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.
I too came to the Dolphins via a roundabout route, but for me it was “It’s a Beautiful Day”.
ReplyDeleteBTW thanks for your blog... despite its name I love reading it.
Thanks Frank! It's appreciated. I saw 'It's A Beautifu Day' way back in the mists of time at some UK festival, can't recall where off hand things seem so foggy somehow! [Bath Blues Festival 1969?] They are great and I played their 'White Bird' to death after hearing it live but I don't recall them covering 'Dolphins' though I can imagine. Think they did it on their second album after I saw them. Thanks for dropping by.
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