62. Fred Neil - Fred Neil (Dec 1966)

1. The Dolphins*

2. I've Got a Secret (Didn't We Shake Sugaree)

3. That's the Bag I'm In

4. Badi-Ba

5. Faretheewell (Fred's Tune)

6. Everybody's Talkin'*

7. Everything Happens

8. Sweet Cocaine

9. Green Rocky Road 

10. Cynicrustpetefredjohn Raga*

B+

Let's start with the cover, a black and white image of a man embracing a boy. Does it have anything to do with the music within? No, not really. Then there's the first song - a slow, amorphous number about searching for dolphins in the sea which, while brilliant, bears no relation to the rest of the music on the album. It's a beautiful song - Neil's voice is deep and gorgeous, and the strange combination of oddly metered chords on the electric guitar with a deep, echoey bass and classical guitar makes for a wonderful mood piece. But unfortunately, the rest of the album is (with one exception) fairly unexceptional. In fact, it's frequently downright annoying. Neil has an irritating tendency to extend his voice into vibrato moaning of the sort that sets my teeth on edge. If he had stuck to the proto-Tim Buckley I might have enjoyed this album a lot more.

Thankfully, there's also "Everybody's Talkin'", which, while better known as a Harry Nilsson song, is beautiful and strange and honestly, why didn't they just use this version in Midnight Cowboy? It's better than the Nilsson version. Although I guess it is dark and strange, in keeping with the rest of the album, as possibly a little too downbeat for the movie.

As for the rest of the album - It's... fine, I guess? I like "Cynicrustpetefredjohn Raga", which, while obviously filler, is also a great mishmash of blues, Indian and klezmer that sounds like nothing else and prefigures a lot of world music. The rest of the songs are sad ballads of quotidian disappointment which I don't hate, but which don't really grab me. I think part of the problem is that there are two songs which are so amazingly great that they overshadow the rest of the record. It makes you wonder why the rest of the album isn't the same strange, challenging, odd music that the three tracks I've asterisked are. 

Also, quite frankly, "Badi-Ba" is just annoying.

So that's my take on the album - three amazing songs that redefined folk music, and led to great work by Tim Buckley and Joni Mitchell (among others), and seven songs I found faintly annoying.