My small rant about Neil Diamond Parkinson’s coverage...

Yet another storied artist dealing with issues that sideline (at least in part) what is a part of their livelihood. Nearly every report I’ve seen on TV has reduced Neil’s legacy to Sweet Caroline (so good, so good, so good, aaargghhh). I get it’s the musical equivalent of the Wave at sporting events, but, jeez, the man delivered so much more than that. Is there anyone over the age of 30 reporting on artists such as Neil Diamond? Sorry, rant over. His legacy deserves more.

 

It's his birthday today!!!!!

 

Happy Birthday, Neil!

 

It doesn't matter what Neil Diamond means to the general public, what matters is what he means to you.

 

I reckon that the album "12 Songs" more than holds up with his earlier stuff. It's a great record.

 

It's always so easy for corporate media to minimize the importance or legacy of an artist, especially one who is over 50. Ageism is a relevant form of discrimination, although most of Neil's fans will attest that much of his music timeless. Even his non-fans can agree that Neil's contributions to music as a songwriter, singer, recording artist and performer are significant.

 

I’m not a Diamond fan and know little about him, but I totally agree. I got so pissed off with the same thing when Prince died, even the BBC repeatedly calling him merely a “singer” and going on about Purple Rain. Prince was..... a MUSICIAN, is that so hard a word to use, it at least covers more than “singer” for such a multi talented person.

 

Diamond has always written great songs. All the best to him.

 

They're always going to play the artist's most well known song(s) in these pieces because they want to connect with the widest possible viewing audience.

 

It was similar when George Harrison died as well. But it’s part and parcel of the media’s 24 hour news culture to turn everything into bite-sized, ‘simplified’narratives. Information, some of it real news, much of it not, is coming and going so fast that it’s all the public can handle. Apparantly.

 

I recently made a thread about this- about how artists are reduced to one song. And it's usually nowhere near their best song.

Neil wrote a lot of classics but for me this is his best song

 

He didn't pass away. The coverage entails a 20 second new spot. Of course they're going to lead and finish with Sweet Caroline.

What do you expect for 20 seconds?

 

Not a big fan of his. I like songs I’ve heard on the radio. Don’t like them enough to buy them though. I hate to see anyone have to end their career because of a health issue

 

It's likely his best known song, they are simply using it to help the viewer/listener identify the subject matter.

 

Good Grief. "Sweet Caroline" is going to live on for a hundred or more years, long after any and all of us are gone, and you're complaining he's not getting his due!?!?! I'm sorry to disagree, I hate to sound so ornery, but sheez. Neil is immensely talented, I get that he's an icon, great songwriter, big catalog, yada yada, I'm not disputing any of those things, but I'm sorry to break the news to this forum -- but "Sweet Caroline," man, that's his THING. Like Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Like McArthur's "I shall return." Or Charlie Chaplin's hat and Little Tramp mustache. Any songwriter on the planet would give their eye teeth to write a single song that endured this long, and got remembered as a 7th inning stretch, lived on as a pub song, became part of the fabric of pop culture, identified all over the world, sung in different languages, etc. etc. the way that "Sweet Caroline" has kept going and going and going. Quite frankly, at this point the song is actually bigger than Neil is. Nothing is wrong with that! And I think he probably knows it, too, and would agree. It's like when Keith Richards says in his book, "if I had to pick only one of my riffs, give me Flash." Like most really good musicians, Keith has no problem metaphorically recognizing and admitting what he would like to go down in history for. And don't think for a minute that these guys don't think about their own legacy that way. They do. I'm bummed by the news but I am willing to go out on a limb here and speculate that Neil himself isn't bothered at all by the renewed attention the song is suddenly getting in terms of his legacy.

 

Sweet Caroline is not his thing. It’s one of his songs. Like pigeonholing John Lennon with Give Peace A Chance as his one great achievement because it’s the simple tome the distracted populace can process. Sweet Caroline has not lived that long a life as a sports/pub song. It’s his currency these days, but masks how important an artist he is in American pop. Neil Diamond shouldn’t be framed as a novelty song “artist.” Which is what Sweet Caroline is these days. A novelty song. It didn’t used to be that.

 

There are songs from Neil's years on Bang Records which are instantly recognizable and still frequently performed by local cover bands and high school marching bands at football games. It would be very difficult to even estimate how many people Neil's songs have reached over the span of his long career as an artist.

 

A lot of the coverage I've seen has featured "America" at least as much as "Sweet Caroline".

 

Just imagine how many times you are going to be seeing and hearing Hey Jude when Sir Paul passes on.

 

Glad he wrote "Kentucky Woman" so that Deep Purple could cover it.

My mother is a big fan. She'd play The Jazz Singer soundtrack endlessly.
She saw him live once. She reveled in the fact that he played "Forever In Blue Jeans" three times by popular demand.

Yeah. Much more than "Sweet Caroline".

 

I was never really a Prince fan, I knew his hits from the radio that's about it. It wasn't until the 2004 rock & roll hall of fame performance on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, that I realized what talent as a musician Prince had. I watched it a million times and still think it's amazing. Before then I didn't even know he played guitar.

 

With Sir Paul, it will be endless montages. I predict: I Want To Hold Your Hand/Can't Buy Me Love/Yesterday/Sgt. Pepper/Hey Jude/Silly Love Songs/The End.

 

Hell Yeah!

 

You need to get out more.

 

This to me is his signature song.