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Midnight Music Confessions
No Flowers. Anymore
Reliving long lost love…or was it?
First, I’ll admit that I still love Neil Diamond, or at least the Neil Diamond of circa 1966–74. Afterward, well I guess we all take ourselves too seriously after a while.
I saw Diamond live at a local radio station’s biannual Shower Of Stars (Birmingham’s WVOK-690AM, “The Mighty 690”), in the summer of 1970. Fourteen-year old me thought he was brilliant, especially his renditions of “Holly Holy” and “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show.” Maybe I’m a sucker for the gospel tent and beat, but other things leave me cold.
Like the later 70’s Neil.
Sure, there were a few people in college that I hung out with who liked mainstream musical acts such as The Captain and Tennille, or who considered BJ Thomas better once he found…”The Lord.” Other friends still craved The Fab Four, or had, like me, branched out into country-er strains of Rock, from Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, Poco, and Bonnie Raitt.
These were the people I tended to spend the most time with. We might also venture to Birmingham to dance, usually at Gay Discos. Wedding Chic or Gloria Gaynor to Joe Walsh or Karla Bonoff or Nicolette Larson isn’t as crazy as it sounds.