Missa-Neil Diamond

[Abbie102349]

This music is beautiful. Thank you for sharing with us.

[catkisser]

Oh Lord, don't make me go into a Jonathon orgy... oh, I can't deny it.

[catkisser]

I know, right?! Paul Simon got all this glory for incorporating African music but Neil had done it years ago to great affect and without the accolades. So not fair!

[Rmaid]

Before "Graceland," or "Famous Blue Raincoat," there was Neil Diamond's Tap Root Manuscript. Before Mister, Mister, there was Neil Diamond. I like what he wrote for the Monkeys (sp?), I like what he wrote for this, and love the Kyrie in Swahili.

Oh, and the "woman" he fell in love with was Gospel, the music came from the antebellum US South, whose roots indeed are in Africa, and the rhythmic root of so much American music.

[82compoundw]

@Rmaid

Monkees

[Rmaid]

@82compoundw Thanks, and you were right about the metaphor. And, for catkisser, Paul Simon, whom I very much like and respect, did "Graceland" a year or so after Jennifer Warnes' "Famous Blue Raincoat," and some people thought he discovered Africa. I don't blame Simon, I just know life is unfair (Sirach 13:21). Diamond, Warnes, and Simon's forays with this type of music are all very good. My complaint is that Diamond's work is undervalued.

[FClareCat]

Listening to his music takes me back to the exact momnet I've heard it first. I too would love to hear it in a cathedral setting.

Growing up, going to high Masss was a treat; not for the length, but for the choir.

Has the orginal HAN ever been put on to DVD?

[2states]

Neil Diamond once said he fell in love with a black woman and had a strong desire to know of her roots. His method of learning was to study what he called African music, hence what you hear here. Not sure but it may be in the notes to the tap Root Manuscript Album ...BTW, he is Jewish, not Catholic...

[82compoundw]

@2states He was being metaphoric.

[baptist44]

where did Neil get all this from....apart from being a devoted Catholic.....would like to hear this in a real cathedral

[fausthaus13]

Fantastic! I grew up with this, and as much as I love classical choral music, this still to me is one of the most powerful a cappella(sp?) pieces.

[1953pops]

favs it is

[winds0ck]

Doing a great job on the old tracks - thanks again (again)!