Illustration from Widows, Grave and Otherwise by Cora Willmarth, c. 1903
It seems like there's a whole generation of guys out there whose moms listened to Neil Diamond. Not Neil Diamond exclusively, of course - I think that the "Neil Diamond moms" typically also listened to other AM Gold artists like John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot. There's a time in your life when it's okay to reconnect with music that is so closely tied to your childhood, and Play Me is just what I needed to do this (a copy of Graceland will also do in a pinch.) Play Me is a great way to go because, for under twenty bucks, you can get six records from Neil Diamond's peak songwriting period - Velvet Gloves and Spit, Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show, Touching You Touching Me, Taproot Manuscript, Stones, and Moods. 74 songs, if you include the bonus live tracks added to the third disc!
One thing that is immediately apparent when you get Play Me is that Uni Records signed Diamond a little too late - all his early hits are missing. In his short post-Brill-Building tenure at Bang Records, Diamond released "Cherry Cherry", "Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon", "Solitary Man", and "Red Red Wine". Those songs are not found on Play Me, which might make you think that a more comprehensive Diamond collection like In My Lifetime is a better way to go. My hunch is that the Bang Records recordings will get their own deluxe release at some point and, in combination with Play Me, you will then be able to have all of Diamond's peak-period recordings. What you do get on Play Me is everything Diamond recorded from '68 to '72 and, even though the albums are split a little awkwardly across three discs, I find that this a good way to hear the progression Diamond made as a songwriter and a performer during this period. The early albums feature a lot of the bubblegum songwriting style from his Brill-Building days, but this gradually gives way to an emphasis on more ambitious pop songwriting and, eventually, balladry and interpretation of other songwriters' work.
One thing that struck me listening to this collection was that Diamond's big singles from this period are actually pretty weird - "Sweet Caroline" is just about the only one that features a big memorable chorus. "Shilo", "Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show", "Holly Holy", "Song Sung Blue", and even "Cracklin' Rosie" play with song structure in interesting ways, eschewing big chorus hooks and finding new ways to make a pop hit without a verse-chorus-verse setup. The early album cuts are still full of simple pop - they can seem underbaked compared to the more interesting singles, but they can be a great substitute for the Bang-era bubblegum that is missing from this set. Many of the other tracks are either covers of excellent songs by writers like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen or experiments of some kind. Some of the experiments are laughably awful, like "The Pot-Smoker's Song", which alternates a brainless pop chorus with heavyhanded monologues from drugees about shooting heroine into your spine. Songs like "You're So Sweet Horseflies Keep Hangin' Around Your Face" and "I Am the Lion" are also WTF-level headscratchers, but some of the weird tracks are fun. It's hard to say what Neil was thinking/smoking when he recorded "Knackelflerg" or "Porcupine Pie", but they are among my new favorites.
I have to admit that I like lighthearted "I Am a Believer"-style Neil Diamond the best, and Play Me has a lot of great simple pop songs that hit the right spot for me. One of my favorites is "River Runs, New Grown Plums", which features nice handclaps and a multi-tracked "la la la la la" chorus. Also, this song doesn't remind me of my mom, which can be a plus.
"River Runs, New Grown Plums" by Neil Diamond
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