Song of the Day

Fred Neil - Dolphins

I may not be alone in hearing this song for the first time by Tim Buckley and it was a favourite by him until I heard the man who wrote it's version. Fred Neil was the author of 'Everbody's Talkin' made so famous again by a cover from the equally legendary Harry Nilsson. Despite his spectacularly rich baritone voice and song writing ability Fred never made a commercial success of it rather he became known via cover versions of several of his songs and influenced everybody from Bob Dylan (he played harmonica with Fred when he first landed in New York it is said) to John Sebastian (The Lovin' Spoonful covered Fred's 'Other Side Of This Life') Jefferson Airplane's 'You Me and Poohneil' is written about Fred as he was something of a mentor to Paul Kantner and frequent visitor to the Airplane house in San Francisco. It was Grace who likened him to Winnie The Pooh and hence called him 'Poohneil'. His greatest claim to fame of course when Harry Nilsson's version of 'Everybody's Talking'' was used in the classic 1969 film 'Midnight Cowboy' by John Schlesinger starring Dustin Hoffman and John Voight.
 Neil spent the last thirty years of his life dedicated to the care & conservation of Dolphins in Florida and following a resurgence of interest after Stephen Stills had him on as guest at a gig in Madison Square Garden in 1971 he slipped again into obscurity and passed away in 2001 from the affects caused by skin cancer.