Okay.. confession time… when I was a little girl.. too young to know otherwise, Neil Diamond was my homeboy. It’s true. I know it’s not cool, but honesty is the best policy… and my summer holidays were filled with Neil Diamond blaring from my mum & dad’s stereo.
We knew EVERY song, every word, every pause, every crackle… due to the constant rotation of Neil-vinyl…. and despite slipping in a dose of Abba Arrival now and then… we secretly loved the reliability of Neil. In our house, Neil was The King.
We had a pirate VHS copy of ‘The Jazz Singer’, which we watched a zillion times, humming along, willing Neil to become the pop singer he was destined to be. (Now I think.. who the HECK thought that Neil Diamond and Laurence Olivier would make screen magic??! But then.. it was gold.)
So this leads me to ‘A Week of Neil Diamond’ where I’ll be themeing each post around the title of a Neil Diamond song. It’s tricky. But I think I can do it. The very excellent (!) I AM I SAID NEIL DIAMOND FAN SITE has a definitive list of Neil-tracks… so there’s a heap to choose from – but I won’t be writing about NEIL as such… just using him as the conduit for inspiration.
I’ll be starting later today… I’m having a bit of trouble choosing between titles such as ‘River Runs, New Grown Plums’, ‘Porcupine Pie’,’Soggy Pretzels’ and ‘Whose Hands are These’. Stay tuned. Let me know if you’re joining in. And let me know if you’re a closet Neil fan. I won’t tell a soul. Just comment below. Ha.
xx Mikes