W E D N E S D AY, J A N U A RY 1 1 , 2 0 0 6"New Yorker" Gets Rough With DiamondNot really, actually.</p><p> But I liked saying "diamond" and "rough" in theheadline.</p><p> The New Yorker has really improved in the last few yearsunder editor David Remnick.</p><p> It doesn't feel desperately timely as in theTina Brown years.</p><p> Like the New Yorker of old, you can pick up an issuethat is months old and not feel you're wasting your time.</p><p> Still,timeliness is useful when it comes to reviewing movies and books andtheater.</p><p> And CDs.Oddly, they run a review of Neil Diamond's marvelous new album "12Songs." It came out November 8th ( ages ago when you're talking abouta weekly magazine).</p><p> The CD made tons of news for being produced byRick Rubin, for being very good and -- unfortunately -- for being one ofthe Sony releases saddled with "security" software that exposedlisteners who wanted to legally rip it to lots of complications.</p><p> Thealbum started strongly and then collapsed amid all the bad publicity.So it's wonderful the New Yorker is shining a light on his music, butsurely they might have acknowledged somewhere the events of the pastfew months.</p><p> The article reads as if it were filed in October 2005 andthat ain't a good thing.Other problems: the article wheels out the old canard that NeilDiamond has been dismissed for many years.</p><p> He's hardly BarryManilow, who was praised and then ignored and then somewhatrehabilitated.</p><p> Diamond has always been recognized as a terrificsongwriter, one of the last in the Brill Building tradition.</p><p> He's rarelybeen out of the limelight (even if his new music hasn't made the charts)and barely a year goes by when he isn't profiled by some majorpublication as if they've just "rediscovered" him.Then the reviewer talks about his lyrics being far inferior to hismelodies -- fair enough; everyone else has been saying it for years.Then she quotes a "typically opaque" lyric: "'I am,' I said/ To no onethere/ And no one heard at all/ Not even the chair." That line isn'ttypically opaque -- it's astoundingly opaque, even by Neil Diamondstandards.</p><p> I'd argue it's one of the most ridiculed, quoted and discussedlyrics in all of pop.</p><p> Again, check out all those loving profiles thatNext Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G .</p><p> C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: "New Yorker" Gets Rough With Diamondhttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/new-yorker-gets-rough-... 1 of 37/29/09 4:32 AMFAV O R I T E L I N K SAmericablogFive O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's BlogThe Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPNRadioCine-Blog -- George Robinson's BlogDocuments On Art & Cinema - DarylChin's BlogBrucie G's Wondrous Blog OfAdventure and Mystery -- BruceGreenspan's BlogB L O G A R C H I V E▼ 2009 (17)▼ July (3)1939 -- The Greatest Year ForMoviesSwimming Bans Those Hi-TechSuits!Best Movies Of The Year -- TheMaster List► June (3)► May (1)► March (2)► February (1)► January (7)► 2008 (86)► 2007 (781)► 2006 (2412)► 2005 (5)C O N T R I B U TO R SAaronMichael in New YorkBiboy POPSURFING.COM: "New Yorker" Gets Rough With Diamondhttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/new-yorker-gets-rough-... 2 of 37/29/09 4:32 AMPOPSURFING.COM: "New Yorker" Gets Rough With Diamondhttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/new-yorker-gets-rough-... 3 of 37/29/09 4:32 AM
