A Little Prelude….
So the other day when I was writing about John Sebastian, I mentioned that John played on Fred Neil’s first abum Bleeker & MacDougal.
This got me thinking about Fred Neil so here is a repost of a post I did a while back. But first two things the first is on Neil’s album John omly played harmonica!
Secondly, I also mentioned that the Lovin’ Spoonful got their name from Mississippi John Hurt’s song “Coffee Blues” So here it is:
Now back to Fred Neil…….
So tonight’s folk flashback leads us to the intersection of Bleecker & MacDougal streets in New York City where……
At the corner of MacDougal and Bleecker Street, at No. 93, is the former site of the San Remo Cafe, which attracted many bohemians such as James Agee, W. H. Auden, James Baldwin, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Miles Davis, Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’Hara, Jack Kerouac, Jackson Pollock, William Styron, Dylan Thomas, Gore Vidal, and many others.
Wow!! The cafe is featured on the cover of the début Fred Neil folk rock album Bleecker & MacDougal. Fred Neil popped into my head because of another verse in that Jerry Jeff Walker’s song “Blue Mood” that I played last night. A line in the verse goes …...”They got Susanna’s money, like the stole Fred Neil’s and mine….”
Who was Fred Neil?
I imagine that the majority of you reading this may never have heard of Fred Neil, but you may know one of his songs that Harry Neilson covered ” Everybody’s Talkin'” a little background about Fred from his website:
Moody, bluesy, and melodic, Fred Neil was one of the most compelling folk-rockers to emerge from Greenwich Village in the mid-’60s. His albums showcased his extraordinarily low, rich voice on intensely personal and reflective compositions.
His influence was subtle but significant; before forming the Lovin’ Spoonful, John Sebastian played harmonica on Neil’s first album, which also featured guitarist Felix Pappalardi, who went on to produce Cream.
The Jefferson Airplane featured Neil’s “Other Side of This Life” prominently in their concerts, and dedicated a couple of songs (“Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil” and “House at Pooneil Corner”) to him.
On the B-side of “Crying” is Neil’s “Candy Man,” one of Roy Orbison’s bluesiest efforts.
Stephen Stills has mentioned Neil as an influence on his guitar playing.
Most famously, Harry Nilsson took Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’” into the Top Ten as the theme to the movie Midnight Cowboy. Continue Reading
Fred Neil’s Legacy
After the release of his last album The Other Side of this Life. Neil lived mostly in obscurity and devoted a large part of his time to The Dolphin Project He lost his battle with skin cancer unexpectedly on July 7. 2001 at his home in Florida
Fred Neil never became a household name, but his influence reached almost everywhere in the folk and folk-rock worlds of the 1960s.
Before forming The Lovin’ Spoonful, John Sebastian played harmonica on Neil’s first album. Jefferson Airplane regularly performed “Other Side of This Life,” while artists like David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Gram Parsons, and Jerry Jeff Walker all carried pieces of Neil’s musical spirit forward.
Of course, most people know at least one Fred Neil song even if they don’t realize it. Harry Nilsson took “Everybody’s Talkin’” to the Top Ten after it appeared in Midnight Cowboy.
Still, maybe Fred Neil’s greatest legacy wasn’t fame, but the way other musicians talked about him. David Crosby once said Neil “taught me that everything was music.”
Somewhere around the house I still have a typed track list from an old reel-to-reel tape. On that list is one of my favorite Fred Neil songs — “The Dolphins.”
