The 500 - #224 - The Neil Diamond Collection - Neil Diamond

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: #224
Album Title: The Neil Diamond Collection
Artist: Neil Diamond
Genre: Rock, Soft Rock, Pop, Folk, Ballad
Recorded: 1968 - 1972

Released: November, 1999
My age at release: 34
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? Sadly, no Diamond albums made the 2020 list
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: I Am, I Said

Album cover for The Neil Diamond Collection.

Every University town has at least one legendary bar. In London, Ontario, (home of Western University) that gathering place is the Ceeps. The restaurant/tavern has been a popular watering hole for students, professors, alumni and locals for more than 100 years. It gets its name from the Canadian Pacific (C.P.) railway tracks just north of its doors on Mill Street. During homecoming week in October the taps rarely stop flowing. The tavern is so staggeringly popular on that weekend a staffer has the sole job of replenishing kegs in the vast, walk-in fridge compartments behind the bar. Rumour has it a keg empties every 15 minutes.

The infamous Ceeps line. Circa 1988.

On my 23rd birthday in 1988, I found myself at the Ceeps with a group of friends. While there, I ran into Shawn Burk, whom I knew casually through a mutual friend, James Fast. As it turns out, it was Shawn's birthday, too. We downed a celebratory drink as we chatted about sports, theatre and music. When I inquired  about his favourite bands, he quickly replied: "Judas Priest and Neil Diamond."

Judas Priest in their 80s heyday.

Back then, being a fan of leather-clad, British heavy metal groups was not unusual. Most of my friends, myself included, owned copies of Priest's seminal records, British Steel, Screaming For Vengeance and Sad Wings Of Destiny. However, admitting that you liked the music of uber-cheesy, soft-rock crooner Neil Diamond was bewildering to me.

Neil Diamond, performing in the 70s.

Fast-forward a few days and I found myself in Shawn's car as he blasted tracks from Hot August Night -- Diamond's 1972 live recording from The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. By the time we got to the closing song, Soolaiman/Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show, I was a fan. Sadly, there are no Diamond records on the 2020 edition of The 500. Hot August Night should be.

Album cover for Hot August Night, Neil Diamond (1972).

Shawn and I became terrific friends that summer. We both had a mischievous, theatrical streak. We got our hands on a video camera and started making silly, guerilla-style productions for our friends’ amusement. One afternoon, we set up shop in the hallway of a local mall, posing as representatives from the Kraft Food Company conducting a taste test. Curious mall patrons sampled marshmallows A and B -- and we dutifully noted their preferences on a clipboard. In truth, both "types" of the fluffy, white confectionary treats were the same. Regardless of the a volunteer's choice Shawn would proudly announce: "That's the Kraft Marshmallow!" It was harmless fun that lasted until mall security became suspicious and we scrammed.

Kraft Marshmallows - certainly London's favourite on that 1988 afternoon.

The Neil Diamond Collection is a compilation record released in 1999, containing Diamond's hits from 1968 - 1972. It contains most of the songs I heard on Shawn's car stereo. Diamond, born in 1941, lived a fascinating life even before deciding he wanted to become a songwriter and performer. Born and raised, for the most part, in Brooklyn, New York, he attended high school with singer Barbara Streisand and chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer.

32 years after being classmates, Streisand and Diamond scored a hit with the duet You Don't Bring Me Flowers in 1988.

Diamond was a member of the school's fencing team with his best friend, future Olympic fencer Herb Cohen. Diamond was good enough to secure a fencing scholarship to New York University where he enrolled in a pre-med program with the goal of becoming a doctor. However, in his senior year and just 10 credits shy of graduation, he made the bold decision to quit medical studies for a job writing songs at Sunbeam Music Publishing. It paid $50 a week, the equivalent to $450 today.

Diamond in a recording studio in 1963.

I was fortunate to see Diamond at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1993 during his Love In The Round tour. Shawn was with me. The 30-song set was performed, without a break, by the then 52-year old entertainer on a circular stage in the centre of the legendary hockey rink. The performance and the Collection album were reminders of the impressive  number of hits the former medical student, known as “The Jewish Elvis”, has penned.

Thirty-eight of his songs have reached the top 10 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary Charts. He has been inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame and The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, as well as receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Grammys. As Josh Adam Meyers postulated on the accompanying episode of The 500 Podcast, "Diamond wrote a significant chapter in The Great American Songbook". I agree. Why is he not represented on the 2020 list?

Diamond entering the Songwriter's Hall Of Fame in 1984.

In January 2018, Diamond announced his retirement from touring due to a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease. He lives in Basalt, Colorado, with his former manager, now wife Katie McNeil.

Diamond and McNeil in 2011 when he received the 
Kennedy Center Honors. 

I visit the Ceeps occasionally – typically in the summer when its expansive patio opens -- connected to its second bar, Barneys. Shawn moved to Toronto, but we remain friends. I am tremendously grateful to him for letting me couch surf at his apartment in 1991 when I first took an ill-fated restaurant job in Toronto. He was also a sympathetic ear in 1996 when my girlfriend, now wife, and I temporarily broke up. His decision to show me the film Swingers in order to help me shake my funk was an inspired decision.

When Shawn and I reconnect, it is easy to pick up where we left off – talking sports and music and laughing about our many videotaped hijinks. We still contact each other on our shared birthday to offer good wishes for another year. I am still a Neil Diamond fan because of him.