Neil Diamond - Live 1976: The Thank You Australia Concert Review
by Dan MacIntosh
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Neil Diamond was hot in 1976, four short years after his phenomenal Hot August Night release and the same year Robbie Robertson produced his thematically cohesive Beautiful Noise album. And as David Frost gushes during one of this DVD's extra segments, Diamond was hotter than molten lava in Australia, where this concert was first broadcast on live television. Diamond's supreme command of the stage makes it a memorable gage of the man's high temperature reading at the time.
Diamond's gravelly singing voice enabled him to become quite the ladies' man at the time, and his tight leather trousers didn't hurt the cause either. But he's always considered himself a songwriter first, and a performer second, and this concert set list picks and chooses from the various phases of his songwriting career. There are straight rockers, like "Cherry Cherry", and more introspective works, like the bicoastal "I Am, I Said." And his spot-on storytelling abilities are nicely displayed during "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show", which captures the Hot August Night of a revival meeting.
There are few downsides during this performance, although a long stretch where Diamond talks to the audience and finds out the many regions of Australia these fans traveled from, kills the momentum dead. It should have been left off of this disc's commercial release altogether. But even more annoying is an extra interview segment with Diamond from A Current Affair where the man comes off like a pompous ass. And the contrast between the seemingly humble man speaking with his audience during the concert, and the I'm-to-deep-for-thou interviewee, is striking. It's difficult to believe they're even the same person. The five songs drawn from Jonathan Livingston Seagull are also a little indulgent, even though Diamond was only three years removed from that album at the time.
If you focus solely on the songs themselves, however, it's hard not to come away entertained by Live 1976: The Thank You Australia Concert. The mounting anger of Solitary Man might have worked just as well, for instance, on an early Elvis Costello recording, and few past or present have expressed anger better than Mr. Costello. It's also informative during the concert when Diamond explains how "Song Sung Blue" was inspired by a Mozart piece, and the point that Neil wrote it during a difficult period of writer's block. Lastly, it's not surprising "Sweet Caroline" has become the sing-along favorite it is; it was a great audience participation tune even back then.
This disc's bonus features are hit or miss. There's one added concert performance of "Morningside", which is hardly essential. Diamond was also asked to read two commercials during the original broadcast. But it's clear from these clips that he was no comedian.
Those that may only know Diamond for relatively contemporary throwaways, like "Heartlight" and "Forever in Blue Jeans", this Dylan-y serious performer in a past concert may come as a revelation. Diamond is now getting the Rick Rubin treatment, which as with latter day Johnny Cashbrings out the serious songwriter in the man. And if you'd like to witness Diamond when he somehow combined dead seriousness with extreme commercial popularity, this concert document presents the Solitary Man in all his former glory.
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Neil Diamond - Live 1976: The Thank You Australia Concert
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