The Smiley Smile Message Board

god , i got the 'in my lifetime 3 cd box for christmas and i can't stop listening to this !!!!!!....the booklet that came with it is very insightful
great commentary from neil on every song !.......Ian i know you are a fan , so what to listen to next ?.i was thinking about the Uni box set or maybe the Beautiful Noise album . i didn't realize Robbie Robertson produced that. Now it's not so surprising that he was in the Last Waltz.
i also really like the jonathanLivingston suite ..as a kid my Dad had that on 8-track , and listening to it now brings back many memories. it's also a very haunting theme.

Get the new one, man. Then you'll see he's just as great now, and that'll make the old stuff even sweeter. The box has the essential Bang cuts, so get the complete Uni set. Great place to pick up a bunch of albums in amazing sound in one fell swoop. Columbia albums that I would recommend are Seagull, Serenade, Beautiful Noise, September Morn, Jazz Singer, Three Chord Opera. But there's good stuff on all of em.
I'm glad you're digging one of the GREAT singer-songwriters.

i got the new one....in fact after listening to the box for the last 3 days straight , i pulled out 12 songs again and it is GREAT !! i really like the song "Man of god ". I think i will look for the Uni box , that looks great .

Cool man, you'll love the Uni set, lots of essentials that aren't on the box are there, especially the entirety of Tap Root Manuscript, one of the most underrated LP's ever.

Does the Uni box have unreleased goodies?? I want to hear more from his Bang era archive.

Only the box has unreleased stuff.
Do you have all the released material, Kevin? His first two LPs and the extra tracks from the later Bang cash-in albums fit nicely on one disc!

Here's the extent of my Diamond stuff-
The Uni LP featuring Caroline & Brother Love's, Hot August Night, Tap Root Manuscript, Moods, Stones, Serenade, Gold  2LP... a few hits CD's.  That's it. I'd like more- but time & lack of loot prevent that. What else to get?? I think you have a pretty good handle on my taste?!

Without a doubt the two Bang LP's-The Feel Of Neil Diamond and Just For You, and the great firdt Uni LP, Velvet Gloves And Spit. Those will be your Neil fave raves without question.

Neil Diamond kicks all kinds of ass......one of the 10 best songwriters of the 20th century, in my humble opinion. Excellent singer. And he even drove the ladies crazy. Boy had the world in the palm of his hands.

He STILL drives the ladies crazy. Just saw him at Staples. He killed.

I've got that In My Lifetime box set, never get tired of listening to it. I used to think my favorite Neil song was If You Know What I Mean....until I heard The Story Of My Life.  A REALLY great set!

Ten best of the twentieth century?

Hmmmm

I'd agree with that very bold statement!  The dude knew how to write a hook- fer damn sure.

More hooks than a tackle box.

I just got 12 Songs and I am absolutely blown away. Neil's doing great music like he did in the 60s! Now only if Brian would let Rick Rubin produce him...

I think it's more great music like he made in the 70's, but I'm glad you dig the album!

I really should go back and buy the boxset of his UNI recordings. The Columbia stuff I can take or leave, I never particularly cared for Neil's adult contemporary sound he had during most of his tenure there.

After you grasp the UNI, you'll be able to approach the Columbia stuff, on an album by album basis. I bet you'll like all of em up to You Don't Bring Me Flowers.

I'm gonna have to have my piggy bank ready.

I'm listening to the Play Me box right now. I would start with the Bang hits, but since Columbia owns those and Rhapsody has no access to the Columbia material, I have to settle for this as another starting point. Still, can't argue with 72 tracks of Neil before he went AC. Hot August Nights is also on my listening list.

He was always AC, the format just changed a bit.

Well, I think Neil in the late 60s, early 70s is more akin to Elvis' work in 1969 and 1970. Not pop, not rock.....but its own animal. The UNI material to me (and I've heard enough of it in 21 years of life) is when Neil Diamond was Neil Diamond, not Neil Diamond the AC crooner like he was during his tenure at Columbia.

But that is just as much who Neil is, his music defies classification. Just when you think you have him pegged as an emo/mellow singer-songwriter guy, he does a concept album about The Brill Building with Robbie Robertson producing. He's made many similar kamikaze moves his entire career, it's just that people don't examine his stuff closely enough. There's just as many surprises in the Neil canon as there are in Brian Wilson's.

Well I suppose we'll all have our preferences, and maybe with age I'll come to appreciate further Neil's tenure at Columbia. I'm not saying it isn't without merit.....I mean Christ, he was still Neil fucking Diamond.

I am just saying that if you only pay attention to the singles, that stuff seems a lot more weak than it does in proper context among other songs on the LPs. I couldn't stand that stuff either until I actually listened to the albums in their entirety.
I mean, hell, if we judged the BB mid-70's output by Rock And Roll Music and Come Go With Me alone, we wouldn't even know about Love You.
So, whenever you get the chance some day, dig a little Neil on Columbia. That's all. No biggie.

Well, considering that I'm going to go through his catalog album by album, I'm gonna go through Play Me, Classics, Hot August Nights, and then eventually work my way through the Columbia albums (excluding 12 Songs).

Sounds like I need to send you the two Bang albums.

Just how much stuff are you sending me?

I've just gone through 4 or 5 of Neil's UNI albums, lots of good stuff on them. Didn't get the whole concept on side 2 of Tap Root Manuscript...but maybe someone here has a better explanation for it.

My favorite Neil album.
Just a walk through African-influenced music. 15 years before Paul Simon's Graceland.

I just got through the Play Me box set...wow. I'm definitely burning that.

It's all about Brooklyn Roads. Best autobiographical singer-songwriter tune ever.

Always loved that song.

I'm bumping this thread because it's not tenth page material.

I just did some buying, I got the Uni box set and the Beautiful Noise album and I bought The Jazz Singer on DVD. Like all three pretty well.

Sweet.
Beautiful Noise is a real grower. The Jazz Singer got a bad rap, it's not great, but far better than it's reputation.
Neil's control-room freakout is a classic!  ;D

Dude, I loved the movie. I already loved all the music, but the movie stands up well enough on its own.

Cool!  ;D
I dig it, too, but I hedge my bets with my audience, lest I be seen as "uncool"!

Since when does being "cool" matter? Neil rocks, man.

Never thought I would see the man who coined the phrase "Deal with it!" worry about seeming cool.

Jazz Singer is the last frontier!