The Velvet Foghorn
Yesterday my meeting-to-doing ratio was out of control, so I didn't have much time to listen to the work CD of the day, The Many Sides of Fred Neil. Well, it's a two-disc set anyway, so I'll be listening to it again today. Fred Neil was a seminal figure of the Village folk scene, an early fuser of folk and rock (especially instrumentation), a fine songwriter who generated hits for other people but none for himself, and a figure of mystery who appeared, made his mark on people like David Crosby, John Sebastian, and Dylan, and then totally dropped out of the music scene.
But the most important thing about Fred Neil is his voice - a deep, dark, bass-baritone, sweetened by a drawl, and capable of bending notes like a blues guitar. He's got a midrange, too, and a good one, but it's those low notes that get you (subsonics, maybe?). Some artists have a tear in every song, no matter how happy the melody and lyrics; Fred Neil makes every song he sings a blues, filled with an undertone of yearning.
This disc contains three Capitol albums he recorded (Fred Neil, Sessions, and Other Side of This Life), along with some early singles and several unreleased tracks. It's worth getting primarily for the Fred Neil sides, which include some of his best and best-known songs (best-known - unfortunately - for their covers by others, like Harry Nilsson's hit release of "Everybody's Talkin'" or Tim Buckley's "The Dolphins"). He also does personalized versions of some classic folksongs - "Green Rocky Road" for example, and "Sweet Cocaine" - and makes them his own. The other two albums on the CD are secondary - they've got some good work on them (though the last is more of a "fulfill the contract" set, with live tracks and odds&ends), but don't rise to the level of Fred Neil
He had two earlier albums, available in a double CD set - Tear Down the Walls, recorded with Vince Martin, and Bleecker and MacDougal, which is almost as good as Fred Neil and contains my favorite lyric blues, "Little Bit of Rain". If you can get your hands on that double set and today's selection, you'll have all of Fred Neil's significant work - which is both great and too bad.
In the song "Bleecker and MacDougal", Fred sings:
In 1971, he cut his last commercial album, went home to Florida, and never looked back. He died in 2001, a blue day for music.
But the most important thing about Fred Neil is his voice - a deep, dark, bass-baritone, sweetened by a drawl, and capable of bending notes like a blues guitar. He's got a midrange, too, and a good one, but it's those low notes that get you (subsonics, maybe?). Some artists have a tear in every song, no matter how happy the melody and lyrics; Fred Neil makes every song he sings a blues, filled with an undertone of yearning.
This disc contains three Capitol albums he recorded (Fred Neil, Sessions, and Other Side of This Life), along with some early singles and several unreleased tracks. It's worth getting primarily for the Fred Neil sides, which include some of his best and best-known songs (best-known - unfortunately - for their covers by others, like Harry Nilsson's hit release of "Everybody's Talkin'" or Tim Buckley's "The Dolphins"). He also does personalized versions of some classic folksongs - "Green Rocky Road" for example, and "Sweet Cocaine" - and makes them his own. The other two albums on the CD are secondary - they've got some good work on them (though the last is more of a "fulfill the contract" set, with live tracks and odds&ends), but don't rise to the level of Fred Neil
He had two earlier albums, available in a double CD set - Tear Down the Walls, recorded with Vince Martin, and Bleecker and MacDougal, which is almost as good as Fred Neil and contains my favorite lyric blues, "Little Bit of Rain". If you can get your hands on that double set and today's selection, you'll have all of Fred Neil's significant work - which is both great and too bad.
In the song "Bleecker and MacDougal", Fred sings:
I was standing on the corner
Of the Bleecker and MacDougal
Wondering which way to go
I've got a woman down in Coconut Grove
And you know she love me so
I wanna go home
I wanna go home
Now don't you tell me your troubles
Troubles of my own
I wanna go home
In 1971, he cut his last commercial album, went home to Florida, and never looked back. He died in 2001, a blue day for music.
posted by DJStan at 7:33 AM
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