With his birthday last week and comments on the Forgotten Hits blog, I thought I'd share a very short interview with him from 1968. This was done by my late friend Jeff Lind. Sadly, Jeff passed away in 2008 at age 61, but was a true champion of Chicago music in the 60s. We shared many letters, conversations, traded tapes, thoughts, photos and it was great knowing him. Anyway, this short four minute interview was for the then five years old Rockford, Illinois college campus station WRCR. Jeff was a budding 21 year old who had already been writing LP and local concert reviews and teen club info for various newspapers and would eventually become the writer of the mega long Illinois Entertainer series on Chicago Rock of the ‘60s. His buddy, Guy Arnston, has tried to carry his memory to us over the decades since Jeff's departure.
On this night, Neil was a mere 27 years old and was in a bit of a lull in his hit career, despite being a star for two years after five Top 20 hits in 1966-67. He had just changed labels and was less than a year away until he would skyrocket into superstardom. But on this night, was playing "a gymnasium" for as low as $2 a ticket! The LP he talks about releasing in two weeks DID NOT CHART at all in Billboard's LP charts! Hard to believe. The LP contained his first three 45 releases for his new label Uni and altho all three were only mild chart successes nationally, in Chicago, two of those were WLS/WCFL Top 40 hits, including one of my faves "Two-Bit Manchild."
Neil has fun with Jeff's amateur interview questions, but is fairly nice to Jeff with his answers and it's fun to hear him somewhat humble in those early success days. Below is likely the concert this was taken from.
In Forgotten Hits, you shared that "the very first concert you ever took a date to was Neil Diamond in late 1970 at Chicago’s Civic Opera House. It was quite impressive, to say the least, and a memorable experience."
I wonder if you and I were at that same concert that night!!
And I agree with you, it was a great show! I remember when he started, he said to the audience that during his shows he would often get people calling out to sing a favorite hit song of his. But if everyone would just wait, at the end of his show, he would take requests for any he hadn't sung.
When that time came, no one shouted for any. He had sung them all! ( I think he had a dozen well-known hits by that time. )
Buell!
Way back in 2001 (OMG, has it REALLY been nearly twenty five years?!?!) we did a short piece on Neil Diamond that has remained a list favorite ... in fact, I believe that this is now the FIFTH time we're rerunning it!
(Hey, cut me some slack!!! Five times in 25 years??? How many times have you seen the Lucy “stomping on the grapes” episode?!?!)
The piece kicked off with the quote:
"There are two types of
people in the world ... those that like Neil Diamond's music ... and those that
don't."
-- Bill Murray in "What About Bob"
HERE COMES YET ANOTHER '60's FLASHBACK:
NEIL DIAMOND ALERT:
WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
NEIL DIAMOND Music Is Being Featured
In FORGOTTEN HITS Today!!!
The very first concert I ever took a date to was Neil Diamond at the Chicago Civic Opera House in the Summer of 1970. (While that in and of itself is pretty hard for me to admit, Frannie's first concert was The Osmond Brothers, teamed up with Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods ... so I don't feel TOO bad! I guess I could have done worse!) Besides, you've got to remember that back in 1970 Neil was still SINGING his songs instead of narrating them!
Anyway, "I Am, I Said" hadn't even been released as a single yet and he did it that night. In introducing the song, he walked to center stage, paused and then VERY dramatically said: "There are songs....and then there are SONGS" .... a pretty egotistical assessment of his musical talents, I thought. It's a shame, too, because I really did think "I Am, I Said" was one of his greatest achievements .... but that type of comment really should have come from the listener, not the artist ... it should have been OUR assessment, not his ... and I have to admit that I was pretty turned-off to Neil after witnessing that.
After the concert, my date and I were waiting for her parents to come pick us up (being all of 16 at the time, I wasn't driving on dates yet ... or at least not downtown!) when some homeless, very drunk old black man came up to us begging for money. Needless to say, being quite naive and having led very sheltered lives, we both freaked.
After stumbling around and hassling us for about ten minutes, he said:
"I have a problem and I don't know what to do.
I have six children at home and I only have five apples.
What do you think I should do?"
"I don't know," I said, slowing inching away.
"Make applesauce!" he laughed.
Scared as we were, WE laughed, too!!! When our ride FINALLY showed up, I gave him a couple bucks and quickly pushed my date into her father's car! Ahh, America.
"I Am, I Said" eventually peaked at #4 on both the Billboard and the Cash Box chart, and went all the way to #2 here in Chicago in the Spring of 1971. The Neil Diamond album "Gold" (recorded live at The Troubadour and released in August of 1970) was pretty much the concert that I saw that night, just a few weeks earlier. Naturally, I bought it as a memento. Two years later, the same thing would happen with "Elvis As Recorded At Madison Square Garden" ... that LP came out two weeks after I saw him perform the exact same show live at the Chicago Stadium.
***
Noted Humorist / Journalist Dave Barry says that the inspiration to write his "Book Of Bad Songs" came from one of the newspaper columns he had written regarding songs he didn't particularly care for, which generated such an incredible response that he knew he had tapped into a nerve. The catalyst of all of this was none other than Neil Diamond.
Dave writes: It would not trouble me if the radio totally ceased playing ballad-style songs by Neil Diamond. I realize that many of you are huge Neil Diamond fans, so let me stress that, in matters of musical taste, everybody is entitled to an opinion, and yours is wrong.
He goes on to say: Consider the song 'I Am, I Said,' wherein Neil, with great emotion, sings: 'I am, I said, to no one there. And no one heard at all, not even the chair.' What kind of line is that? Is Neil telling us he's surprised that the chair didn't hear him? Maybe he expected the chair to say, 'Whoa, I heard that!' My guess is that Neil was really desperate to come up with something to rhyme with 'there' and he had already rejected 'So I ate a pear,' 'Like Smokey The Bear,' and 'There were nits in my hair.'
Apparently, the response of hate-mail to his derogatory comment was so overwhelming that he combined them all into one all-purpose-irate-Neil Diamond-fan hate letter:
Dear Pukenose:
Just who the hell do you think you are to blah blah a great artist like Neil blah more than twenty gold records blah blah how many gold records do YOU have, you scum-sucking wad of blah. I personally attended 1,794 of Neil's concerts blah blah What about 'Love On The Rocks,' huh? What about 'Cracklin' Rosie'? blah blah. If you had ONE TENTH of Neil's talent blah blah. So I listened to 'Heartlight' forty times in a row and the next day the cyst was GONE and the doctor said he had never seen such a rapid blah blah. What about 'Play Me'? What about 'Song Sung Blah'? Cancel my subscription if I have one.
(In all fairness, Dave DID finally admit to liking one line of "Play Me": "Song she sang to me, song she brang to me.".....now THAT'S a lyric!)
The piece apparently enticed SO many people that, when all was said and done, he had to write a public apology to all the Neil Diamond fans he offended:
Please stop writing! You have convinced me! Neil is a music god! I worship Neil on a daily basis at a tasteful shrine to him erected in my living room! I love ALL the songs Neil sang to us! Not to mention all the songs he brang to us!
GREAT stuff!
THE NEIL DIAMOND HIT LIST
1966 – Solitary Man (NATIONAL PEAK = 55 / Chicago Peak = EX)
1966 – Cherry, Cherry ( 5 / 2)
1966 – I Got The Feelin’ (Oh No No) 16 / 19)
1967 – You Got To Me (18 / 16)
1967 – Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon (8 / 8)
1967 – Thank The Lord For The Night Time (10 / 9)
1967 – Kentucky Woman (12 / 15)
1968 – New Orleans (36 / 27)
1968 – Red Red Wine (55 / xx)
1968 – Brooklyn Roads (34 / 18)
1968 – Two-Bit Manchild (51 / 22)
1968 – Sunday Sun (41 / xx)
1969 – Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show (12 / 7)
1969 – Sweet Caroline (3 / 2)
1969 – Holly Holy (4 / 2)
1970 – Shilo (23 / 12)
1970 – Until It’s Time For You To Go (40 / 30)
1970 – Soolaimon (African Trilogy II) 24 / 11
1970 – Solitary Man (16 / 2)
1970 – Cracklin’ Rosie (1 / 1)
1970 – He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother (13 / 12)
1970 – Do It (30 / 25)
1971 – I Am … I Said (4 / 2)
1971 – Done Too Soon (65 / 21)
1971 – I’m A Believer (45 / xx)
1972 – Stones (10 / 7)
1972 – Crunchy Granola Suite (10-B / 9)
1972 – Song Sung Blue (1 / 1)
1972 – Play Me (11 / 4)
1972 – Walk On Water (14 / 20)
1973 - Cherry, Cherry (Live from “Hot August Nights”) 24 / 8
1973 – The Long Way Home (67 / xx)
1973 – The Last Thing On My Mind (42 / xx)
1973 – Be (19 / 16)
1974 – Skybird (48 / xx)
1974 – Longfellow Serenade (4 / 5)
1975 – I’ve Been This Way Before (34 / x)
1976 – If You Know What I Mean (11 / 28)
1976 – Don’t Think … Feel (43 / xx)
1978 – Desiree (9 / 22)
1978 – You Don’t Bring Me Flowers (with Barbra Streisand) 1 / 1
1979 – Forever In Blue Jeans (20 / xx)
1979 – Say Maybe (55 / xx)
1980 – September Morn (7 / 17)
1980 - The Good Lord Loves You (67 / xx)
1981 – Love On The Rocks (2 / 8)
1981 – Hello Again (6 / 12)
1981 – America (8 / 24)
1981 – Yesterday’s Songs (11 / 20)
1982 – On The Way To The Sky (27 / xx)
1982 – Be Mine Tonight (35 / xx)
1982 – Heartlight (4 / 7)
1983 – I’m Alive (30 / xx)
1983 – Front Page Story (65 / xx)
1984 – Turn Around (62 / xx)
1986 – Headed For The Future (46 / 45)
