The Ultimate Collection --- Neil Diamond --- 1996 (Columbia)
I almost never review compilations, greatest hits or the like, but I'm going to make an exception for this album, for two reasons. One, it's a great collection and two, I want to talk about Neil Diamond but I don't have any of his albums bar this double. But it's a great way to get a feel for the man's best music, even if it's hard to squeeze over fifty years of that onto two small discs.
Pretty much all the greats are there, and even if you hate Diamond you'll know the likes of “Sweet Caroline”, “Love on the rocks”, “Beautiful noise” and “Cracklin' Rosie. He gets a lot of stick (often from me, I admit it) as the pensioners' choice, watch out you don't trip on any zimmers at the gig, grannies throwing their knickers and so on, but the fact can't be ignored that Neil Diamond has been recording and gigging since the early sixties, has sold over 115 million records worldwide and has had almost forty hit singles. His songs have been covered, imitated, sampled and referred to, and he's worked with the best in the industry. Everyone from Cliff Richard to Deep Purple have interpreted his songs, and they're internationally recognised: even those who say they hate him have no doubt danced to “Song sung blue” or “Red red wine”, or performed dodgy karaoke versions of “Sweet Caroline”.
Whether he's writing uptempo boppers like the aforementioned “Sweet Caroline” or “Cracklin' Rosie”, glorying in life with the excellent “Beautiful noise” or being an “ordinary guy” with a song like “Forever in blue jeans”, Diamond is as good as his name, creating timeless gems every time he sets pen to paper or plectrum to guitar. The hits roll on, and it's hard not to get caught up in the infectious enthusiasm of his music. Even slower, more introspective fare like “I am, I said”, “September morning” or the aching “You don't bring me flowers” hit just the right spot, while thumping anthems like “America” and “Holly holy” just make you want to throw your fist in the air and shout “Yeah!”
The first disc is, in my opinion, the best, crammed as it is with his more recognisable hits. My own personal favourites, the broken-down ballad “Love on the rocks”, with its powerful, swelling string section that takes the chorus to new levels, the exuberant, almost madly happy “Beautiful noise” and the insistent “Play me” all make me wonder really why I don't listen to his music more? But like many artists of this type, I enjoy his hits but would I sit through a whole album? It's unlikely. Like Barry Manilow, ABBA and a few others, I can listen to a greatest hits and enjoy it but not consider myself particularly a fan. Fooling myself? Maybe, but I'm willing to bet good money I'm not the only one with a Diamond CD tucked, even hidden, away on my hard drive. Guilty pleasure, anyone?
There are some --- many --- of his songs I can live without. “Heartlight” comes across to me as a deliberate attempt to cash-in on the “ET” fever of the time, and I've never liked “Red red wine”. I also hate “Cherry, cherry” with a passion, but on an album with a total of forty tracks on it, I can honestly say I really like thirty, and a few more are okay: that's not a bad percentage. I know these are his hits, but still..
You do of course have to question the validity of a man who is a multi-millionaire singing about being happy with the simple things in life, as in “Forever in blue jeans” --- yeah, top designer, no doubt, Neil! --- but then who doesn't write songs like that, and if he's got rich penning songs of that quality, sure why not? Fair play to him, as they say. There's nevertheless a sense of honesty and reality that shines through in Diamond's songs, both in the lyrics and in their execution. Like recently-reviewed Dan Fogeberg, he really seems to put a lot of himself into the songs, and you really can't imagine him writing anything he hasn't lived.
Disc two is a little weaker, with a lot of cover material, though even then they're good covers. His version of the Hollies' “He ain't heavy, he's my brother” has gone down as a classic, and songs like “You've lost that lovin' feeling”, “The sun ain't gonna shine anymore” and Cat Stevens' classic “Morning has broken” sit well alongside his own songs. There are some great tracks on disc two, in particular I would single out “I am … I said”, “September morn”, “America” and “You don't bring me flowers”, but as I say, it's not as chock-full of instantly recognisable classics as the first disc is, and perhaps if the covers had been left off and a few of the weaker ones from disc one removed they could have made this a really killer album of just one disc.
Mind you, there are covers on disc one too, though fewer in number. He does a fairly decent version of Harry Nilsson's “Everybody's talkin'” with an interesting banjo and harmonica accompaniment, and the Drifters' “Up on the roof” gets the Diamond treatment too, with full orchestra, but the bulk of the first disc is all his own work, and the better for it. “Girl, you'll be a woman soon” has a very sixties vibe to it, with almost country and western guitar melding with rock, “If you know what I mean” is as powerful, passionate and tragic as it ever was, and “Longfellow serenade” only improves with time.
Probably the song that affects me most though is on disc two, and in fact the closer. Performed with the great Barbara Streisand, the tale of love gone sour in “You don't bring me flowers” hits a chord seldom achieved by others. The voices of the two lovers as they each accuse the other of giving up on the relationship, taking the easy way out and coasting on, sear the heart. Diamond snaps
”You don't say you need me”, Streisand counters with
”You don't sing me love songs” and both complain
”You don't bring me flowers anymore.” A tale sadly all too familiar to many a couple who married in the blush of first love, and then have to watch in dismay as the rose wilts and the love poems stop, and they wonder how they got themselves into this mess. Such a simple complaint, but getting right to the heart of the matter: you don't bring me flowers anymore. You don't love me.
I may listen (and I do) to Iron Maiden, Marillion, Tom Waits and Bon Jovi, but there'll always be a little place in my record collection for Neil Diamond, no matter what. His songs are timeless, human stories and they touch the hearts of so many people across this world that even at the age of seventy, his presence is still requested, demanded and swooned over onstage all over this planet of ours, and I somehow think this situation will remain for many years to come.
TRACKLISTING
DISC ONE
1. Sweet Caroline
2. Song sung blue
3. Cracklin' Rosie
4. Love on the rocks
5. Beautiful noise
6. Forever in blue jeans
7. Hello again
8. Red, red wine
9. Everybody's talkin'
10. Girl, you'll be a woman soon
11. I'm a believer
12. Heartlight
13. Up on the roof
14. Desiree
15. If you know what I mean
16. Longfellow serenade
17. Play me
18. You got to me
19. I (who have nothing)
DISC TWO
1. I am … I said
2. Solitary man
3. He ain't heavy, he's my brother
4. Cherry, cherry
5. Walk on water
6. Soolaimon
7. The sun ain't gonna shine anymore
8. Stones
9. You've lost that lovin' feeling
10. Morning has broken
11. Chelsea morning
12. Mr. Bojangles
13. Yesterday's songs
14. Thank the Lord for the night
15. Brother Love's travelling salvation show
16. September morn
17. Kentucky woman
18. I got the feelin' (Oh no no!)
19. America
20. Holly holy
21. You don't bring me flowers