In my youth I watched The Jazz Singer which was a starring vehicle for Diamond and played the soundtrack to death. It was Neil Diamond’s biggest selling album in the United States, selling over 5 million copies reaching No 3 on the albums chart. Neil Diamond took part in The Band’s send off concert The Last Waltz singing today’s featured track – Dry Your Eyes. In the midst of performers like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Neil Young, and Van Morrison, Diamond’s appearance as a glitzy entertainer wearing a light blue suit; an outfit more befitting a Las Vegas show, seems to have surprised some.
Looking deeper, it was clear that the Band were gathering different types of music, or as guitarist Robbie Robertson mentioned, the spokes of a wheel. So, Neil seemed to represent the New York Songwriters part of the wheel. Neil’s song is side-by-side with Helm and Robertson talking about NYC. In 1975-76, Robertson had recorded the LP Beautiful Noise with Diamond, using the Shangri-La Studios, shown in the film. The final song on that LP was Dry Your Eyes.
Dry your eyes and take your song out
It’s a newborn afternoon
And if you can’t recall the singer
You can still recall the tune
Dry your eyes and play it slowly
Like you’re marching off to war
Sing it like you know he’d want it
Like we sang it once before
And from the center of the circle
To the midst of the waiting crowd
If it ever be forgotten
Sing it long and sing it loud
And come dry your eyes (read the remainder here)
Diamond was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a Jewish family. All four of his grandparents were immigrants, from Poland on his father’s side and Russia on his mother’s. He was a member of the Freshman Chorus and Choral Club, along with classmate Barbra Streisand. Diamond recalled they were not close friends at the time: “We were two poor kids in Brooklyn. We hung out in the front of Erasmus High and smoked cigarettes.” Later on in this music library project a song duet by Barbra and Neil will feature called You Don’t Bring Me Flowers which my mother cried to every other day after I came home from school.
Sadly, I read here that 81 year old Diamond announced in 2021 that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease which is affecting his speech and movement- the disease is currently incurable.
Diamond has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time.
References:
1. Neil Diamond – Dry Your Eyes (featuring The Band) – Reddit
2. Neil Diamond – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
You can do a whole lot worse than Neil Diamond!
Excellent song choice, Matt.
That is true. Thanks very much Nancy.
Interesting pick. Man, I watched “The Last Waltz”, which admittedly dates back many years, but don’t recall Neil Diamond’s appearance there.
When I think of Diamond, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, I mostly think of a crooner and oftentimes forget he was a serious songwriter. Among many others, he penned one of my favorite ’60s songs popularized by The Monkees: “I’m a Believer”.
I also think while you could say Diamond has a crooner voice, I happen to like it. It’s pretty distinct and expressive.
I’ve watched the concert a few times all the way through. It’s been a long time since my last viewing.
I admit I don’t see him as much a crooner as a glitsy commercial ‘by numbers’ pop artist. For me, his talent really shone in the movie ‘The Jazz Singer’. He roughed up the image quite a bit. I appreciated your take of him as a songwriter.
He does a fantastic job….I kinda like his suit..I wore a similar one back then 😆
I didn’t mind his suit either, but it stood out. You wore something like that to wooh the ladies at the disco’s?
It was a crazy time Matt! Disco was appalling to me then lol
I was too young, thank God. Lol
It was a so bad…..
He did a great job…but he did seem out of place with the others but hey…it worked in the end. Robbie was producing an album for him at the time. The other members of the Band were not too happy with Diamond being there.
As usual Max, you are a bastion of super interesting information. Reading all those misic books has paid off man!
We have the Dodgers VS Padres tonight on Espn. How is their season fairing? I haven’t been following the MLB this year.
They are in first place this year…. 11-6 but it’s too early…their bullpen is the weak spot of the Dodgers… but so far that offense can generate some runs!
Watching now. It’s cool because I have the English commentary option for the first time. Mookie doing great so far this year. Let’s see how their pen goes. Good luck with the season.
Thanks Matt! Yea I hope to see and them win the World Series this year.
I see what you mean (at least based on last night’s evidence) about Bullpen concerns. Gee wiz, they were bad lol I hope they turn it around.
Oh yea they will get there…they are experimenting with different bullpen pitchers… plus two of their best are injured at the time.