Should I be embarrassed? I am enjoying Neil Diamond...

Neil's 60's stuff -still- shines today...Embarrassed? I think not You are not alone!

 

Actually, "Heartlight" was co-written with Burt Bacharach, not exactly a hack songwriter either

-Matt

 

I've never bothered to pick up anything else by him, but I played my dad's copy of Hot August Night about every other day when I was a kid.

I'll have to look for it and give it a couple spins one of these days .

 

I've never been embarassed to say I am a fan of Neil Diamond. I'll never forget hearing, "Holly Holy," and, "Cracklin' Rosie," from my mom's LPs as a kid.

 

Everyone I know had Hot August Night while I was growing up. I never heard a clean copy of it either--everyone's copy I heard was trashed from being played so much. I finally bought a clean copy when MoFi released it in a 2-LP set. You can actually hear the "tree people" cheering now!!

 

Agreed (and I wasn't there). That is the album that got me started on Neil Diamond...and IMO it's still his best.

Speaking of being an embarassed Neil Diamond fan, does anybody "get" that Neil Diamond "Storytellers" sketch on SNL? An inside joke, perhaps? I found the sketch puzzling and bizarre. I wonder what Neil thinks of it...

 

I just read a transcript of it.. . That has to be the most bizarre thing I've read in some time! Neil must be either pissed at it or still wondering WTF they were thinking.. more likely the latter.

 

It's not embarassing to like Neil Diamond anymore. Barbra Streisand on the other hand...

 

When I was in Elementary School, it wasn't cool to like country music, according to my peers. BTW, Waylon Jennings admitted he had long wanted to sing with Neil Diamond because he thought he sounds like a country singer, plus Waylon has covered Neil Diamond before and yes, Waylon sang with Neil on the track "One Good Love" from Tennessee Moon which had a lot of CMT airplay back in 1996 when it came out.

 

Well said. I don't think times have changed too much as far as that sort of attitude goes. Makes no sense to me though. If you like a song/album/artist/etc., than why would you be embarrased by it? If anything, I would find it embarrassing to just listen to music that was considered "acceptable" by someone else.

BTW - I like Neil Diamond also.

 

He's been a family favorite for as long as I remember. I remember "Stones" being the first album I heard when I was about 3-4 years old. "Hot August Night" was the first LP I bought with my own money. My family and I have seen him in concert about 10 times since 1976. I just go the new box set "Stages". Looking forward to hearing it.

 

Neil is an overall family favorite in my family as well, except for a few (my sister and many of my younger cousins who still think he is uncool). My uncles, my father, myself, my mother, my aunts, etc. all enjoy his music and he is one of my favorite songwriters as well.

 

Yeah, exactly! I agree.

 

Does anybody here know the sound quality of the UNI three CD set? Bradley?

 

"Play Me?"

I've got it. The sound is alright, very pinched in places, but the material in ONE PACKAGE is hard to pass up. I may go after the older MCA CDs but the mastering seems the same for his latest remasters (Uni/MCA) Done by Erick Labson at 96/24 in Universal mastering, Hollywood.

It could have been mastered a lot better, but it's just passable.

 

'Tap Root Mauscript' is my favorite Neil Diamond album. It works well as a whole with two distinct sides.

Considering the amount of music listened to and the people listening to it, I do have to wonder if there is a problem in enjoying lightweight pop. And what excatly is lighweight pop?

We can certainly come up with a similar definition of the phrase, but even the most on-the-edge artists from any era have recorded something of a lightweight nature that is usually very enjoyable even if it is only ear candy.

 

My name is Seckels....and I like Neil Diamond. Hey, the dude may have gotten the "uncool" rap, but he has had a lot of lady friends.

Have any of you seen Saving Silverman? It's a rude comedy that had Jack Black, Steve Zahn, Jason Biggs and Amanda Detmer in it. Black, Zahn and Biggs play three buds that are huge Neil Diamond fans that do a Neil cover band. Neil even cameos. If you like stupid comedies (like me), you may enjoy it.

 

The indexing on my copy was not good. If I forward to a specific track it starts a split second in to the track. They also flubbed the intro to "Stones" - the first 3 seconds or so are completely chopped off.