Fred Neil (March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an important American blues a… Read Full Bio ↴Fred Neil (March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an important American blues and folk singer and songwriter in the 1960s and early 1970s. He is best remembered for writing the top 40 hits "Candy Man", performed by Roy Orbison and "Everybody's Talkin'", performed by Harry Nilsson.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Neil was one of the songwriters who for a time worked out of New York City's famous Brill Building. He has often been called a pioneer of the folk rock & singer-songwriter musical genres; his most frequently cited disciples are Tim Buckley, Harry Nilsson, and the Jefferson Airplane, but his most prominent descendants have been Stephen Stills, James Taylor, Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell. In concert appearances, as well as the liner notes for his 2003 album, Meet Me In Margaritaville: The Ultimate Collection, Jimmy Buffett called Neil "one of my heroes." Some of Neil's early compositions were recorded by Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison; he played as a session guitarist on hits by Bobby Darin and Paul Anka. In 1968, Nilsson recorded a cover version of Neil's song "Everybody's Talkin'," which became a huge hit a year later when it was featured in the film Midnight Cowboy.

Neil was an accomplished professional musician atypically inclined to a very modest frugality. "Candy Man", his first of two Top-40-hit compositions, substantially introduced him to a sufficient income stream for life in his early 20's; he became increasingly disinclined to work if he did not feel like it. Consequently his two fully realized albums (see next paragraph) are remarkable for their singularly unpretentious authenticity. His combination of baritone vocal and 12-string guitar remains unusual, and his combo recordings provide his shimmering melodies with muscular grooves; but his exemplarity is that of resolving the apparent opposition between aesthetic integrity and commercial value almost entirely in favor of aesthetic integrity, which gives all of his recordings a unique historical resonance.

He had debts to previous singer-songwriters such as Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, Chuck Berry and Hank Williams (Senior); but his approach to melody was more in the manner of Cole Porter and to rhythm very much in the school of Ray Charles. His popularly acclaimed albums are "Bleecker & MacDougal" (also known as A Little Bit of Rain) without drums (1965) and "Fred Neil" (also known as Everybody's Talkin') in (1966), made during his residences in the Greenwich Village section of lower Manhattan in New York City and in Coconut Grove, Florida, respectively.

The reigning web expert in (October) 2005 has been Richie Unterberger. The Rick O'Barry interview at the dedicated website (fredneil.com) claims that a third fully realized album, Neil's "Stuff Sessions" of 1978, was never released by Columbia. The unreleased "Walk on the Water" album was recorded at Bayshore studios in Coconut Grove, with a second set of sessions taking place in NJ with the group Stuff.

After the mid 1970s he ceased to maintain a residence in Woodstock, New York, and spent his remaining decades enjoying life on the shores of southern Florida. His last public performance was in 1981 coffeehouse concert in Coconut Grove where he joined Buzzy Linhardt onstage.

Fred Neil died of natural causes in 2001.

Felicity
Fred Neil Lyrics

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Even though I know the rain may fall
Somewhere the sun will shine

And the melody returns again
Right in the tabs of time

If you don't believe me
Nothing I can do to change your mind

You've got to ride that road
Your own way and your own guitar

Even though I know the tabs keep changin'
They must be turn once more

And the melodies

Shadows of memories
Have all been played before

Overall Meaning

The song Felicity by Fred Neil appears to be a reflective piece on life and the inevitability of change. The opening lines, "Even though I know the rain may fall, somewhere the sun will shine," speak to the idea that there is always hope even in the darkest of times. The use of weather-related imagery helps to convey this message of the cyclic nature of life, as rain and sunshine are natural forces that come and go in predictable patterns. The next line, "And the melody returns again, right in the tabs of time," suggests that certain things in life come back around, like a melody in a song that repeats over and over again. This could represent the cyclical nature of life and the idea that we often go through similar experiences multiple times in our lifetime.

The following lines, "If you don't believe me, nothing I can do to change your mind, you've got to ride that road, your own way and your own guitar," seem to be a call for individualism and self-reliance. The singer acknowledges that not everyone will see things the way they do and that everyone must find their own path in life. The metaphor of "your own guitar" suggests that we each have our own unique way of navigating life and that we must learn to trust ourselves and our own instincts. The final lines of the song, "Even though I know the tabs keep changin', they must be turn once more, and the melodies shadows of memories have all been played before," further reinforce the idea that life is a cycle and that we must embrace the changes that come our way. The mention of "shadows of memories" suggests that we carry the past with us and that our experiences shape who we are and how we move forward in life.

Line by Line Meaning

Contributed by London H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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