Reconsidering Neil Diamond.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

Songs Neil Diamond wrote for the Monkees:

• "I'm a Believer"
• "Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow"
• "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You"
• "Love to Love"
• "Black and Blue"

[reeve21]

I always liked Neil, despite him not being one of the cool acts everyone I knew could agree on. My mom loved him. I remember buying her one of his records for Mother’s Day about 50 years ago!

As a Red Sox fan I have to love him, he is required listening at every game at Fenway Park.


https://www.businessinsider.com/the-...ox-game-2013-4

[Silurian]

I've always liked Neil Diamond. I can remember singing along to Forever in Blue Jeans on the radio, I must have been 10 or 11 at the time. Of course he was distinctly 'uncool' when I was at college, I wouldn't have admitted to being a fan at the time.

Great songwriter though and I like his voice.

[Steve DeRosa]

Growing up about 20 minutes' walk from where he lived during his later teenage years, Neil was always a major influence on my own performing style - heck, I even had a few low-cut lamé and satin shirts in my stage wardrobe through my teens - and it's unfortunate that too many people were quick to dismiss him as lightweight or "pop-py" at the height of his writing/performing powers. A brilliant singer-songwriter whose quality and output are matched by few of his contemporaries, some of his best material unfortunately never found its way past "deep cut" status in its day - and though he has often been criticized for the enormous scale of his live performances, I always saw his Broadway-influenced shows as merely the next evolutionary step in the growth of the genre, started by Dylan's '65 Newport electric set (which was similarly panned by the so-called "critics"). To this day I still keep a Neil Diamond tribute set in my solo repertoire, and while I've had my moments with "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" (my set closer for years) and "America" (the latter performed with orchestra and chorus at a Brooklyn waterfront park sunset concert in Summer '86, with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop) - not to mention the obligatory "Sweet Caroline" (with a bouncy fingerstyle accompaniment - and yes, it actually works... ) - this one never left my song list in the last 55 years, and IME connects most deeply with the audience:



While I always found the song as much autobiographical for me as it was for Neil (at one point we lived two floors above the tailor rather than the butcher), it really hit home about fifteen years ago when, as I was going over my new class roster after summer vacation, I noticed one of my students not only lived at my former address but in my old apartment; upon introducing herself to me on the first day of school, I found out that she also occupied my former bedroom as well - and since then I've always performed the last verse with appropriately-modified lyrics:

"Does some pretty young girl come home to my room,
Does she dream what I did as she sits by my window,
And looks out on those Brooklyn Roads..."

[Dave in Olympia]

I was always a Neil Diamond fan! I saw him in concert several times and was never disappointed. That man could put on a show. I still like to pop Hot August Night in the CD player and crank it up. Brother Love always closed the show and always brought down the house.

[Big-E]

I've been a Neil Diamond fan since his early days. A talented writer and charismatic performer in my opinion. I saw him live at Woburn Abbey U.K in 1977 on the 2nd July. I remember it was the day that Bjorn Borg beat Jimmy Conners in the Wimbledon final and was a very hot day for the Uk. Hot August Night is still one of my all time favorite albums (especially side 4 turned up very loud!).

[schmalex]

I can recognize that Neil Diamond is a great songwriter, but his recordings / vocal stylings have always sounded really dated to me. I've never been able to connect to his performances.

I have similar feelings about Carly Simon.

I was born in 1985 for context, but even if I were 39 back in 1985, I'm pretty sure that I would still have the same feeling about them sounding dated, even back then.

[boombox]

Originally Posted by Bob from Brooklyn

Songs Neil Diamond wrote for the Monkees:

• "I'm a Believer"
• "Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow"
• "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You"
• "Love to Love"
• "Black and Blue"

This is what made me check him out in my early teens on late night Beeb reruns. Then I watched The Jazz Singer and became a real fan. I still have the cassette album I bought of the soundtrack. Speaking of covers, while I still feel The Monkees did his songs justice, I still haven't forgiven UB40 for ruining Red, Red Wine.

[KenL]

Big fan back in the '70s, especially of his "Hot August Night" live album. It was one album that I could play on my mom's big Packard Bell stereo because my parents liked it too.

The guy could sing, that's for sure.

[frankmcr]

"Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" is right up there with "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart": it's not just a song, it's an event.

And he wrote it himself!

[Jeff Scott]

[mike o]

No denying the huge successes. I was never a fan of his stage persona.

[Wardo]

I never thought much about him but the song that he did in the The Last Waltz was really good in my opinion. The last waltz was a film about The Band and worth checking out if you’ve never heard about it.

[Jaxon]

no neil for me, he was like trying to put a square peg in a round hole in last waltz, everything else great

[GCWaters]

Originally Posted by Jaxon

no neil for me, he was like trying to put a square peg in a round hole in last waltz, everything else great

That was supposedly Robbie’s choice—he had produced Neil’s last ad album. Levon was pissed….,