Fred Neil (March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularly "Everybody's Talkin'", which became a hit for Harry Nilsson after it was used in the film Midnight Cowboy in 1969. Though highly regarded by contemporary folk singers, he was reluctant to tour and spent much of the last 30 years of his life assisting with the preservation of dolphins.
Neil was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. His father worked for Wurlitzer, a jukebox manufacturer, and he sometimes took his son along when he traveled to nightspots in Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida to install and repair the machines. In the 1950s Fred Neil moved to New York where he pitched pop songs at the Brill Building (a music publishing and recording center). In 1956 a then-unknown Buddy Holly recorded one of his compositions, “Modern Don Juan,” and in 1961 Roy Orbison included “Candy Man” on the backside of “Crying.”
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| Bob Dylan, Karen Dalton & Fred Neil |
On the back of this success, Neil moved to New York. Dylan later nominated him as one of his primary inspirations: "He had a powerful bass voice and a powerful sense of rhythm. I'd play harmonica for him, and once in a while get to sing a song." In 1963 three of his songs appeared on a compilation album released by the FM label called Hootenanny Live at the Bitter End. He also established himself in Coconut Grove, Florida, where a lively folk scene had grown up around singer Vince Martin in 1961.
Neil performed in a duo with Vince Taylor, with whom he recorded the album, Tear Down The Walls. His first solo album, Bleecker & Mac Dougal (1965), named after streets in Greenwich Village, became a benchmark for many emergent young singer-songwriters, with one of the songs on the album, The Other Side Of This Life subsequently covered by Lovin' Spoonful, Jefferson Airplane and the Youngbloods. It was also the title of a live album recorded in Los Angeles, with the country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons among the backing musicians.Tiim Hardin, Tim Buckley and David Crosby were strongly influenced by Neil, and his songs were also covered by Richie Havens, HP Lovecraft and Casey Anderson.
He was offered the opportunity to rerecord “Everybody’s Talkin’” in 1969 for the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack but declined. Harry Nilsson recorded the song instead and it became a huge hit. Neil, however, reaped song-writing royalties from the song, allowing him to live his secluded life. He took flight almost from the day his song, Everybody's Talkin' ibecame a global hit in 1970, following its use as the theme of the Dustin Hoffman-Jon Voight movie Midnight Cowboy (1969).
Neil rarely gave interviews, could not stomach fame, and appeared repulsed at the success of his song, a disdainful commentary on human alienation in public life. In fact, it had already appeared on Neil's 1966 solo album, alongside another song, The Dolphins, which reflected his fascination with mammals.
Unimpressed by the trappings of fame, and with no interest in exploiting the opportunities offered by his hit, Neil had withdrawn by 1971 to set up a dolphin rescue project in Florida with marine biologist Richard O'Barry, who trained the dolphins for the television series Flipper. He attempted to record one more album for Columbia in 1973, but the sessions were never issued. He continued to perform sporadically in 1975-76, attending charity functions to benefit the Dolphin Project, an action group dedicated to the abolition of dolphin captivity that he cofounded with marine biologist on Earth Day in 1970.
Neil made his last appearance with Jackson Browne, Richie Havens, and others at a benefit concert in Japan in 1977. He refused all attempts to persuade him into a comeback, and devoted the rest of his life to protecting dolphins. Through the 1980s, Neil retreated from music and public life, living in Florida. In June 1987, in Miami, he was involved in a tragic accident that killed Christine Purcell, his girlfriend. Afterward, Neil moved from Coconut Grove, visiting New York, travelling to Mexico and Texas, then, by the early 1990s, relocating to coastal Oregon.
In 1998, he remarked on a sore on his face that he claimed was a spider bite. It was the first sign of a later-diagnosed squamous-cell carcinoma, for which he received radiation treatment and surgery. The cancer returned in 2001, and he was scheduled to begin chemotherapy on July 16, but he was found dead on July 7, 2001 at his home in Summerland Key, Florida. He was 65 years old. Overlooked, underrated and doing his damndest to keep it that way: such was the mysterious life of Fred Neil.
(Edited from The Guardian, Encyclopedia.com & Wikipedia)