Neil Diamond cheers me up

**pluckyduck** · #1 09-17-2002, 12:03 AM

Hold the tomatoes, please. I understand what even admitting I've listened to Neil Diamond means, not to mention extolling the virtues of same.

I'lll tell you though, I was majorly stressed out today...majorly...and I put myself on a Neil Diamond therapy regimine....

Dang it Sweet Caroline, good times never seemed so good when you hear a song sung blue!

Who cheers you up?

Andrea
1831% happier than before she listened to Neil

magenta321 · #2 09-17-2002, 12:09 AM

Sigh. The Grateful Dead's "Touch of Grey" cheers me up when I'm blue. It came on today while I was at work. It really had me feeling somewhat better, until they followed that song with "Only the Good Die Young."

Ug.

That brought me down lower than I was to start.

Niel Diamond makes you happy and Billy Joel makes me hide in the bathroom. We're a pair.

magenta321 · #3 09-17-2002, 12:15 AM

Ok, I'm back to thank you

Putting "Sweet Caroline" into my head is making me smile. Although, it's the memories of drunken friends at bars singing it that's got me smiling.

"Sweet Caroline, **** my ****..."

Sorry, my friends' version is dirrrty.

**pluckyduck** · #4 09-17-2002, 12:27 AM

Billy Joel is "feel good" for me...but a different kind of feel good. Billy Joel makes me think ... all of these years and I'm still a little upset that the king and the queen of the prom broke up, you know? Billy and Bruce make me feel good because they have a tidal wave of emotions that go with them, rush.

Neil is vapid. Turn on your Heartlight, dammit! Sometimes you need to believe that home is the most excellent place of all.

And his lyrics make me laugh. I don't know if it is his lyrics or his delivery or both.

"You are the sun I am the moon, you are the words I am the tune, play me."

Andrea

magenta321 · #5 09-17-2002, 12:40 AM

I was a little hyper-sensitive to Billy Joel's words.

They always reminded me of people I've lost, but this was just too fresh of a wound I guess.

Oh well. Back to the happy song... "Sweet Caroline... **** my ****, Good times never seemed so good (**** it, **** it!)"

**taurusmoon** · #6 09-17-2002, 07:19 AM

I once dragged myself out of the pits by listening to Billie Holiday for a couple of hours.

It got to a point when I just had to say, "Whoa, this chick's a lot worse off than I am."

I guess misery loves company that's even more miserable.

Sara

**Joubert**[$] · #7 09-17-2002, 07:51 AM

Dat's why da blues feel good sometimes.

Neil Diamond, as you guys know, was a Brill Building writer supreme. He also wrote I'm A Believer and Red Red Wine, not to mention a whole lot of bad songs in The Jazz Singer.

**pluckyduck** · #8 09-17-2002, 08:43 AM

True story:

I was in my late 20's before I could even admit that I liked Neil Diamond. Same confession as if I had to admit I read romance novels.

So, I mention this in passing to my then boss at work....and he took me a little too seriously. Big Christmas bonus- deluxe tickets to a Neil Diamond concert, including the dinner thing before.

I about died. Trapped with 20,000 screaming Neil Diamond fans... I could see the sweat spinning off on him on his revolving stage. (He wiped it with silk scarves and then threw the scarves to the fans).

Be careful what you mention in passing.

andrea

CurtisEdmonds · #9 09-17-2002, 11:20 AM

Saturday night and the moon is out
Gonna head on over to the Twist and Shout
Find a two-step partner with a Cajun beat
When he lifts me up, I'm gonna find my feet
Out in the middle of an old dance floor
When I hear that fiddle, want to beg for more
Gonna dance to a band from the Louisiane tonight

- MCC

**theworm**[$] · #10 09-17-2002, 11:28 AM

My husband has a friend who has a brother. I'm not thrilled with the friend, but the brother is more than I can handle. Somehow we ended up going to a Springsteen concert with the brother and his girlfriend. Brother stood up screeming and dripping sweat the entire performance. I needed earplugs and an umbrella! Anyway, hubby told me that when they were all teens, brother was a major Neil Diamond fan. He would drive around with the car windows down and sing on the top of his lungs. Now I'll admit to liking some corny Neil Diamond songs, but now, anytime I hear them I have this image of sweaty brother screaming out of the car window. It's just not pretty!

**lynnzop**[$] · #11 09-17-2002, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pluckyduck
Same confession as if I had to admit I read romance novels.

TG I'm not rooming with you.

Neil Diamond I can handle. Romance novels?

The things you learn about your friends.

Lynn

**pluckyduck** · #12 09-17-2002, 12:06 PM

No, no, no!

No romance novels! I'm saying it's the same as if I read romance novels and had to admit it.

Our other Lynne, BTW, has a romance novel habit.

I have several highly intelligent and cultured friends who have a secret affinity for bodice rippers.

I'm not one of them.....but I have been known to sing "Mandy".

Andrea

**lynnzop**[$] · #13 09-17-2002, 12:17 PM

There is hope, after all.

Okay, I

Barry Manilow. Didn't even think of him until you mentioned Mandy.

Remember "I Write the Songs"? I had the sheet music for that and played it over and over and over and over...of course, singing along the whole while. The Chopin intro and finale was The Bomb...I could play that with such expression.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Lynn
rumaging around in the sheet music for Barry Manilow

**pluckyduck** · #14 09-17-2002, 02:05 PM

Now that's funny, Lynn. I also got stuck at a Barry Manilow concert in a casino once...part of a "date from hell" in my early 20's.

Again, I happened to mention I "liked" him. That doesn't mean I want to go a concert for crying out loud.

The people next to us, I'm not making this up, loved Barry Manilow so much they followed him around like Deadheads.

Barry was their second favorite. Their favorite was Donny & Marie.

Andrea
who reflects that no one has ever bought her tickets to Bruce or Billy Joel or Elton

**Joubert**[$] · #15 09-17-2002, 02:52 PM

"I Write The Songs", huh? True story: he didn't write that one, they lyrics anyway.

**conradd** · #16 09-17-2002, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by joubert
Neil Diamond, as you guys know, was a Brill Building writer supreme. He also wrote I'm A Believer and Red Red Wine, not to mention a whole lot of bad songs in The Jazz Singer.

My brother got his first stereo at age 12 or so and his only record was a badly scratched Neil Diamond album. He turned it up, locked his bedroom door and fell asleep. Sound asleep. I listened to a couple thousand renditions of the first half of Red Red Wine that night, trying unsuccessfully to sleep in the next bedroom. The player would hit a scratch and bounce back to the first part of the song. Truly a night from Hell and I've never listened to Neil Diamond since. And, the record album "disappeared" the next day under mysterious circumstances.

Quote:

Originally posted by theworm
Now I'll admit to liking some corny Neil Diamond songs, but now, anytime I hear them I have this image of sweaty brother screaming out of the car window. It's just not pretty!

Try a rabid sister pounding on a bedroom door at 3:00 a.m. screaming at her sleeping brother to turn down the blasted music. Of couse he slept through it - couldn't hear me because the music was too loud.

Deb
who will drink red wine but won't sing about it

**pluckyduck** · #17 09-17-2002, 06:25 PM

That is too funny, Deb.

Andrea

**theworm**[$] · #18 09-18-2002, 09:31 AM

Hey, Duck! I thought of you last night when I was driving home and the oldies station started playing Neil Diamond. Yeah - it does make me smile. I think, though, that a good old smiley song is "Buttercup". That one usually does the trick.