Neil Diamond - 12 Songs. Produced by Rick Rubin!

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neil pulls a johnny cash.

i'm about to listen. definitely curious.

― jaxon (jaxon), Thursday, 3 November 2005 06:29 (nineteen years ago)

you're kidding.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 3 November 2005 06:39 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.supload.com/thumbs/default/folder-215894.jpg

― jaxon (jaxon), Thursday, 3 November 2005 06:46 (nineteen years ago)

IT'S GOT 14 SONGS!

― jaxon (jaxon), Thursday, 3 November 2005 06:47 (nineteen years ago)

Not sure if any of these are covers like the cash stuff. here's the tracklisting

01 - Oh Mary
02 - Hell Yeah
03 - Captain Of A Shipwreck
04 - Evermore
05 - Save Me A Saturday Night
06 - Delirious Love
07 - I'm On To You
08 - What's It Gonna Be
09 - Man Of God
10 - Create Me
11 - Face Me
12 - We
13 - Men Are So Easy
14 - Delirious Love (With Brian Wilson)

― jaxon (jaxon), Thursday, 3 November 2005 06:50 (nineteen years ago)

first song is beautiful. mellow plucked guitar, distant organ and subtle strings.

― jaxon (jaxon), Thursday, 3 November 2005 06:51 (nineteen years ago)

When this was first announced a few years back, Rubin said he was trying to return Diamond to his songwriter roots and get away from the spectatcle aspect of his music. Hopefully this album is more successful at making Diamond relevant again than his attempt with Donovan.

― Vic Funk, Thursday, 3 November 2005 13:20 (nineteen years ago)

this was discussed on another thread, but it sounds like it's making Neil more melancholy then the old Bang stuff, which is better then where he's been for the last 20 or so years, but those early singles ROCKED! I wouldn't mind an up-tempo dance cut with a bassline banged out on the piano and some girls in the background going "yeah yeah yeah"

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 3 November 2005 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

is this out yet or are we listening to mp3s?

― Banana Nutrament (ghostface), Thursday, 3 November 2005 14:02 (nineteen years ago)

Looks like you can hear it all on... oh boy... Neil Diamond's myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/neildiamond

― kaygee (kaygee), Thursday, 3 November 2005 14:40 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for the link to preview the songs!

― van igloo (van smack), Thursday, 3 November 2005 14:55 (nineteen years ago)

PS: I think it's lovely.

― kaygee (kaygee), Thursday, 3 November 2005 14:59 (nineteen years ago)

His last album had a really great song about going to the movies. I wish I hadn't given that album away as a gag gift.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

My wife saw him on his recent tour (it was a work thing). She said it was horrible: He rapped about drinking red wine "in the hood" on 'Red Red Wine.' Then he stuck his tongue down the throat of a backup singer during 'You Don't Bring Me Flowers.'

― righteousmaelstrom (righteousmaelstrom), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

maybe there's more truth to the SNL "storytellers" skit then we realize!

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:39 (nineteen years ago)

I was ticked that it never made the Will Farrell SNL best of dvd. Classic.

― van igloo (van smack), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

I was really hoping this would be an album of American-style unlikely covers

1) Like a Virgin
2) Love Gun
3) Kings of Rock
4) You have cum in your hair and your dick is hanging out
5) Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
6) Rebel Jew
7) Here Come Da Hotstepper
8) House of Jealous Lovers
9) I Bid You Goodnight
10) Evenflow
10

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

whoops - 12 songs. Oh well.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

No, 14 songs!

― van igloo (van smack), Thursday, 3 November 2005 15:58 (nineteen years ago)

Hahahaha, D'oh!

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 3 November 2005 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

Nah, 10 is fine, just call it "12 Songs" anyway. Recorded in order, single takes, with Neil drinking and drunk by the Rapture cover. End of album is the vocal mic hitting the floor.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 6 November 2005 09:18 (nineteen years ago)

Dan OTM on the Bang Records stuff. It's great, six stars outta five.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 6 November 2005 09:21 (nineteen years ago)

I must be the only person who thinks Neil sounds at odds with the arrangements and the whole mood of the album in general. Like he doesn't really *get* what direction Rubin was trying to push him in. You've got showman Neil on top of sparse music and neither suits the other well at all!

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 6 November 2005 09:25 (nineteen years ago)

He's kind of *always* sung that way, though, even on the Bang stuff. It's pretty dialed back here.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 6 November 2005 09:28 (nineteen years ago)

'Course, when he does these live, who knows? He may dial them right back up to "Hot August Night II"/Ozzy-style "WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!" level.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 6 November 2005 09:42 (nineteen years ago)

Heh heh. My changer just switched to "On the Beach."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 6 November 2005 09:43 (nineteen years ago)

Has there ever been a decent collection of the recordings he did for Bang records? The Uni Sessions for MCA is great fun but i wish I could track down more of the Bang stuff...

― Erik The Mainer (EZSnappin), Sunday, 6 November 2005 23:47 (nineteen years ago)

Can't miss with this album:
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf200/f237/f23701pupb6.jpg

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 7 November 2005 00:53 (nineteen years ago)

i dont think i like this

― anthony, Monday, 7 November 2005 06:33 (nineteen years ago)

Oh and the last song with Brian Wilson is fucking awesome. Brian does those old style doo wopy harmonies and hits notes people keep saying he can't hit any more. It's seriously as good as a prime beach boys or neil diamond song and makes me wish Brian and Rick would do an album together because I KNOW he has it in him to do an album better than Pet Sounds right now.

― The awful fish, Monday, 7 November 2005 06:34 (nineteen years ago)

14 - Delirious Love (With Brian Wilson)
is it written by brian the god ?

― retroboy, Monday, 7 November 2005 07:21 (nineteen years ago)

Listened to the whole thing. Throughout most of it, I wasn't that sold and didn't buy him coming off so... down tempo and un-poppy. Then song 12, We came in and I fucking loved every second of it. It was exactly what I wanted.
Oh and the last song with Brian Wilson is fucking awesome. Brian does those old style doo wopy harmonies and hits notes people keep saying he can't hit any more. It's seriously as good as a prime beach boys or neil diamond song and makes me wish Brian and Rick would do an album together because I KNOW he has it in him to do an album better than Pet Sounds right now.

-- The awful fish (fkjfj...), November 7th, 2005.
dude ,you're right - brilliant falsetto brian hit the high notes on pet sounds in london too.
is this a single ?
i would buy the whole cd to get this.

― retroboy, Monday, 7 November 2005 07:26 (nineteen years ago)

Songwriting is consistently awful. The production only helps if the songs are worthy, which they aren't.

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Monday, 7 November 2005 12:57 (nineteen years ago)

Rubin said he was trying to return Diamond to his songwriter roots and get away from the spectatcle aspect of his music.

I love the Bang stuff too but the OTT spectacle aspect is what made Neil's UNI era singles so "special." This sounds like a mismatch.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 7 November 2005 14:26 (nineteen years ago)

Has there ever been a decent collection of the recordings he did for Bang records? The Uni Sessions for MCA is great fun but i wish I could track down more of the Bang stuff...
-- Erik The Mainer

CD-wise, the 12-song Classics: The Early Years is the best collection of exclusively Bang recordings that I've ever personally encountered. Which ain't saying much, 'cause it's barely half an hour long and badly needs remastering. (Plus it's on Sony, after all.) But it's great rockin' stuff regardless.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 7 November 2005 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

Did anybody watch the piece on him on the CBS Sunday Morning show this weekend? Rubin seemed well-intentioned while totally not getting what Diamond is really about, and Diamond seemed like a brainwashing victim - like someone (Rubin?) had tried to convince him that his showbiz self was somehow unbecoming, and he was trying to overcome it without being necessarily sure that shrugging off what he'd spent his whole fucking life building/doing was the right choice after all. Which is sorta what this album seems like, though I haven't heard it. I like the idea of Neil Diamond - pretty good songs, showbiz pro w/out pretensions to bard-dom - better than I like actually listening to the records. I think I like knowing that Neil Diamond exists, and I don't like the idea of this record being some kind of attempted "rehabilitation" of the glimmering phony that is the "real" Neil Diamond.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Monday, 7 November 2005 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

let's not forget the great post Bang stuff...late 60s into the early 70s, like my all-time fave Holly Holy.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 7 November 2005 17:14 (nineteen years ago)

CD-wise, the 12-song Classics: The Early Years is the best collection of exclusively Bang recordings that I've ever personally encountered. Which ain't saying much, 'cause it's barely half an hour long and badly needs remastering. (Plus it's on Sony, after all.) But it's great rockin' stuff regardless.

I've got "Classics" and love it - just was hoping someone, somewhere had done a collection like the Complete Uni recordings that MCA put out.

― Erik The Mainer (EZSnappin), Monday, 7 November 2005 17:48 (nineteen years ago)

14 songs? did anyone else get screwed? The one I bought only came with 12 songs, just like the album says. I got jipped. pfffft

― van igloo (van smack), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 05:14 (nineteen years ago)

The 12 songs on "Classics: The Early Years" are I think also on that two-disc "Essential Neil Diamond," remastered.

I seem to recall the Dave Marsh assessment of "I Am, He Said' as being particularly strong in his "1001 Greatest Songs" (or whatever) book.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 05:46 (nineteen years ago)

Nope - only nine of 'em. One's a live recording and two are missing entirely.

Looking at that track listing reminds me how much I liked "Forever In Blue Jeans". (And how much I hated "Turn On Your Heartlight"!)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 09:47 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

paul gambaccini on radio 2 (uk) is playing one of these right now ... delirious love. it is fantastic.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 26 November 2005 19:13 (nineteen years ago)

twelve years pass...

Lots of good songs, deserves rediscovery.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 22 December 2017 04:34 (seven years ago)

"Boat That I Row" is killer

― J. Sam, Friday, 22 December 2017 05:32 (seven years ago)

...and of course "I Am...I Said" is all-time.

― J. Sam, Friday, 22 December 2017 05:35 (seven years ago)

"Face Me" is a jam.

― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 22 December 2017 11:59 (seven years ago)

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