A Herald Sun Newspaper Lift out
Article by Nui Te Koha - New York
"MUSIC MAN"
Neil Diamond is still hot on an August night
"Simplicity, Truth, and trying to create something beautiful.
That has been my goal"
Neil Diamond has one strict condition. No personal questions. Ever.
However, unlike most superstars, who send word of taboo subjects in advance - usually through a publicist - Diamond’s disdain for talking about personal matters is an unwritten rule.
It’s in his body language. It’s in his face, but mostly when the subject gets close to the bone, it’s in his stony silence.
Yet, to say that about Neil Diamond is to paint him as humourless and distant host, which, on this sunny New York city day, he clearly is not.
In fact, Diamond is amiable and obliging. To a point.
" I don’t do what I do in order to tell the world about what I do offstage and at home, to me, it’s always been about the music. Always"
Curiously enough, the real essence of Neil Diamond - the warts and all stuff, the happy marriages, the ugly divorces, the dashed dreams and rebuilt hopes of a 60 year old singer songwriter icon - has always been his songs.
And that may be the real reason Diamond has endured for four decades, sold more than 100 million records - including 37 to 40 hits – and stayed consistent and relevant to his millions of fans worldwide.
In his music, he gives everything.
Outside that , Diamond remains a familiar yet oddly reclusive enigma. And even in a world of celebrity psychoanalysis.
"I think it’s a good thing for me to get as naked as I possibly can in the songs because they come off truer" Diamond says
" If there is more truth to them, then, for me, that can only be a good experience in terms of relating what the thing is about"
And I approach it in the only way I can. I don’t have any pretences about it. I am writing from my own feelings, and you look for inspiration that comes from feelings of yourself.
"The original inspiration comes directly from somewhere inside. You just open up and let it happen"
Diamond’s latest album, three chord opera, suggests the twice divorced Diamond has, again, opened himself to love
It opens with I haven’t played this song in years a lovelorn ode to failed romance, presumably a lyrical letter to former wives Jaye Posner and Marcia Murphey
"We tried to set the world on fire" Diamond growls on the track " we almost did it with our desire…"
Diamond refuses to talk specifics about the song, but offers: "It’s the most painful song that I had, and the most brutally honest, in hope it would hold up from there"
" It’s about love, self examination, reflection, hopes for the future, and what I’ve learned over the years. Basically, it’s about me, for better or worse"
Thematically, I haven’t played this song in years is at odds with the romantic heart of the new record, perhaps signalling Diamond’s intent to address that hurtful episode before addressing new love on I believe in happy endings, You are the best part of me and My special someone
According to US reports, the special someone in Diamonds life is 30year old Queenslander Rachel Farley
Sources say Diamond met Farley apparently working in merchandise stands during his 1996 Tennessee Moon tour, while he played shows in Australia
Us reports say the couple wed this year in a secret ceremony in Aspen, Colorado, where Diamond has a home
Given Diamond’s protocol on private matters, a spokes woman for the singer could neither confirm or deny the reports
When I ask Diamond directly about Farley, he pauses to consider the question, then replies slowly: "I think it’s so hard to maintain a relationship, even without the public glare on that relationship
"It’s difficult, and it’s an area I don’t ever want to go into because it’s important to me to keep it private’
"And that ‘s the only thing I want to say about it. It’s so important to me, it has to be private"
It is an understandably touchy subject. In may 1996, Diamond’s second wife Marcia Murphey, got $150 million, the biggest divorce settlement in show business
"I am happy to do it" Diamond said at the time
"She’s the mother of my youngest children (Jesse 31 and Micah 23) She’s been through thick and thin. She deserves half my fortune
"I wish her all the happiness $150 million can bring"
Diamond and Murphey split briefly in 1991 after she threw him out of the house, accusing him of having an affair with 37 year old rodeo cowgirl Jonnie Janockowski
Diamond divorced his first wife Jaye Posner - mother of Majorie, 36 and Elyn, 33 - in 1969
Midnight Dream another cut from the new album, addresses those failures.
"It’s reflective and it’s about a situation that went wrong, and can’t be redeemed.
"But it also looks back on life, from a perspective of being a 60 year old - which I like to brag about - just tell myself: " I made it this far"
"I certainly didn’t expect to, not in the kind of work I do, It’s so intense.
Lyrically, Diamond is cast as the eternal optimist; even his bleakest songs offer some form of redemption.
But Midnight Dream is a rare instance where the songwriter offers no escape.
"From this perspective, and from my age right now, it’s a position I can honestly take, and a song I can honestly write"
Why now?
"I can talk, I can give advise with a lot more life experience under my belt
"I’ve had experience in all kinds of relationships that I can talk about through music, so I think that’s an advantage
"Experience is the advantage" Diamond says
"Life experience. Once you reach this point in your life, you can say things you couldn’t say when you are 25."
Significantly, Diamond’s one exception is matters of the heart
"It’s very difficult for me to say: "I love you" but to sing ‘I love you’ for me is easier.
"It’s easier to say these things in a song because you can hide behind the art of it. I don’t think I’d have the nerve to say a lot of these things direct to a person"
He cites a new song, You are the best part of me as the best example of this
"Always through a song I’m able to say things and express my feelings in a way I cannot in direct conversation"
"That’s why my songs have been truthful to me , and truthful to the person I’m singing about. I don’t know exactly why I’m able to do this more with music than I am as, you know" Diamond says, sheepishly, " a guy…"
Artistically, Three Chord Opera marks the first time since 1974 album, Serenade in which all the words and music have been written by Diamond.
"For the first 10 years of my career, from Solitary Man to Beautiful Noise I did all the songs myself
"And it was difficult to get into that frame of mind again. But once the songs came, they came quickly. It felt fresher, it was certainly scarier, but that’s because I hadn’t done it in a long time."
In his new songs, Diamond also saw similarities with the material he crafted in his so called Tin Pan Alley days, when, at 16, he wrote songs for a publishing company for $50 a week.
His first recording session, in 1966, yielded three hits: Solitary Man, Cherry, Cherry and I got the feeling(Oh no, no)
Simplicity, truth, and trying to create something beautiful. That, ultimately ,has been the goal" Diamond says
"Once a song gets started and you find something you’re excited about, it comes. That has never changed for me.
"I’m probably not as prolific as I was when I was 25, then again the songs are probably more complicated, sophisticated and deeper in a way.
Solitary Man and Cherry, Cherry were unconventional when they were written because, at that particular time, The Beatles and the British invasion had taken over the music industry, and here i was a guy with a guitar, a kind of an Elvis guy who wrote his own songs.
"At that time, Elvis was old hat, he was out and groups were in, so it was important that I reflect and do the things that were important to me, as opposed to trying to copy what was happening out there.
"Although" Diamond says thoughtfully," I must say The Beatles opened the doors for many, many songwriters because they broadened horizons. They made all kinds of things possible by what they just did"
So Diamond had admiration for the competition
"Oh no " he corrects " I hated them. Only because nobody was paying attention to me, including my own manager.
"I remember my first manager – who I had for about two years, then I decided we had to break up - he told me: ‘You know, if we’d had some more hits we may have been able to do something…"
"I wrote out a list of nine songs. All of them were hits, and left forever’" Diamonds says with a laugh
"So, I was under the radar to everybody, including my own people, unfortunately"
"Now looking back, I think it helped me because I wasn’t pitted against The Beatles, and what they were doing. I was doing my own little thing, building a career and having more success in that area"
Yet, for all his success, Neil Diamond always new his limitations, including a voice he describes as potholed and gravelly.
" If I was a musical prodigy, and I could write any kind of music at any time, I would be a different kind of writer. But I do know what I like, and what I’m capable of doing"
" I always kept to that and stayed there. There are thousands of songs and ideas I can write , but I’ve never been facile enough to write for somebody performing in a different musical area that the one I know.
"It’s always been easier for me to write songs for myself, and for what I’m capable of doing. I know that. I still know that. And that’s how most of my songs were written."
His voice also had it’s limits
"I never had a traditional voice with the purity other vocalists have"
"My voice is unadorned. I don’t try for perfection, I try to be honest and truthful and soulful with the voice I have"
"If I make mistakes in notes, or there are cracks in notes, I don’t fix them. That’s the way it is.
"But I knew from the beginning , from Solitary Man on, that I wasn’t going to try and perfect it, or put background vocals with it to try to smooth things out.
"My voice is full of gravel, potholes left turns and right turns" Diamond smiles " but it’s my voice, and it’s what I have to deal with"
At 60 – and damn proud of it - Diamond says he’s ripe for a new beginning.
"Once again" he says excitedly, "I’ve been able to plumb the depths of what has been going on inside of me, and it feels good"
"It bodes well for what’s to come in the future."
Late last month, Diamond was reportedly on the warpath for his record company to support Three Chord Opera - especially in the face of teen pop and rap rock dominance – but he is at ease with the current pop climate.
"The trick is for these new people to build their career on the music they have" Diamond says
"Time will tell, really, who these people are, and who will remain for the longest time.
"But it’s fun, I see these kids, and they are working hard. I just hope that they’re able to stay focused, stay out of trouble and build a career because that is , really, what you have to do . It takes more than one record or one album."
Parenthood kept Diamond scandal free.
"It saved me " he said
"I was a father at 25 and it gives you a sober perspective on things.
"The kids made me realize my place and my true perspective. I don’t think I ever got carried away with the rock star thing, because the next day I had to go and diaper one of my babies"
Diamond – especially in these now happy times – has a philosophy about moving forward.
"Basically, it’s don’t look back, and don’t look down. Try not to think so much about how far you have come, as how much do you want to do" he says " If I’d have looked down when I first started, after the first four or five records, I probably would have congratulated myself and stopped"
"I don’t want to get tied up in what I’ve done already. It’s passed. At some point, yeah, you can look down and see what you have achieved, but I still don’t feel like I can do that."
"I’m looking towards the next challenge, the next horizon"
Australia for live shows, figures in that horizon next year. Promoter Paul Dainty is in talks with Diamond.
"I’m so impressed by the character of Australians. There is a quality of character you don’t find very often in the world.
"Somebody like (tennis champion) Patrick Rafter is a perfect example. The man is a great man, not because he’s a great tennis player, but because he’s a great man."
Diamond reveals he was compelled to call Rafter when the ace suffered a fitness slump a couple of years ago, to urge him back to on court greatness.
"He’s very representative of the people I know and have met in Australia. They are very down to earth, they work hard, they play hard and they love to have fun."
"But there’s this thread of character that runs through them, and there’s no other place in the world I can say that about"
It was once said Diamond is a larger than life figure simply because he’s unassuming outlook combined with a superlative musical back catalogue.
"Especially now, it remains that Diamond doesn’t fit it" writes US rock historian Davis Wild
"Rather, he’s a towering figure in his own right, a solitary man who has blazed his own trail"
"My aim, really," Diamond says, " is to leave a little beauty behind. My tool is my music. If I have been able to leave something beautiful behind, then I’m a very happy man"