Revue in Tokyo. A live date occurred in July 1975 at The Montreux Jazz Festival, when Neil played with his core group of John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...

 on harp, Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks is an American bassist. He has played in many styles of music...

 on bass, and Pete Childs on guitar. Michael Lang, one of the organizers of the 1969 Woodstock Festival and a 1970s Coconut Grove scene habituée, tried unsuccessfully to release this as a live LP. His last public performances were in 1981 at an outdoor concert at the Old Grove Pub in Coconut Grove, where he joined Buzzy Linhart for one song and stayed onstage for the rest of the set.

Many of Neil's 1970s recordings remain unissued, including a 1973 session with Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band, formed in 1965 in San Francisco.-Introduction:Quicksilver Messenger Service gained wide popularity in the Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe and several of their albums ranked...

 guitarist John Cipollina
John Cipollina
John Cipollina was a guitarist best known for his role as a founder and the lead guitarist of the prominent San Francisco rock band Quicksilver Messenger Service...

. In a later interview, Ric O'Barry claimed that Neil recorded two albums of all cover songs between 1977 and 1978 that were buried by Columbia Records. According to Barry, he produced the first of the recordings in the sessions in Miami. Neil was joined by Pete Childs on guitar, John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...

 on harp, and Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks
Harvey Brooks is an American bassist. He has played in many styles of music...

 on bass. The second album was more fully arranged, with Neil accompanied by the New York session band Stuff
Stuff (band)
Stuff was a New York-based jazz funk band active in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The members were Gordon Edwards , Richard Tee , Eric Gale , Cornell Dupree , Chris Parker , and later Steve Gadd...

 and some old friends like Slick Aguilar. The songs on these albums were written by Bobby Charles
Bobby Charles
Bobby Charles was an American singer-songwriter.An ethnic Cajun, Charles was born as Robert Charles Guidry in Abbeville, Louisiana and grew up listening to Cajun music and the country and western music of Hank Williams...

, "Hey Joe
Hey Joe
"Hey Joe" is an American popular song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and as such, has been performed in a multitude of musical styles by hundreds of different artists since it was first written. "Hey Joe" tells the story of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico...

"'s writer Billy Roberts, John Braheny and Bobby Ingram.

Neil died of natural causes
Death by natural causes
A death by natural causes, as recorded by coroners and on death certificates and associated documents, is one that is primarily attributed to natural agents: usually an illness or an internal malfunction of the body. For example, a person dying from complications from influenza or a heart attack ...

 in 2001.

Legacy

Neil gained public recognition in 1969, when Nilsson's recording of "Everybody's Talkin'
Everybody's Talkin'
"Everybody's Talkin" is a folk rock song released by Fred Neil in 1966 that became a global success for Harry Nilsson in 1969, reaching #2 and #6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and Pop Singles chart respectively and winning a Grammy after it was featured on the soundtrack for the film...

" was featured in the film Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Cowboy is a 1969 American drama film based on the 1965 novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It was written by Waldo Salt, directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Jon Voight in the title role. Notable smaller roles are filled by Sylvia Miles, John...

; the song became a hit and won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

.
He was one of the pioneers of the folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...

 and singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 musical genres, his most prominent musical descendants being Tim Buckley
Tim Buckley
Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...

, Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...

, David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...

 and Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

. His most frequently cited disciples are Karen Dalton
Karen Dalton
Karen J. Dalton was an American folk blues singer and banjo player associated with the early 1960s Greenwich Village folk music scene, particularly with Fred Neil and the Holy Modal Rounders as well as Bob Dylan.-Biography:Dalton, whose heritage was Cherokee, was born Karen J. Cariker in Enid,...

, Tim Hardin
Tim Hardin
James Timothy "Tim" Hardin was an American folk musician and composer. He wrote the Top 40 hits "If I Were a Carpenter", covered by, among others, Joan Baez, Bobby Darin, Johnny Cash, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, and Robert Plant, and "Reason to Believe", covered by many, including Rod Stewart, as well...

, Dino Valenti, Vince Martin
Vince Martin (singer)
Vince Martin is an American folk singer and songwriter.He first recorded with the Tarriers in 1957, on the hit single Cindy, Oh Cindy. He became more widely known with his duo recordings with Fred Neil in the early 1960s...

, Peter Stampfel of the avant-folk ensemble The Holy Modal Rounders, John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...

 (The Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful is an American pop rock band of the 1960s, named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. When asked about his band, leader John Sebastian said it sounded like a combination of "Mississippi John Hurt and Chuck Berry," prompting his friend, Fritz Richmond, to suggest the name...

), Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...

, Jerry Jeff Walker
Jerry Jeff Walker
Jerry Jeff Walker is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is probably most famous for writing the song "Mr. Bojangles.-Biography:...

, Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song "Eve of Destruction", and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.-Early life:...

, and Paul Kantner
Paul Kantner
Paul Lorin Kantner is an American rock musician, known for co-founding the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane and its spin-off band Jefferson Starship.- Overview :...

 (Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....

). Some of Neil's early compositions were recorded by Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley , known professionally as Buddy Holly, was an American singer-songwriter and a pioneer of rock and roll...

 and Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

. He was a session guitarist on Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...

's 1958 hit "Dream Lover," and a demo singer on a late-1950s Elvis Presley movie soundtrack session.

In Fred Neil's Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

 obituary Anthony DeCurtis wrote, "So why is Neil a hero to David Crosby? Because back when Crosby was an aspiring folkie who just arrived in New York, Neil bothered to take an interest in him, just as he did for the young Bob Dylan, who backed Neil on harmonica at the Cafe Wha?
Cafe Wha?
Cafe Wha? is a club in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City that has been home to various musicians and comedians. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, The Velvet Underground, Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, Kool and the Gang, Peter, Paul & Mary, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Joan...

 in Greenwich Village. 'He taught me that everything was music,' Crosby says."

In his memoir, Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...

 recalled Neil and then-partner Vince Martin
Vince Martin (singer)
Vince Martin is an American folk singer and songwriter.He first recorded with the Tarriers in 1957, on the hit single Cindy, Oh Cindy. He became more widely known with his duo recordings with Fred Neil in the early 1960s...

's ability to make an entrance through the audience, sans microphones, and get the audience up and clapping by relying only on their harmonious vocals.

Discography

  • 1965: Tear Down the Walls (Elektra) with Vince Martin
  • 1965: Bleecker & MacDougal
    Bleecker & MacDougal
    Bleecker & MacDougal, issued by Elektra in 1965, is the debut album from Fred Neil, a pioneer folk rock musician. The recording, which unlike many folk albums at the time featured electric guitar backing, had a significant influence on the folk rock movement...

    (Elektra) reissued in 1970 as A Little Bit of Rain
  • 1966: Fred Neil
    Fred Neil (album)
    Fred Neil is the 1966 2nd album from Fred Neil, a pioneer Folk rock musician. The album has a more laid-back sound than his debut, and contains his legendary songs "Everybody's Talkin' " and "The Dolphins"...

    (Capitol) reissued in 1969 as Everybody's Talkin
  • 1967: Sessions (Capitol)
  • 1971: The Other Side of This Life (Capitol) live and alternate versions


Compilations
  • 1986: The Very Best of Fred Neil (See for Miles)
  • 1998: The Many Sides of Fred Neil (Collectors' Choice)
  • 2003: Do You Ever Think of Me? (Rev-Ola)
  • 2004: The Sky Is Falling: The Complete Live Recordings 1965-1971 (Rev-Ola)
  • 2005: Echoes of My Mind: The Best of 1963-1971 (Raven)
  • 2008: Trav'lin' Man: The Early Singles (Fallout)


Anthologies including tracks by Neil
  • 1963: Hootenanny Live at the Bitter End (FM)
  • 1964: A Rootin" Tootin' Hootenanny (FM)
  • 1964: World of Folk Music (FM)

Selected songs

  • "Candy Man"
  • "Everybody's Talkin'
    Everybody's Talkin'
    "Everybody's Talkin" is a folk rock song released by Fred Neil in 1966 that became a global success for Harry Nilsson in 1969, reaching #2 and #6 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and Pop Singles chart respectively and winning a Grammy after it was featured on the soundtrack for the film...

    "
  • "Ba-di-da"
  • "Tear Down the Walls"
  • "The Dolphins"
  • "Green Rocky Road"
  • "The Other Side of This Life"
  • "Country Boy & Bleecker Street"
  • "That's the Bag I'm In"
  • "Blues on the Ceiling"
  • "Wild Child in a World of Trouble"

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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