Neil Diamond—Just For You (1967)

FUN FACTS

• Just For You (1967) is the second album by U.S. singer-songwriter, actor and performer Neil Diamond. It was the last album he released for Bang Records.
• When he was young, Neil Diamond was at a summer camp for Jewish children when he watched Pete Seeger perform for the kids. He was inspired by the scene of kids singing along and when he got back home, be bought a guitar and started writing his own songs.
• True fax—his songwriting got him girls at school. Which is, muy lindo. And his male classmates would commission him to write poems for them to win over the girls they were infatuated with.
• If you’ve ever cited Bill Gates as an exemplar of extra-collegiate success, you can place Neil Diamond right next

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I was 15 years old when I first heard Neil Diamond‘s music. I was in high school, wore Catholic girls school pleated skirts, and felt the need to consume 60s rock n’ roll to make myself seem more interesting. I came across Neil Diamond on a DVD copy of The Band‘s concert film, The Last Waltz. He performed Dry Your Eyes, a slow-march anthem about the passing of an era. Diamond delivered an emotional and rousing performance. He was singing to his generation, celebrating the end of an era for The Band as well as an entire musical generation. And he did it without being corny or patronizing.

And it was more than being holy, though it was less than being free
And if you can’t recall the reason, can you hear the people sing?
Right through the lightening and the thunder, to the dark side of the moon
To that distant falling angel, that descended much too soon
Come dry your eyes

Dry You Eyes (1976)

I still quote the song whenever I get the feeling that we usually borrow foreign words to describe. Natsukashii. Saudade. Sehnsucht. That longing for places you’ve never been, or a life you will never live. Diamond’s ability to capture that strange sadness and turn into something tangible and resonant is a testament to his songwriting ability.

Of course, Neil Diamond doesn’t just sing about obscure feelings. Just For You (1967) is full of songs about everyday romance, and he sings them with such drama and impact.

In Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon, the ranchera influence in the guitar playing brings a cinematic quality to the song. As if the persona is riding across a dessert horizon, galloping home at a speed to convince his maiden lover that the stories about him are false. The iconic chorus—”Girl, you’ll be a woman soon. Soon, you’ll need a man“—brings desire and attraction down to a very primal state, insinuating in its carnal implications a binary rite of passage to adulthood, for which our hero nominates himself partner and chaperone. It makes the song at once irresistible and daunting.

Neil Diamond connects the listener to the familiar through the fantasy. He explores a gamut of emotions through characters in his songs—the lover who comes back home convinced the one was right there all along in The Long Way Home (Ran a lot/ Don’t know what I/ Thought I would find/ Town to town, all I found/Was you on my mind), the spurned lover in You’ll Forget who is assured this heart ache, too, shall pass along with all the memories (You’ll forget/ You’ll forget that you loved me/ And you’ll stop thinkin’ of me/ You’ll forget what you feel right now/ But how?), the frustrations of a perennially jilted lover swearing off all-things love in Solitary Man (I’ve had it to here/ Bein’ where love’s a small word/ Part-time thing, paper ring/ I know it’s been done/ Havin’ one girl who’ll love me), and so on.

The San Diego Reader calls Diamond the best of the middle-ground, straddling the line between creative integrity and commercial appeal. Just For You (1967) in its scope is intimate without wearing you out emotionally, using drama and fantasy to personify emotions into something tangible, something you might touch, a memory you might dance with in the quiet of your days.

FAVORITE MOMENTS

I really love Cherry Cherry and Shiloh. The charming hand-clap sound that Neil Diamond uses throughout the album really peaks in Cherry Cherry. And Shiloh is such a warm misty-eyed coming-of-age sonnet about someone who meant the world to you when you were young and impressionable.

But my favorite song is Red, Red Wine. Like, sometimes, you just need to soak in your sadness. You’ll never have moments so real in your life that they move you to tears. And Diamond manages to make day-drinking sound so cinematic and chic so, absolutely! Pass me that bottle of Merlot! I was born for this role.

FOR YOU

What did you think of the album? Send your thoughts to mxaboha@gmail.com!

1. What’s your favorite non-English word for an indescribable feeling? I stumbled upon this interesting lexicon project.
2. What clinical pursuits did you quit to focus on something you actually love to do?
3. What’s your favorite flavor of wine?

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Just For You (1967) Copyright belongs to Neil Diamond and Bang Records.