One of the most important American songwriters of all time, Bob Dylan changed the course of music when he showed that musicians could write about anything they wanted and that songs did not need to be short or have catchy lyrics. He opened the minds not only of musicians, proving it was possible to succeed without following the industry’s demands, but also of producers and record companies, who began to accept artists’ ideas for their own songs.
Neil Diamond, one of the most successful singers and songwriters ever to come out of the United States, was among the musicians who benefited from the path Dylan helped create. Like him, Diamond was also covered by other artists who had big hits with his songs. Over the decades he gave his opinion on many of his peers, including Bob Dylan.
What is Neil Diamond’s opinion on Bob Dylan
Neil Diamond is a fan of Bob Dylan and credits him as one of the important artists who changed the music business to songwriters who could perform their own songs. “I was on the verge and still knocking around the streets and knocking on doors at the early part of the ’60s. And as that decade progressed, history was made musically by the advent of Bob Dylan, the entrance on the scene of The Beatles and the British groups that came. And the whole change in the thought processes of people in the music world, where suddenly the songwriter came to the fore and became an important element in the music business.”
“This was not true before that. There were singers and there were songwriters and very rarely did the two come together. So it was a very fertile era for me as a songwriter and as a person who wanted to sing. I really started to sing out of sheer desperation because I couldn’t get anybody else to sing my songs. I hadn’t yet really found my voice in my own music until I started recording them myself. So it was all a very exciting time for me and it left a very deep impression. And these songs were part of that time and that era. So they left a very deep impression on me as well,” Neil Diamond told Darryl Sterdan in 2010.
The advice Bob Dylan gave to Neil Diamond
He eventually had the chance to meet Bob and they have both praised each other’s career over the years. When asked by The New Yorker once if he would still be performing when he was sixty, Diamond recalled an advice he received from Dylan. “Maybe sixty. Between sixty-five and seventy, I’m not sure. I’ll have to write a lot of ballads now, very slow ballads, very slow songs. Bob Dylan told me, ‘Don’t write songs with a lot of words in them. Because when you get older you just got to sing a lot of words,’” Neil Diamond said in 1992.
They both had the chance to share the stage in 1978 during The Band’s final show, which became the Martin Scorsese film “The Last Waltz”. As told by Rolling Stone, there is an urban legend that after coming out of stage that night, when he performed “Dry Your Eyes”, Diamond reportedly told Dylan “Top that!” and the Folk Rock musician replied: “By doing what? Falling asleep?” But when Neil later explained that it was actually a joke.
“Actually, it was before we both went on. He was tuning his guitar and I came over to him and I said, ‘You know, Bob, those are really my people out there.’ He kind of looked at me quizzically.”
Neil Diamond continued:
“I said it as a joke, but I think it spurred him a little bit. He gave a hell of a performance. It was a good night and an exciting night. I was glad to be a part of it,” Neil Diamond said. Dylan also recorded his own version of Neil’s “Sweet Caroline” and sent it to him privately, as reported by David Wild in his 2008 book “He Is… I Say”. That recording remained was officially released in 2021 as part of “Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16”.
Throughout his career, Neil also paid tribute to Dylan’s work. He performed “Lay Lady Lay” live and also covered “Make You Feel My Love”, which appeared on his 2008 album “Home Before Dark”. His biggest hit is “Sweet Caroline” and has famous songs like “Cracklin’ Rose”, “I am… I Said” and “Forever in Blue Jeans”.
He was also the author of huge hits such as “I’m a Believer,” made famous by The Monkees and later introduced to a new generation by Smash Mouth. In the 1990s, Urge Overkill scored a hit with their version of “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” featured in Quentin Tarantino’s film “Pulp Fiction”. The British band UB40 also achieved major success with their interpretation of Diamond’s “Red, Red Wine.”
Bob Dylan liked Neil’s 2014 album “Melody Road”
It wasn’t only “Sweet Caroline” that Bob liked from Diamond’s discography. He also praised his 32nd studio album “Melody Road”, which was released in 2014. “Wow, Bob Dylan just called me and said, “If any record connects with me, this one does.” about Melody Road. How cool is that? Thanks Bob!” Neil Diamond said on Twitter that year.
Bob Dylan has always been interested in Neil’s career and as told by Rolling Stone in 1978, it was after seeing Diamond playing live that he decided to form a new band and sign with the manager Jerry Weintraub. “It is said that ever since traveling to see Neil Diamond in Las Vegas last year, Dylan has been concerned with updating his concert stance. He was impressed enough to sign with Diamond’s manager, Jerry Weintraub, several weeks later,” the magazine noted.
Interestingly, in the 2004 book “Neil Diamond: The Biography”, the musician is quoted as describing artists like Dylan and Joan Baez as musicians who did not want to be controlled by music publishers. In his view, they wanted to write their own material so they could convey the messages they wished to express. He said that, for that reason, “everyone thought Dylan was crazy to begin with.”
Dylan is among the artists that Neil still likes to listen to
Although many decades have passed since Dylan started in the music business, Diamond still enjoys listening to his albums. When he was part of all Q&A session with fans back in 2014, he described Bob’s music as “always interesting”. “Well, I usually go back to the songs I loved as a teenager or as a young adult. I can listen to the Weavers albums all day and all night. Belafonte still does it for me. Sinatra is still the greatest singer ever.”
“The Everly Brothers’ greatest hits take me back to being 17 again. Then in the post-Beatles era, I could say Bob Dylan is always interesting. The Beatles are so amazing, Simon & Garfunkel blow me away every time. Elton John made some of the greatest records of the early 1970’s. If I feel like dancing, I will put on some of Michael Jackson‘s records,” Neil Diamond said.
