POX : Neil Diamond

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Mock me if you will, but I genuinely like some of Neil Diamond's stuff, almost exclusively ballads with a few exceptions. Oddly, I find some of his best known stuff very annoying and subpar ("Cherry Cherry," "Solitary Man," "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show", etc.) but I think his ballads are great (particularly if you're feeling depressed-- somehow they can make you feel worse and better at the same time). Here are my picks for Neil's ten best songs.

1. Stones
2. I am... I said
3. Desiree
4. Red Red Wine
5. Cracklin' Rosie
6. Play Me
7. Shilo
8. Song Sung Blue
9. Sweet Caroline
10. Forever in Blue Jeans

What am I missing?

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"Holly Holy" for one.

Do not be ashamed of your love for the Diamond.

― Tag (Tag), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Everything you need to know about the man is on one record, conveniently enough.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

The motherfuckin POT SMOKER'S SONG!

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Lordy. That's some selection. I think I prefer Lulu's version of "The Boat that I row" though.

― Tag (Tag), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Everything you need to know about the man is on one record, conveniently enough.

I would completely disagree with that. There's stuff on Greatest Hits I and II that isn't on that, like "I am... I Said." That early stuff comp misses some of his best stuff!

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Come on, it doesn't even have "Sweet Caroline" on it!

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

"Love on the Rocks" and "I'm a Believer", for two.

Gotta love a man who titled an album "Velvet Gloves and Spit".

― Nom De Plume, Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Neil's ace. "Shiloh" gets to me.

Me and a friend had an idea to create a Shiloh techno anthem. "Shiloh when I was young I used to call your name when no one else would come Shiloh you always came and we'd DANCE *huge beat kicks in*" We'd sell it to the NBA, NHL, etc. The halftime dance squads would do routines to it. Million dollar idea.

But I do genuinely love "Shiloh"

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Question: is Shilo about a dog or some sort of invisible friend/ghost?

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Imaginary friend, I think.

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

la la laa pot, pot, gimme some pot, forget who you are, you can be who you're not...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 15 July 2003 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I second the Pot Smoker's Song --- "You with your grass, mom and dad with their booze..."

Don't forget "Knackelflerg"

― christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Kobra mentions my favorite ones.

― Sean (Sean), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:19 (twenty-two years ago)

so, then is there a decent neil compilation???????

including the songs on classics and also with sweet caroline and cracklin' rosie etc. on it???

with none of that live stuff clouding it up?

― reo fordecor, Tuesday, 15 July 2003 21:50 (twenty-two years ago)

"Solitary Man" is ace. Just about all of Hot August Night is good.

― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 00:59 (twenty-two years ago)

shiloh is about a dog. what about 'turn on your heartlight'?

― keith (keithmcl), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 01:20 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre200/e242/e242144ova5.jpg

brother love's traveilng salvation show
holly holy
cherry, cherry
i'm a believer
shiloh
solitary man
kentucky woman
soolaimon
play me
cracklin' rosie

― dan (dan), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 01:48 (twenty-two years ago)

shilo, solitary man, cracklin rosie, plus monkees esp a little bit me a little bit you and i'm a believer.

― di smith (lucylurex), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 01:53 (twenty-two years ago)

saw the chills cover solitary man last year and it was fab.

― di smith (lucylurex), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 01:54 (twenty-two years ago)

cracklin' rose, solitary man, and longfellow serenade are bonafide classics.

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 01:55 (twenty-two years ago)

and some days i think that "i am, i said" is remarkable. on others, i think that it's one of the most ridiculous songs ever ("i am," i said to my chair? that's either really dumb or really genius.)

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 01:58 (twenty-two years ago)

talking to inanimate objects is fun. i'm more disturbed by "desiree", cos desiree is a kind of potato.

― di smith (lucylurex), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:08 (twenty-two years ago)

the thing that makes neil diamond interesting is that he is very obviously musically and lyrically ambitious (i.e., "longfellow serenade," "i am ... i said" (the important ellipses included this time), the Velvet Gloves and Spit album). sometimes it works (or it does for me); sometimes it falls flat cause diamond is sorta middle-brow ambitious. he seems to want to be a brooklyn-esque/countryish jacques brel or bacharach, which makes for more interesting songs (even the (near) train-wrecks like "i am ... i said," which as i said i can't determine whether his metaphors for loneliness and existential forlorness are genius or just plain weird) than his straight-pop songs (many of which are catchy).

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:19 (twenty-two years ago)

so, then is there a decent neil compilation???????

I don't think so. But if you get all the best stuff off of the classic years and the two greatest hits albums, you've got what you want.

Also the chair thing-- that is plain silly. That lyric always gets me every time.

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:22 (twenty-two years ago)

You don't bring me flowers
You don't sing me love songs
You hardly talk to me anymore
When you come thru the door
At the end of the day

I remember when
You couldn't wait to love me
Used to hate to leave me
Now after lovin' me late at night
When it's good for you
And you're feelin' alright
Well you just roll over
And turn out the light
And you don't bring me flowers anymore

It used to be so natural
To talk about forever
But "used to be's" don't count anymore
They just lay on the floor
'Til we sweep them away

And baby, I remember
All the things you taught me
I learned how to laugh
And I learned how to cry
Well I leared how to love
Even learned how to lie
You'd think I could learn
How to tell you goodbye
'Cause you don't bring me flowers anymore

― keith (keithmcl), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 02:26 (twenty-two years ago)

even though the barbra streisand duet "you don't bring me flowers anymore" is cheesy soft rock shit, i almost put it on my list.

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 04:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Crunchy Granola Suite
Solitary Man
Cherry Cherry
Sweet Caroline
Porcupine Pie
Soggy Pretzels
Kentucky Woman
Song Sung Blue
Holly Holy
Brother Love's Travelling Salvation

Neil has this swing to his trax which is like two bars wide and I don't know anyone else who can pull off his tempo back & forths so well. Also david spade doing him in that movie about stealing a dog is so classic.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 04:53 (twenty-two years ago)

On my dollar bin trawl yesterday I saw a couple copies of Taproot Manuscript; the one with the really heavy gatefold cover. I didn't buy one, I'll have to correct that.

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 06:39 (twenty-two years ago)

You HAVE to include "Done Too Soon", what a fantastic song and what a fantastic conceit:

Jesus Christ, Fanny Brice,
Wolfie Mozart and Humphrey Bogart and
Genghis Khan and
On to H. G. Wells.

Ho Chi Minh, Gunga Din
Henry Luce and John Wilkes Booth
And Alexanders
King and Graham Bell.

Rama Krishna, Mama Whistler,
Patrice Lumumba and Russ Colombo,
Karl and Chico Marx,
Albert Camus.

E. A. Poe, Henri Rousseau,
Sholom Aleichem and Caryl Chessman,
Alan Freed and
Buster Keaton too

And each one there
Has one thing shared:
They have sweated beneath the same sun,
Looked up in wonder at the same moon,
And wept when it was all done

For bein' done too soon,
For bein' done too soon.
For bein' done.

- I mean WOLFIE Mozart! Wolfgang would have fitted just the same.

Also Neil invents a new word just to make the line rhyme in "Play Me":

"Song she sang to me, songs she BRANG to me"

Unless BRANG is Yiddish or something.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 08:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"The Pot Smoker's Song" vs "Negative Creep"

― dave q, Wednesday, 16 July 2003 09:05 (twenty-two years ago)

That "Done too Soon" song sucks! God, I could never listen to it for more than 10 seconds, it is abominable! perhaps even worse than a song it may have inspired: "We didn't start the fire"

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Wednesday, 16 July 2003 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

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