Customer Reviews

Tear Down the Walls

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I remember Fred and Vince at the Flick in Miami during the 60's. Each was amazing and talented in his own right, but together they created magic. This album captures at least some of the electricity that the blending of their two voices created when you heard them live.
One night Vince was playing at the Flick alone because Fred had done one of his occasional disappearing acts. All of a sudden, as Vince began a song up on stage, Fred's voice filled the small club and meshed with Vince's, causing all of us who knew and appreciated them to catch our breath and hold onto the moment. A little of that is on this disc. Not as much as I would like, but enough to remember the time and the two talents that make this album so special.

This CD brings back memories of the early 60's when Vince Martin and Fred Neil played at The Flick , The Coffee House, and the Hootenanny here in Miami. I've had the LP forever. Now that I'm getting the CD, I can listen in my car and remember seeing them perform live.

This album is an extraordinary piece that exhibits the great talents of Vince Martin, one of America's unsung singer/songwriters. Martin, who not only accompanies Fred Neil on part of the album (two albums placed on one cd), he also wrote the songs performed by Fred Neil.
The trgedy however, is that Vince Martin has not received any royalties based on the rerelease of these albums and this is just unfair. So, while I encourage the purchase of the album for its sheer greatness, I also encourage you to call the distributor and record companies and let them know that you want to make sure that part of the money you pay is going where it belongs, to the great artist, Vince Martin.

I have the original LP of this album, which has lost its sound quality over the years. I was happy to see that is is now on CD. The CD is just fantastic! Martin & Neil sang beautifully together and to be able to now listen to this music over and over with quality sound is simply wonderful! These were two very talented singers. I highly recommend this CD to anyone who is interested in music you can relax with.

Fred Neil is best (un)known for penning the theme from the award-winning film "MIDNIGHT COWBOY" (Dustin Hoffman/Jon Voigt). That tune "Everybody's Talking" was sung by someone else with a vastly inferior voice. It nonetheless broke out to a hit single and became a standard. Fred recieved no public recognition, as is the American tradition for writers of all stripes, but he got the royalties - and they were significant. His rendition of the famous tune is far better than the popular one.

I knew Freddie personally back in 1960, and watched his struggle to morph from his country roots to blues, to folk - to Fred Neil. My whole family attended his performances at the Cafe Wha? and the Bitter End in NYC's Greenwich Village. It was there that this album was recorded. It was Fred's 15 minutes. He deserved more, as the most casual aural perusal of this unique music will amply demonstrate.

"I've got a secret" is magical and nuanced as only Freddie could do it, and "That's the Bag I'm In" harkens back to the earliest folk/blues syntax and harmonies that spoke to the emergence of that unique fusion of lost cultures that typified the sixties.
Your musical education cannot be complete without an acquaintence with the one and only Fred Neil. This album is just one of his first, not his best work. Get the others as well. Thanks for the memory, Freddie.

I am one of the lucky few who was a teenager when folk music first became popular. My dad would take my sister and I to the Flick in Miami and we would drink mocha w/ whipped cream and listen to Fred Neil, Vince Martin, Lynn Gold and other singers.
I've never heard a voice quite as deep and resonant and amazing as Fred's and Vince had this energy on stage that mezmerized the audience. This album takes me back to those times, it's SO good !

Harry Nilsson was the artist who did the version of Everybody's talkin'. Definitely not a vastly inferior voice, Fred Neil wrote it, but Nilsson made it a hit. This mistake on your part was probably due to ignorance on the magnificent discography of Harry Nilsson. Nilsson was a huge influence on Lennon and McCartney.There is no comparison between the two artists, they are both great in there own way.

Track 7 is the lovely anti-nuke folk song Morning Dew, NOT Mountain Dew as shown on the track listing above. Morning Dew, which has been covered by Robert Plant, among many others, depicts a barren, post-apocalyptic world in simple but eerily effective terms. Neil & Martin's version is a fabulous, full-on folkie rendition. All in all, this is a great album. Fred Neil and Vince Martin deserve to be more widely known and appreciated.

You Have to give credit, these days to anyone who does what they promise. My order arrived at the price and well within the timeframe promised.