1977

 

        In the summer of 1977, between high school graduation and starting college on the East Coast in the fall, I had a summer job as a waitress in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

I met a man there who was a writer.  He lived in California full time, but was temporarily in the Black Hills, staying in a cabin on family property near Hill City, and  writing a novel.

        I was introduced to him in the cabin's kitchen where he was seated at a table, turning out pages on a classic manual typewriter, and smoking cigarettes.

He put out his current cigarette and talked with my friends and me.

Playing those Neil Diamond songs recently made me think of him, because one time he was driving me back to where I lived and he turned on some music in the car, and it was Neil Diamond.

He said something like, "I enjoy music like this, it inspires you and gives you energy."

        We were on one of those roads in the hills that curves this way and then that way, you're looping back and forth, getting where you're going, but not in a straight line.

The sun was shining; the sky was blue - which song was it?

"Cracklin' Rosie"?

"Cherry, Cherry"? - - She got the way to move me... we got things we gotta catch up on... you, you you know what I'm sayin'...

His car was a sort of light gold color.

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"play it now! play it now!"

 you tube video titled:

Neil Diamond - Cracklin' Rosie (Audio)

uploader /channel - Neil Diamond

Play and Listen, and here are some audience comments:

*  One of the most uplifting songs ever

*  I don't remember my dad singing out loud in the car but while on a vacation road-trip in the 70s it's the only song I ever recall him singing.  That memory is there forever.

*  ...The way he melds the words together is like honey. ...

*  Ese recuerdo es inolvidable!

*  DAT is MUZIEK !!!  Wordt je vrolijk

*  I never will forget the day the country was shut due to Covid and Neil came on Facebook playing songs to cheer us up.  So kind of him.  I have always loved his music, now I love him too for that.

*  this man knew how to write a great song

Neil Diamond; Bob Dylan

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"Sex Machine is the choir director at his church"

 
Jim Belushi in Song Sung Blue, currently on Netflix

        Later on in the movie "Song Sung Blue," the Neil Diamond tribute band "Lightning and Thunder" gets an offer to headline a show - and the character Mike (played by Hugh Jackman) says, "We're gonna need a choir."

And the guy who is his manager / dentist comes up with - "Sex Machine is the choir director at his church!"

"Sex Machine" is the nickname of a guy who does an impersonation of the funk music superstar  James Brown.

Uh - yes -- -- "Sex Machine" can take care of that.

The reason the guy's nickname is 'Sex Machine' is that Sex Machine is the name of a hit song by James Brown.

        I brought up the song on You Tube and listened, and watched the performance:  it's really not about sex, it's about focus and power and belief.

It's interesting.

the real James Brown - nicknamed "the hardest working man in show business"

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"we got things we gotta catch up on"

 

        When I mentioned the movie "Song Sung Blue" a couple of posts ago, I was mainly being made happy by all the Neil Diamond music in the film - so many great songs, so familiar, so memorable, just like an integral part of our lives... I thought maybe I didn't give enough attention, or credit, to the movie itself - it's a great movie, actually.

It's on Netflix - it was in theaters, I think - last year...  having played it several more times (while doing things at home - that's the new way of "watching" movies, in my current busy lifestyle - movies are "on" while I'm doing necessary things that have to get done...), yes, I see now it's an excellent movie, very well-told story.

        Looks like it has attracted award recognition, and on You Tube under a video of the film's preview ("trailer") people's comments are very warm, and enthusiastic.

I respect those opinions, and agree.

The actor Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti in The Sopranos) appears in Song Sung Blue, as a Buddy Holly impersonator - the black-rimmed glasses - he's terrific in this, as is Jim Belushi.

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song to listen to -

on You Tube

video titled:

Neil Diamond - Cherry, Cherry (Audio)

uploader / channel:  Neil Diamond

Enjoy

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a nation of immigrants

 

Neil Diamond, whose music we've been listening to, here, was born in Brooklyn, New York.  All four of his grandparents were Jewish immigrants:  his father's side came from Poland, while his mother's family members were from Kyiv, Ukraine.

        I got to thinking about people coming from other countries to live in America, since I was talking about Neil Diamond - and also, Maurice Tempelsman - born in Belgium, his parents moved the family to America when the Nazis invaded, during World War II.

        I started wondering - there's a quote, "America is a nation of immigrants."  

Who said that? - 

        so I Googled, turns out, it was President Kennedy.

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small restaurants on the Upper East Side ...

 Continuing on yesterday's subject matter - after the death of Aristotle Onassis in 1975, his widow Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis began her work in book-publishing, which she enjoyed very much.  

And there was one more personal relationship in her life - Maurice Tempelsman was her companion from the early 1980s until her passing, in the spring of 1994, at the age of 64.

(Mr. Tempelsman lived a long life:  he just died last year at the age of 94.)

------------------------ [excerpt from the New York Times Tempelsman obituary] ------------------------- ...Those who knew Mrs. Onassis and Mr. Tempelsman said he had many qualities that appealed to her.

        His style was much the same as hers.  Urbane and reserved, Mr. Tempelsman believed that discretion was among the higher virtues.  He had a sharp wit, a gentle and unassuming manner, a respect for scholarship and learning, an abiding interest in the arts, and a deep knowledge of Africa.  They were also the same age.

        In New York, they entertained friends for dinner and liked to go to small restaurants on the Upper East Side.  

They enjoyed speaking French together during their walks in Central Park. ... ------------------------------ [end / excerpt]

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and for today, another fabulously dramatic song by Neil Diamond - from the 1969 album Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show -

(You Tube video titled) --

Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline (Audio)

uploader / channel:  Neil Diamond

... and PLAY!

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Maurice Tempelsman; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

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Neil Diamond on our minds

 

I was going to discuss briefly the marriage of Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis, and the controversy; also, am being overtaken by a Neil Diamond mood, so there's another song down at the bottom of this post, for you to enjoy.

Famous people are idolized by some people and criticized by others ... one would think that getting married would be a person's own business, but there was a lot in the papers and other media, at the time, about people disapproving of Jackie's second marriage.

        I remember that information leaking into my mind somehow - I didn't really read the paper except for comics, sometimes - I was in fourth grade.  But news and controversy kind of envelope you and you soak it in.  It's in the air.

        Like Cardinal Cushing, I thought she should probably marry whomever she wanted to.

After JFK's younger brother Bobby was assassinated in the spring of 1968, Jackie said - "They're killing Kennedys; for my children's sake I want to get out of this country."

Onassis had been courting her for a while.

She saw him as someone who could provide reliable security for her children.  He already employed security people:  he was very wealthy.  And they could go far away, to the Greek island of Skorpios.

        That was theory; in practice, John and Jackie Kennedy's children, Caroline and John Jr., went to boarding schools in New York and Massachusetts.  (John Jr. was at Brown University in Rhode Island at the same time I was at Boston University - for a couple of years our time overlapped.  I somehow knew that, even though I wasn't seeking info about him.  Another case of news stories seeping into your consciousness uninvited.)

Jackie kept her Fifth Avenue apartment in New York City, and went back and forth between there, and Greece, or Paris - wherever her husband was - or wasn't ... he could be unpleasant sometimes, so she would periodically spend time apart from him.

        Mrs. Kennedy and Mr. Onassis married in October, 1968; in March of 1975 he died, so Jackie was widowed for a second time, after six years and five months of marriage.

        Six months after Onassis's passing, in September 1975, Mrs. Onassis began working as a consulting editor at Viking Press in New York City.

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On You Tube, video titled

Neil Diamond - Soolaimon (Audio)

uploader / channel:  Neil Diamond

...and have a listen.

(See what I mean, how his songs are like hymns? - the drama, and passion....fasten your seatbelt!)

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