As well as being one of the most talented singer-songwriters to emerge from America's mid-60s folk boom, the late Fred Neil was the most reclusive. There's next to no footage of him, and no substantial interviews seem to exist. It was therefore a surprise to discover this insightful piece in the January 1966 issue of Hit Parader magazine. At the time he was still gigging around Greenwich Village, often with the Seventh Sons (sadly their innovative collaboration went unrecorded), and had yet to record his finest album, Fred Neil, which appeared at the end of the year.
Hi again Richard,
ReplyDeletethanks a lot for this rare feature on Fred Neil. He's still one of my all-time favourite artists. Anyway, did you notice the rare 1976 live performance of "Dolphins" on YouTube (incl. John Sebastian and Pete Childs)? It was also on fredneil.com along with a documentary for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately all the clips, videos and interviews of the documentary have been removed recently. It's a real pity. It seems that the 1976 performance is the only existing live video. Although some fans believe that there's some live stuff from the Montreux Festival, Switzerland in the vaults (mid-seventies)... All the Best and an enjoyable weekend, Dirk, Muenster, Germany, 21st july 2012.
I thought it was too good to be true ;( I saw the video clips of Fred & then it was all gone. DAMN some people! hopefully that stuff was captured somewhere. I've not heard about the Montreaux gig, but an audience tape of the Tokyo performance of the same year is floating around. that show was also professionally filmed. I've spoken with the cinematographer & he indicates that due to licensing (here we go again!) it can't be released.
ReplyDeleteoh well...
some day ?