Magazine


Diamond geezer - still making a beautiful noise

by Conrad Astley
12/ 5/2005

AS LIVING legends go, they don't get much bigger than Neil Diamond.

Having filled out stadiums for the past three decades, and recorded countless gold and platinum selling albums, it is safe to say he is an artist who has passed the test of time.

His most recent project - trying to get the American public to vote for John Kerry instead of George Bush by performing at a benefit concert for the candidate - may have ended in failure, but this is not something he is used to.

Speaking from his Los Angeles home on the eve of his UK tour, he said fans had plenty to look forward to: "We'll be doing old favourites, new songs, and songs from the back catalogue that I've never done in concert before.

"It's a whole new show that I think the audience is going to love. We'll be integrating video with the live music in a way that we haven't tried before. I'm really excited about it!

"My fans are so untypical. They come from all walks of life and age groups - men, women and children. It was a real conundrum for me when, about 20 years ago, I realised that that's what my audience was becoming, but it has turned out to be a joyful, close-knit thing."

Brooklyn-born Diamond, who sang alongside Barbra Streisand in his school choir, began his career penning songs for other people at New York's Brill Building hit factory.

Two of his most famous early compositions - I'm A Believer and Little Bit Me, Little Bit You - were written for his own first album, but were snapped up by The Monkees' creator Don Kershner.

His ability to write a melody that could stick in people's heads was evident from early on.

However, he is happy to admit not all of the tunes were his own.

He said the famous three-note trumpet hook on the chorus to Sweet Caroline was "probably" the idea of the session's arranger, whose name he could not remember.

But another of his famous melodies had a well-known author: "I wish I could take the credit for the simple melody on Song Sung Blue, but that was actually something I borrowed from Mozart's Piano Concerto Number 21. I owe Mozart a big debt."

Although many people may associate Neil Diamond with inoffensive melodies played at wedding receptions, there has always been a darker side to his music.

The lyrics to Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon - featured on the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction - speak for themselves, while many fans believed hit song Cracklin' Rosie was about a hooker who plied her trade on New York's 42nd Street.

However, he brushed this description aside with a laugh, saying: "It was actually based on a story that was told to me while I was touring in Canada about an old Indian reservation where there were many more men than there were women.

"On Saturday night when everyone was down at the bar drinking, a lot of the men were left without partners, so they turned instead to Cracklin' Rose, which is a very cheap rose wine, and she became their `woman' for the weekend. So no hookers involved at all, just a lot of lonely men."

The new tour is backing up The Essential Neil Diamond, a collection of 38 hits covering more than three decades of his career. Although it has been four years since his latest studio album, Three Chord Opera, he says fans won't have to wait long to hear some more new material.

He said: "I'm working on a new album right now. I'm very excited about it and hope to have it out later this year.

"I'd rather not say anything more about the album or the songs I've been writing right now, but I'm working with some new people, and it's a fascinating process. It's very much back to basics.

"I've been writing songs since I was 16. It's always been part of me and I still love the thrill of coming up with a new idea.

"Writing a new song excites me as much now as it did 40 years ago. So that, and having a receptive audience when I go out to perform is all the motivation I need."

Neil Diamond plays the MEN Arena on May 20.


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