{"id":14250,"date":"2012-06-27T23:59:12","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T03:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=14250"},"modified":"2012-06-28T00:00:11","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T04:00:11","slug":"mystery-date-revealed-fred-neil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/mystery-date-revealed-fred-neil\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery Date Revealed: Fred Neil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Will Your Mystery Date Be a Dream or a Dud?<\/p><\/div>\n

Well, our latest Mystery Date<\/a> sure did have a deep voice, didn’t he, like he was singing from beneath the sea? The song was “You Don’t Have to Be a Baby to Cry,” performed by Fred Neil<\/strong>, who is thought of by pipe-tamping music lovers as a “Bleeker Street folkie” and who most of us young rock nerds learned after the fact was actually the author of lauded songwriter Harry Nilsson<\/strong>‘s biggest hit record, “Everybody’s Talkin’,” the theme to Midnight Cowboy<\/em>. This number is from a collection of sides he cut from 1957-1961.<\/p>\n

I didn’t learn until today that he was a Brill Building songwriter at this point, having written Roy Orbison<\/strong>‘s “Candy Man” among other songs for Orbison and Buddy Holly<\/strong>. Funny the stuff we learn along the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In my mid-20s, after learning a little bit about who Neil was, I would also forever associate him with one of the only Tim Buckley<\/strong> song I’ve been known to identify and enjoy, “Dolphins.” That’s one of those songs I believe a lof of Serious, Young, Genre-Spanning Artists have tackled. Here’s Buckley performing it on English TV, which I can only hope will inspire our recently dormant friend Happiness Stan<\/strong> to chime in with a story relating this song to one of his old girlfriends. I’m also hopeful that the likes of the Hall’s Deep Thinkers and Relative Folk-Bluesologists\u2014dr john<\/strong>, mwall<\/strong>, dbuskirk<\/strong>, and even The Great 48<\/strong> via his ’60s folk-scene bred wife\u2014step forth with some insights into this artist and suggestions for songs to investigate that are as interesting as the 2 I know.<\/p>