Customer Reviews

Tear Down the Walls / Bleecker & Macdougal

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

Fred Neil was definitely one of the more unique figures in the Greenwich Village folk scene. In an era when the worlds of folk and rock were anathema to each other, he turned up with his twelve-string guitar after having committed the heresy of writing a hit rock song (Roy Orbison's "Candy Man," of which Neil's own version is included here), and became as much a mainstay of the scene as anyone.

The second half of this collection shows why. It features some great guitar and harmonica licks alongside Neil's stirring baritone, even working in the occasional electric guitar when folk rock hadn't quite hit the mainstream. Neil's biggest contribution to that genre, "Everybody's Talkin'," was several years away, but already his contribution to the folk revival was just as important as that evocative cover photo showing him on the title corner suggests. It's a four-star album, at least.

The problem with this collection is its first half. Vince Martin's vocals never get any less irritating throughout the album, and then there are the songs themselves. For the most part, the originals sound like the sort of stereotypical folksinging that was parodied so effectively in the movie "A Mighty Wind." The catch is, those songs were supposed to be so bad they were good, while these are meant sincerely. There is a fine line between the sincere and the silly, and an even finer line between poignant and depressing, and most of these songs are quite a way beyond both of those lines. Neil was fresh from his Brill Building stint at the time, and it shows. He still had a lot to learn about his new style, and most of his lyrics here sound like the insincere musings of someone who is trying much too hard to be the New Dylan. The one exception is the title track - "Tear Down the Walls" - but it's been done better elsewhere (notably Judy Collins' live version from a year or so after this one).

Bleecker & MacDougal is now avaiable on its own on CD. Buy that copy, and leave Tear Down the Walls in the obscurity it deserves.

This clever reissue series first turned up in 2001 with each title usually featuring the first 2 albums by an American Folk artist on the Elektra Label (with some Blues and Country Rock acts included too). Almost all of the LPs featured on these single disc reissues were Early to Mid Sixties vinyl rarities - most seeing the CD light-of-day for the first time anywhere. This Fred Neil/Vince Martin set is one of those gems...

Elektra/Warner Strategic Marketing 8122 73563-2 breaks down as follows (74:35 minutes):

Tracks 1 to 13 are the album "Tear Down The Walls" by VINCE MARTIN and FRED NEIL issued 1964 in the USA on Elektra Records EKL-248 [Mono] and EKS-7248 [Stereo]

Tracks 14 to 26 are the album "Bleecker & MacDougal" by FRED NEIL issued 1965 in the USA on Elektra Records EKL-293 [Mono] and EKS-7293 [Stereo]

By the time Florida-born Fred Neil had teamed up with folky Vince Martin (real name Vincent Marcellino) to record their debut album in 1964, Neil was 27 and had been on the New York folk scene for 3 years. In 1961 in Greenwich Village he'd sparred with many players who would later shape American music to an almost ludicrous degree - Karen Dalton, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and a young whippersnapper from Minnesota called Bob Dylan. Dylan later recounted his memories of Neil's deep tonal voice and cited him as a major influence - while Stills openly called him a 'hero' and has name-checked his guitar tunings. Neil had tasted minor chart success with a tune he'd co-written with Brill-building veteran Beverly Ross called "Candy Man" - it was a Top Twenty hit for Roy Orbison on Monument Records in late 1961. Which history lesson brings us to what's on offer here...

Both albums are firmly in the USA Folk vein with some Bluesy acoustic elements thrown in. "Tear Down The Walls" features an impressive six originals by Neil (2, 3, 6, 10, 11 and 12) with "Toy Balloon" by Martin and the six others being covers of contemporary artists and Old Time Traditionals. Martin and Neil played 6 and 12-string guitars alongside each other and shared the vocals on almost all the songs. Guests included Felix Pappalardi on an instrument called a 'Guitarron' (sounds like an Acoustic Bass) while John Sebastian providing Mouth Harp on certain tracks and guitar on "I Got 'Em". Pappalardi later produced and featured on Cream's "Disraeli Gears" and went on to be in Mountain - while Sebastian of course formed The Lovin' Spoonful.

"Bleecker & MacDougal" was 'all' Fred Neil except the aforementioned "Candy Man" and a cover of the lovely Gospel standard "The Water is Wide". In fact the title of the album name-checks the intersection of two New York streets - in particular the "Café Wha?" on MacDougal Street where he played for so many nights in the early Sixties.

The sound quality on both albums is gorgeous - Stereo remasters expertly done by Rhino's long-time engineer and tape handler DAN HERSCH (the Mono mixes remain unreleased on CD). The superb and hugely informative liner notes are written by PETER DOGGETT - a long time contributor to England's famous 'Record Collector' magazine and author of the acclaimed books - "There's A Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars and The Rise and Fall of the 60's Counter Culture", "You Never Give Me Your Money - The Battle For The Soul Of The Beatles" and "The Man Who Sold The World - David Bowie And The 1970's".

Highlights on the first album include the Traditional "Weary Blues", the lovely Vince Martin original "Toy Balloon" and two excellent cover versions - a rendition of Bonnie Dobson's slightly sinister "Morning Dew" and Travis Edmonson's country tune "I'm A Drifter". The "Wild Child..." track in particular is powerfully emotive Folk with Sebastian expertly warbling on the harmonica alongside the acoustic guitar and deep voice of Neil. "I Got 'Em" and "Lonesome Valley" end the album on a high too.

If "Tear Down The Walls" was a four-star starter, then "Bleecker & MacDougal" was the 5-star next step. The track "Little Bit Of Rain" in particular showed Fred Neil's full potential - pretty as anything - his voice deep and monumental (lyrics above). It was later used as the title to "Bleecker & MacDougal" when it was reissued in 1970 with different artwork on the back of Neil's success with Nilsson covering his gorgeous "Everybody's Talkin'" in the movie "Midnight Cowboy". The album once again benefited from John Sebastian and Felix Pappalardi on Harmonica and Bass - they shine on the lyrically pissed-off "Travelin' Shoes" and "Handful Of Gimme". The slide guitar on the album finisher "Gone Again" always sends me - the strings cleverly being made to warble like his vocals. Brilliant stuff indeed...

Neil famously withdrew from the music business in the early Seventies to take care of Dolphins - creatures he spent the next 35 years loving and nurturing. He died in Florida after a long battle with cancer in 2001 - an enigma to the end - leaving reviewers and music lovers like me reaching for adjectives to do him and his lovely musical legacy justice.

At less than a fiver online - this is one of those bargains that beggar's belief and cries out for your credit card.

Answer the call - lovers of music and musical heroes...

PS: collectors should note there are also beautiful Sundazed remasters of each album on HIGH-QUALITY VINYL - "Tear Down The Walls" on Sundazed LP 5142 (issued 2006) and "Bleecker & MacDougal" on Sundazed LP 5107 (issued 2001)

PPS: other artists in this '2 Classic Elektra Albums' CD series are:

1. David Blue (1966) / Singer Songwriter Project (1965) - DAVID BLUE

2. Tim Buckley (1966) / Goodbye And Hello (1967) - TIM BUCKLEY

3. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965) / East West (1967) - THE BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND

4. A Maid Of Constant Sorrow (1961) / Golden Apples Of The Sun (1962) - JUDY COLLINS

5. Judy Collins No. 3 (1963) / The Judy Collins Concert (1964) - JUDY COLLINS

6. Wildflowers (1967) / Who Knows Where The Time Goes (1968) - JUDY COLLINS

7. Back Porch Bluegrass (1963) / Live!!!! Almost!!!! (1964) - THE DILLARDS

8. Judy Henske [Live] (1963) / High Flying Bird (1964) - JUDY HENSKE

9. All The News That's Fit To Sing (1964) / I Ain't Marching Anymore (1965) - PHIL OCHS

10. Ramblin' Boy (1964) / Ain't That News (1965) - TOM PAXTON

11. Outward Bound / Morning Again - TOM PAXTON

12. Tom Rush (1965) / Talk A Little Walk With Me (1966) - TOM RUSH

13. Jack-Knife Gypsy (1971) / Woodsmoke And Oranges (1970) - PAUL SIEBEL