Tear Down the Walls / Bleecker & Macdougal [Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered]

Fred Neil | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 29, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Rhino/Wea UK
• ASIN: B00005OKOR
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,989 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I Know You Rider

2. Red Flowers

3. Tear Down the Walls

4. Weary Blues

5. Toy Balloon

6. Baby

7. Morning Dew

8. I'm a Drifter

9. Linin' Track

10. Wild Child in a World of Trouble

11. Dade County Jail

12. I Got 'Em

13. Lonesome Valley

14. Bleecker & MacDougal

15. Blues on the Ceiling

16. Sweet Mama

17. Little Bit of Rain

18. Country Boy

19. Other Side of This Life

20. Mississippi Train

See all 26 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

UK two-on-one reissue combines the late folk singer/songwriter's first two albums for Elektra, 'Tear Down The Walls' (1965) & 'Bleeker & MacDougal' (1964), both of which are out-of-print in domestically. 2001.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb early work, May 6, 2005

By 

William Timothy Lukeman - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tear Down the Walls / Bleecker & Macdougal (Audio CD)

For anyone who has encountered the work of Fred Neil, nothing more need be said: here's one of our finest singers & songwriters, stretching his creative wings & preparing for full flight. There's truly a timeless quality to his work, a dark richness & depth which speaks to any generation. His own reluctance to take the limelight led to popular neglect of his impressive work & legacy, which continues to this day. But he's definitely not be be overlooked!

I would like to say a few words about the underrated Vince Martin. Today's more cynical view might find the sweetness of his voice & outlook a bit cloying & insincere; but I think the lack is in the contemporary listener. That's easy to understand: how can anyone who wasn't alive in those days really believe that grown men could be so earnest, without a trace of post-modern irony & glibness? But it's important not to forget that sort of open-hearted optimism, especially in these dreary times. In any case, Martin's voice provides a fine counterpoint to Neil's deeper, world-weary tones; and Martin is no slouch as a songwriter himself.

As for the second half of the CD, it's Fred Neil's show all the way, and it's a rich, soulful ride in the company of a quiet master. Follow it up with the 2-disc collection "The Many Sides of Fred Neil," and you'll understand why he was such an influence on an entire generation of singer-songwriters. Excellent, detailed liner notes & vintage photographs add much to the picture of this reclusive creator. Most highly recommended!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fred Neil's Early Classics & Annoying Voice of Vince Martin, November 2, 2004

By 

Robert John Metz "Bobmusicman" (Woodland, CA , USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Tear Down the Walls / Bleecker & Macdougal (Audio CD)

This is a beautifully packaged CD. It comes in a nice slip case, and is beautifully mastered. I owned the original vinyl albums and feel that the original recordings have been well served here. Not only are there new liner notes, but the original liner notes of both albums are included as well. Vince Martin's voice is an acquired taste, but Fred's songwriting in his first album "Tear Down the Walls" is still excellent. I particularly enjoyed Fred's compositions "I'm a Drifter", "Weary Blues", "Wild Child in a World of Trouble", "Dade County Jail", and the traditional "Morning Dew". The remaining tracks are from one of the truly great folk albums "Bleecker & MacDougal". There is a uniformity of quality on this album, but highlights include "Blues on the Ceiling", "Little Bit of Rain", "Other Side to This Life", "The Water is Wide", "Yonder Comes the Blues", "Candy Man", and "Handful of Gimmie". Fred is at his best when he plays his blues, his twelve string guitar weaving a tapestry of tonal textures, and his "whiskey and cigarettes" bass voice delivering the lyrics of his thoughtful compositions. Fred Neil was unappreciated in his time by the general public, but he had plenty of admirers like Bob Dylan. If you take the time to listen to his compositions, you will find a reclusive man sharing his innermost emotions & thoughts through his music.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderfully resonant Voice of a forgotten singer, November 20, 2006

By 

rash67 (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tear Down the Walls / Bleecker & Macdougal (Audio CD)

Fred Neil was the King of the East Village coffee shop, pass-the-hat folksingers in the very early sixties and this 2cd set shows why. Much of his origins and late life are shrouded in rumour and mystery.

Sinatra, Johnny Cash, even Jim Morrison had great baritone voices, but Fred Neil's Sound was really something else. Neil had the most spectacularly deep resonant baritone voice, a voice that would sound wonderful reading the phone book! Everyone idolized him, everyone imitated him, everyone covered his songs: Roy Orbison, The Jefferson Airplane, the Youngbloods, Harry Nilsson, Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin, Judy Henske, John Sebastian, Gram Parsons, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Rush, Roger McGuinn. An unknown, awestruck, social climbing Bob Dylan used to play backup harmonica for Fred Neil and his ringing 12 string in the Village years before these albums. (Dylan mentions this in bio pic "No Direction Home") Fred was one of the main influences on David Crosby, Steven Stills (Crosby, Stills and Nash were going to call themselves "Sons of Neil" before Neil talked them out of it!).
Neil was a Brill Building song writer, like Carol King, for years before venturing out on his own.

The albums burst with early sixtes (there were TWO sixties!) folkie seriousness and energy. There is much more energy and precision here than "The Many Side of Fred Neil" which is also worth having.
The first album with Vince Martin is very closely sung duets of incredible precision, Martin singing tenor, with amazing parasing so they often sound like one singer (until Neil hits a deep, rich low note). Standouts are "I Know you Rider" "Tear down the Walls" "Linin Track".

A line from "Toy Balloon" so impressed Jefferson Airplane's Paul Kantner & Grace Slick that it found it's way into "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil", in fact "PoohNeil" is a combination of Winnie the Pooh and the gentle Fred Neil. See also "House at Pooneil Corner".

Yes, "Red Flowers" and "Tear Down the Walls" are a protest songs that aren't sure what they are protesting about, and "Dade County Jail" is embarassingly silly but just listen to the Voice and ignore the lyrics there. (That was the early sixites - optimism and often silly protest.) But the others song are masterpieces.

The second album, Bleeker & MacDougal, gets even better, more bluesy. It is a Neil solo with includes his second most famous song "Other Side of This Life" which was covered by Jefferson Airplane and nearly everyone else. (His most famous is "Everybody's Takin at Me", a hit for Harry Nilsson, and the story on Neil's life. Not included here). "Blues on the Ceiling" has a deep world weary quality to it. "A little bit of Rain" is deeply melancholy. "Sweet Mama" is upbeat with ringing 12 string overtones. When he sings the word "home" on "Bleeker & MacDougal" his voice sets up bass standing waves all over the room! The famous line about dating golddigging women with a "Handful of Gimmie (and a mouthful of much obliged)" found it's way into Tom Rush's "Drop-Down Mama" from the same era. (I don't know if it was Fred Neil's first or not). "Yonder Come the Blues" (dressed in high-heeled shoes)! Not a bad cut on the bluesy second album.

Fred hated the music industry and its commercialism. He dropped out and didn't record for the last 30 years of his life or so, living frugally of the proceeds from "Everybody's Talking at Me", despite offers from Rock Giants to record duets again. Now his incredible talent is forgotten by nearly all but "a small band of admirers (many of them stars in their own right)".

The shy reclusive Fred Neil was the singer's singer. Just listen and let The Voice wash over you. Like deep rich chocolate. he represents the skill and purity of folk, with occational bluesy jazzy tone.

This album is the best example extant of his talent. (Lost somewhere is rumoured a tape of a young Bob Dylan and Fred Neil jamming).

Excellent sound on this import.