Fred Neil (Fred Neil) 5

This is a great album that came out in 1967. Neil never sold very many albums, but was an enormously respected figure in the music scene of the 60's, a huge influence on people like The Byrds, Jefferson Airplane, Tim Buckley, Stephen Stills and many others. Harry Nilsson, The Airplane, Buckley, The Animals, The Stone Poneys, and numerous others covered his songs. Neil got his start in the 50's, and was a centralfigure in the early 60's Greenwich Village scene that spawned Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Hardin, Phil Ochs, Richie Havens, John Sebastian, Felix Pappalardi, Dino Valente, and so many others. Neil had a low, impressive bass voice, and a pretty unique one, and was also a fine guitar player. Neil is one of those obscure artists who probably could have been huge if he'd wanted to be, but he really shunned the limelight in a truthful way- there was no pretense about being a mysterios artist- he was really shy and hated the attention. He is assisted on this record by many names that would be familiar to a fan of that period, probably the best known name would be Al Wilson of Canned Heat on harmonica. The original version of his best known tune, "Everybody's Talkin'" is on this- Harry Nilsson had a big hit with it, but though I like Harry,this original is better." The Dolphins," one of his best songs, is astonishingly good, as is " That's The Bag I'm In," a kind of laid back blues song about hard luck. " I've Got A Secret" is an excellent, deep song that displays Neil's vocal range. There are so many good to great songs on this album that I find it hard to make a complaint- I guess that the final song, a long instrumental raga rock piece goes on for too long, but really, this is a classic album. Fans of folk, blues rock, singer songwriter material, country, and more will probably enjoy this fine album.