Happy (belated) Birthday to a man whose music has been covered by groups as far out of his genre as UB40 and Urge Overkill. This show features some rock versions of his songs, and a tune sung (blue) by Neil himself. Here’s what you’ll hear:
| Title (with link to iTunes, if available) | Artist | Album (with link to Amazon.com, if available) | Original Artist |
| Sweet Caroline | The Gobos | Worst. Album. Ever. | Neil Diamond |
| Cracklin’ Rosie | Shane MacGowan | Rare Oul’ Stuff | Neil Diamond |
| Thank The Lord for the Night Time | The Shambles | 22 Explosive Hits | Neil Diamond |
| I’m A Believer | The Frank and Walters | Ruby Trax: The NME’s Roaring Forty | Neil Diamond (popularized by the Monkees) |
| Red Red Wine | Tony Tribe | 20 Reggae Classics: The Music That Inspired A Generation | Neil Diamond (popularized by UB40) |
| If You Know What I Mean | Martin Zellar | Born Under | Neil Diamond |
| Suzanne | Neil Diamond | Love Songs | Leonard Cohen |
34 minutes | 
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I’m a Believer is a great song, of which there are many covers. My favorite is Robert Wyatt’s – check it out sometime!
Chris Isaak does a killer version of Solitary Man. I think it’s even better than the Johnny Cash version.
Thanks Brian. I was amazed that an artist that most people cringe away from could have written music that sounds so good once it’s put in a different wrapper.
I guess that there is something to be said about Neil Diamond’s composition ability…
I’m not adding any Neil Diamond cds to my collection any time soon, but I’ll stop bad mouthing him so much.
I liked this version of Sweet Caroline almost as much as the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes one. The Gimmes also do a great version of Mandy.
Neil Diamond wrote “I’m a Believer”? I had no idea.
You realize that if you get me to like Neil Diamond then we can never speak of it again. 🙂
Brian,
Great Show!
Can’t believe you didn’t play “Girl you’ll be a woman soon” By covered by urge overkill (found in the pulp fiction soundtrack) ..
Chris – You’ve discovered my evil plan.
Pranav – I had Urge Overkill in the playlist, but I took it out when I was trimming the tracks down. It’s a cover that a lot of people already know, and I was trying to pick songs that people may not have heard before. But rest assured, you’ll hear it on a future show!
you forgot Korn’s killer cover of “Love On The Rocks”.And HIM doing “Solitary Man”.Many Metal bands have covered Neil Diamond.Not just the oh-so-ironic-pop-punk.
Lets get back to Indie for a momsnt-there is a whole Neil Diamond Indie Tribute album out http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007SL1Q2/qid%3D1138478257/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr_11_1/103-9414671-5012613
I love Sun Kill Moon’s version of “Kentucky Woman”,
Crooked Finger’s version of “Solitary Man”,Ween’s version of “Love On The Rocks”,Liz Phair’s (Live) version of “I’m A Believer,U2’s (Live) version of “Sweet Caroline”.I could go on and on.My point being that the oh-so-cool sarcastic bashing of Neil Diamond is just so lame.Have you people got the newsflash:Neil Diamond is Cool’ now thanks to the Rick Rubin-produced return to serious-rock called 12 SONGS!
I want to say that I directed my last post to the “most people cringe away from ND” post by Brad P. from NJ.I downloaded the Neil Diamond cover story,and I just love it!Great Show!
Great show. Thanks for dedicating the Martin Zellar cover to me and Michele. We’re honored. I’m a big Neil Diamond fan. Cheesy? Absolutely. But the guy has written a lot of great melodies over the year, and for that I dig the mighty Neil.
Hi all,
Hey Neil is neither cheesy or ironic. Sure he’s had his fair share of bad songs and stuff he’d rather not remember. But he is a truly great songwriter and an American icon … as Bono said, “He’s an American classic.” I’d suggest you all get a copy of his new “12 Songs” CD produced by Rick Rubin. The man is STILL a great songwriter. No cheese, no glass-beaded shirts just pure songwriting ability.
I caught you saying “Neil Young” by mistake one time during the show 🙂
Do you have enough material for a Neil Young cover story?
Tim
Brian,
You keep costing me money! When I saw that it was a Neil show I was hoping you would include Martin Zellar, which you did.
But the song “If You Know What I Mean” on Born Under? I was wondering where you got such a silly idea. I know the album backwards & forwards after many many listenings since buying it brand new back in ’94 or ’95 (and getting it signed by the man himself even.)
Then I searched my iTunes library and “If You Know What I Mean” wasn’t in there! That’s not possible! If Martin or the Gear Daddies recorded it, I have it!
So I started doing some research and found that Born Under was re-released two years ago with NINE EXTRA TRACKS!! How could I have not known this? *hanging my head in shame* My Zellar/GearDaddies collection is no longer complete, and I even have the purple vinyl 45 of “Little Red Corvette”
So now, thanks to you, I have to go buy a new copy of Born Under.
Also, in your show notes, you have the amazon link to the old version with only 10 songs, rather than the new one with the Neil song.
If any of your listeners will be in Minneapolis on Saturday, March 4th and want a full dose of Neil & Martin, he’ll be doing one of his famous “Neil! – Tribute to Neil Diamond” shows.
Glad to help you discover new music that you have to buy all over again, HellZiggy!
And I’ve fixed the link to point to the right version of “Born Under”! (Thanks for catching that…)
Martin’s cover of If You Know What I Mean was originally a bonus cut on the promo CD for Lie To Me. Actually, a bunch of those bonus tracks on the Born Under re-release were originally available as bonus tracks on promo CD singles. It’s nice that Ryko added the rarities to the CD so they’re not so difficult to find. Martin’s covers are always a lot of fun.
Little known fact: first 2 albums I ever bought were Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, and Neil Diamond’s Moods. People who know me tend to be shocked to find I’m a closet fan, I’m known more for my Metallica and Slayer tendencies.
Great show once again Brian, keep em coming!
Oh yeah, I assume you know you exceeded your monthly bandwidth on Jan 30. Didn’t manage to get the show until tuesday morning (the 31st, oddly enough).
Yeah, I got a little more bandwidth just to get me thorugh the month. BlueHost is taking great care of me.
I _LOVED_ The suzanne cover, played by Neil Diamond..
If you’re going to do another foreign language coverstory, i’ve got a Herman van Veen cover in Dutch of the same song.
A late-lamented band from Arizona, the Sidewinders (later the Sand Rubies) did an excellent version of “Solitary Man” on their 1989 album Witchdoctor.