Poll: Fred Neil`s self-titled album
 

This is a discussion thread for the following album:


The album won a recent selection poll of http://www.musicbanter.com/country-f...lbum-club.html - but of course everyone is welcome to join in the debate. :)

So, anyone have an opinion they want to share ?

I heard the entire album, and wrote my impressions for each song.

Now I read what I wrote, and it sounds pricky. I don't intend to be, they are just my honest toughs.

As I write this text, I'm not sure if I will post it. I don't like to say to other people that I don't like his music.
This is not bad album. But I'm not onto it.

-The Dolphins. Stylized speak.
-Bady la. I like the “abandonment” feeling in the voice.
-Faretheewell. Formulaic. Instruments are only for refilling purposes.
-Everybody's Talkin. Same as the above, but it sounds better. It haves some “trance” effect, and the voice has a credible tone of nostalgia.
-Everything Happens. Again formulaic, refilling song.
-Sweet Cocaine. Classy blues. It can’t fail.
-Green Rocky Road. Heard it a million times, with different lyrics.
-Cynicrustpetefredjohn Raga. It would be effective as a soundtrack for some movie’s scene. It conveys a sense of chaos, but do not tries to catch conscious attention. It makes my thoughts wander.
-I've Got a Secret. Take a professional singer, make him speak at slow speed. Stylized speak. Add some purposeless instruments, and you have another recipe-song. Somebody will buy it.

I get the sensation that the album intends to be “just okay”. Doesn’t have ambitions.

My preferred songs are Bady la, and Sweet Cocaine, but is not something that I want to add to my collection.

I think my interest in this album was more historical than anything. I came across it while looking for Harry Nilsson's version of Everybody's Talkin'. I never realised it was a cover and reading up on Fred Neil he seemed to be an influential artist in the folk movement that I had never heard of. I guess I nominated it as a kind of manic reparation :).

Anyway that said I thought it was a pretty good album. I originally nominated the bluesier Bleecker and MacDougal but decided on this one as a folkier milestone.

I rather expected that this would be an album of mediocre material padding out the one famous track of Everybody`s Talkin`. So I was pleased to hear a bunch of songs of consistently good quality, and, despite what Argento says, a voice that has a distinctive, relaxed tone.
But on these points, I`d agree :-
If I`d bought this album when it came out, I think I might`ve been disappointed by it`s low-key approach. It`s interesting, mellow but never tries for anything more powerful.

^ Yep! I agree completely, especially about I`ve Got a Secret, which is equal favourite with Dolphins for me.

^ These days, I think it`s unusual that such a well-known song comes from a guy who has received so little public attention - so thanks for bringing FN to my notice. I`ll certainly be playing this album again.

I`ve just been reading about Fred Neil playing at New York`s Cafe Wha` in 1960. He used to invite a girl called Karen Dalton to join him on vocals, as well as permitting an aspiring 19-year-old from Minnesota to play harmonica with him. Twenty-five years later, the harmonica player had this to say:-

Here`s a pic of them playing together:-

http://www.wirz.de/music/dalton/grafik/dalton.jpg

Thanks Lisnaholic. Hadn't heard Karen Dalton before. Just listening to her first album "It's So Hard to Tell Who's Going to Love You the Best". Some nice stuff. Two tracks off the album were Fred Neil covers.

^ Hey, that`s interesting, fazstp ! It never occured to me to check out what, if anything, Karen Dalton had achieved on her own.

LOL. I assumed you were familiar with her when you posted the pic until I realised it was Bob Dylan on the harmonica.

Even if it was an accident Lisnaholic I'm glad you brought her to my attention. Some nice stuff.

This is her version of the Fred Neil track A Little Bit of Rain from her first album.




Here's her cover of the Motown/ Marvin Gaye song How Sweet It Is from her second album In My Own Time.




Search wise yours seems to be the first mention she has had on MB. I'm thinking she might even need her own thread.

^ Wow ! She has an extraordinary voice ! Two very different songs, but I`m glad to see that she`s honouring her early days with a Fred Neil composition.

You could try giving her a thread, or wait and see if the album you nominated for the album club generates a thread in a week or two.

Congrats on your detective work, fazstp; you`ve tracked down a forgotten culprit, suspected of making some good music. :)

My thanks to whoever voted in this Fred Neil poll yesterday :thumb:

What you'll notice is that just with a vote, the thread is bumped to the top of the forum section, so it'd be great to post a comment at the same time.

I'm a huge fan of thread-bumping, on account of the past is still relevant imo, even on an internet forum. In this specific case, this poll is really hotting up now:-

Is Fred Neil good or is he just ok ? Voters are split right down the middle on this divisive issue....could go either way....results are still coming in....

I voted good. I know everybody is talking about 'Everybody's Talkin', but I'm actually partial to Dolphins.

^ :laughing: Yes, that's one of the best tracks imo too, along with "I've got a secret".

One time in an interview, Dylan talked about how this album was a huge influence on him when he made one of the biggest stylistic changes in his career and recorded the John Wesley Harding album. He said that Fred Neil showed him something that had not occurred to him before: that you can take a traditional song, add in your own words and mix things around so that no-one can tell which lyrics are yours and which are traditional. That's true on the best tracks here, as FN shares his thoughts and quotes bits of remembered songs in the laid-back pace that Dylan also copied for JWH.

If we accept what Dylan says, we could make the case that the whole Americana revival made popular by The Band started with Fred Neil's album.

.

^ So you and I arrived at the same place by different routes ; I've never heard those two cover-version songs that you mention.
But, yes, I really like That's the Bag I'm In. At first I treated it as a bit of a joke because of that beatnik-era slang of the title, but it's a nice song, with its small-scale observations about life. It doesn't make any grand statement, and FN is smart enough to keep it short, leaving us wanting more.