I hadn't thought of it like that. Very similar. Even some "cheesy" stuff (I don't view it that way, but imagine some would) like Just The Way You Are. Billy Joel, however, took on a harder edge in the 80s.
Joel adapted to New Wave, but then he was credibly young enough to do so. I think Neil was too old by that point, and thank heavens he didn't try. A lot of older rockers did, and most of them ended up looking and sounding ridiculous. Case in point: Wild Things Run Fast.
From the Beautiful Noise album onward he got real nostalgic about the Brill Building and New York songwriters. It really changed his point of view about things.
I don't know why this never made an impression, at least seeing as I lived through the time but it just dawned on me that Neil never put his toe into the Disco waters. For better or worse, from the Stones to Rod Stewart to McCartney, it seemed a rite of passage or at least big sales expectations. Not Neil, though. He continued pretty much on the path he started around the release of Sweet Caroline and stuck with through the good and the bad. I'm hoping a renewed emphasis on songwriting and recording may give him a late career bump like Johnny Cash or Glen Campbell.
Oh, and it turns out he did cut some New Wave / 80's pop, which was horribly dated by the time it came out in '86: Headed for the Future - Wikipedia There's even (gasp!) a video: Really, there should have been a law barring anyone over 40 from releasing any New Wave cuts. We probably would have been deprived a few good cuts, but on the whole...
It's a disco cover of "Dancing In The Street" September Morn (album) - Wikipedia Bowie and Jagger can breathe a sigh of relief - this makes their cover look like perfection in comparison.
I tend to regard random album cuts as an aberration. He never tried to push a disco tune on the charts so technically he did a disco tune or two but not to any significance. Now that New Wave/80s stuff? God, no.
Song Sung Blue and Sweet Caroline never had much impact on me as an eleven and twelve year old musically.What I do remember was the high school marching band(remember them) playing them endlessly in marching practice.
Just barely. That Glass Houses album gave him some hits in that pseudo-new wave vein, but no real alternative rocker was gonna fall for that.
Cargoe had the same problem because they recorded for the same label, Ardent. Even though Stax (Ardent's distributor) had a good run of hits between 1972-74, they couldn't bring home the bacon with rock the way they did for soul.
Why weren't those old Beatles singles rereleased in the Star Line series, like the rest of Capitol's oldies?
Damn. I was never really a Diamond fan, but still. Damn. Hope he's doing as well as can be under the circumstances.
He kept having hits afterword in the same vein, though - in particular "Pressure", although even "Allentown" was more New Wave than Bruce Springsteen, in spite of the subject matter.
Surprised Neil Diamond gave us this much conversation, save a lot of it isn't about the song specifically but the thread's really progressed. It's a good song, just good, not great. Don't care too much for Neil but he's had quite the career. This is his second #1 of the 70's.
Almost as weird as David Cassidy dying a few weeks after we covered the Partridges' only #1. I don't think I'd heard anything about that guy in the news in the twenty years before that...
Wow, what a turkey! Well, this could have been worse I suppose. When he first walked out in that oversized jacket, I was seriously worried he was going to try to moonwalk...
I always enjoyed that 1960s Nazz song they would play from time to time on MTV in the eighties, Open Your Eyes. It featured Rundgren and friends in a Monkees-like 60s romp. Very groovy, even if the start is a direct lift from Can't Explain.
Song Sung Blue This is another song I disinctly remember from when it was on the charts. In this case, I recall a trip to visit friends at a cabin in the woods. While we were in the cabin, this song came over the radio, and there was a discussion about it among the parents. I liked the song and thought it must be something pretty special, as I rarely heard adults talk about music like that. Years later, I still have a slight fondness for it, and it's nice finally having songs in this thread with actual memories attached to them from when they were new. And I like this one much more than the stuff he got up to later (Play Me is significantly worse IMO). But, and I hesitate to say it given the recent bad news about Mr. Diamond, I agree with those who believe this was about the time he began his long descent into maudlin extremes. I still liked the occasional number he did (Desiree comes to mind; that was later than this, right?). But for the most part, everything he did that I liked came before this. Well, if he was bothered by what the critics said, he could always console himself by taking a swim in his vault full of money.
