Neil Diamond: Stones (Japanese Pressing) CD Track Listing

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Neil Diamond Stones (Japanese Pressing) (1971)
Stones (Japanese Pressing)\n\nOriginally Released 1971\nCD Edition Released February 1985\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Moods finds Neil Diamond attempting to craft a more ambitious and substantial album than his usual pop record through heavy orchestration, but the results only work when he sticks to catchy pop-rock, as on "Song Sung Blue," "High Rolling Man," and "Play Me." -- Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nOne of Neil's best early efforts..., September 22, 2006\nReviewer: William E. Adams (Hobbs, NM USA)\nThese ten tracks are thoughtful and soulful and mostly mellow. All are well done, and the price asked is fair for a change, considering this is somewhat short given today's CD capabilities. You could put two early Diamond LP's on a CD and add five bucks and still have a bargain. If you like Neil, and don't own this one, grab it quick. If you want an introduction to the young Neil's serious side, this one's your baby.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nmoody classic from 1971, November 9, 2005\nReviewer: New York Boy (NYC) \nAlong with some great originals,Stones is Neil Diamond giving props to his favorite singer/songwriters.The songs fit perfectly with his 'Solitary Man' persona. Stories of loners searching for their place. And lots of desperate lovers. \n\nStones is also one of the early rock-with-an-orchestra. This arrangement makes the songs fly high. Neil's singing is also great:powerful and emotional without going overboard. \n\nThe best songs are the darkly deceptive title cut, "If You Go Away", Randy Newman's "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today", Leonard Cohen's " Suzanne" and the gut wrenching reprise of "I Am...I Said". \n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nAn old favorite...rediscovered, June 19, 2005\nReviewer: KC "KC" (CA)\nMy parents bought this album when it first came out back in 1971 or so and played it so often on our old 'hi-fi' that the songs (and the order of them) have taken permanent residence in my mind as part of the soundtrack of my childhood. \n\nHowever I had not listened to "Stones" until recently when I 'rediscovered' the album when browsing through Napster. Just a WONDERFUL album. Even though most of the songs are covers, Neil Diamond covers them eloquently; "Chelsea Morning" evokes images of lazy summer mornings in a butter-yellow kitchen watching the early rising sun. \n\nI actually prefer the 'reprise' version of "I Am...I Said" over the hit version. \n\nStones is a great album just to kick back and listen to or during a long road trip. 35 years later, it still sounds crisp and fresh. Great effort, ND!\n\n\n\nDiamond's Best, August 26, 2001\nReviewer: Loni Smith "loni107" (Canada)\nUndoubtedly, for me, this is Neil Diamond's best album of all time. For first time listeners who maybe cued into Diamond after hearing a track on the radio (sadly, is there any station out there that plays Diamond anymore?), this is the place to start. A singer who can evoke moods within the listener like virtually no other artist of the 1970's, and who never sounds better than on Stones. The Diamond-penned title track is one of his absolute best, demonstrating a style that is clearly all his own. I Am...I Said is the showpiece tune, a light that could not even be extinguished by it's overplay on the radio at the time. And does anyone else agree that no one covers a song quite like Diamond, making it all his own? Perhaps surprisingly, this album has many examples of that, given Diamond's proliferance as a song-writer. I Think It's Gonna Rain Today demonstrates that nicely, as do Diamond's versions of Joni Mitchell's Chelsea Morning, Tom Paxton's The Last Thing on My Mind, and Leonard Cohen's Suzanne. (If you like those cover tunes, check out his take of Everybody's Talkin' (Harry Nilsson), and a beautiful rendition of Both Sides Now, on other albums). These covers are harder to come by, as they don't show up as readily on his greatest hits packages, probably due to royalty issues. So you have to dig with Diamond, and you'll be glad you did! The real gold is not to be found with all his catchy pop tunes, but on the supposed filler between them.\n\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nI Am.. I Said reprise, March 21, 2001\nReviewer: A music fan\nAll the tracks on this album I had on other albums, but there was one track I didn't have and had never listened to. It was the "I Am..I Said" Reprise. When I finally did hear it, it was at a particularly difficult time in my life. It released so much emotion in me like no emotional laxative could.\nI have to say, this is Neil singing with all of his honesty. The anger, despair and frustration in his voice as he cries at the top of his lungs, "I Am..I Cried!", whilst the same string arrangement and phrashing that is heard within "I Am..I Said" continues as the rest of the arrangement disappears, is enough to sense and know that he is asserting his existence to the face of self-doubt. It's wonderful and overwhelming. To those who have heard it, you know what I mean.\n\nAll the tracks on "Stones" shine, but the "I Am.. I Said" Reprise is the real gem.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nStones a winner, August 31, 2000\nReviewer: David Hugaert (Honolulu, HI United States)\nNeil Diamond put out one of his finest works in 1971 with this album. Some of the songs feature a somewhat moody persona (The Last Thing On My Mind, Suzanne, I Think It's Gonna Rain Today) that'll leave you feeling maybe a little melancholy. The up-tempo "Crunchy Granola Suite" will have you singing and humming the lyrics, and perhaps dancing. Joni Mitchell penned a song titled "Chelsea Morning", which shows up on this CD. Roger Miller even contributed to this collection as well, with the unforgivingly interpersonal "Husbands And Wives." The CD's title track is a classic in it's own right. The signature track here is the autobiagraphical "I Am...I Said- a song Neil Diamond stated that it's been his hardest song to write to date, which took him four months to compose. It was well worth the wait, for I Am...I Said is one of Neil's most memorable songs. Lee Holdridge's musical arrangements really shine here as well. This title is a must-have for all Neil Diamond fans to add to their collection.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThe Glory Days of Neil, August 15, 2000\nReviewer: Sandeep Mukherjee (Kolkata ( Calcutta ), West Bengal India)\nThis album was recorded when Diamond was switching over from the bubblegum swingers of Bang days to a mature artist who wanted to be accepted for more meaningful songs. This album contains some soul-searching tracks from I Am..I Said to Stones which are his own compositions coupled with songs by Leonard Cohen's masterpiece Suzanne and Tom Paxtons 'Last Thing on My Mind'. This album contains indeed some awesome tracks from an young man with a voice that has beautiful seductive edge most unparalled during the 70/s. If you are looking for songs that can stir your soul, this is a must. And the cover shows Neil looking like a greek god with his long hair and poetic aura !\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nThis album touched my soul over and over again ., May 29, 1999\nReviewer: A music fan\nI thought " Taproot Manuscript " was his best work but this came in a close second. " Husbands and wives " really touched me. This came out about the time I was in Viet-Nam and is one of those albums that identifies memories so clear that I consider it a gospel necessity to my music library .\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nA thoughtful album at a moment of musical transition., September 20, 1998\nReviewer: A music fan\nIn "Stones" you can see the tip of the iceberg of what was to come in Diamond's future. He questions himself, and what he stands for as an artist and an individual. Keep in mind it is 1971-72 and "pop" music had gone through a phase of non-introspection. "I am, I said" is a powerful statement of one man's search for self, after tremendous success. Was he worthy of that success, an emphatic "YES!"\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nContrary to the "Boston" review, "Stones" is a HIT, September 13, 1998\nReviewer: dayo1026@aol.com (Memphis, TN U.S.A.)\nStones has been my favorite Neil Diamond album for more than 20 years. He is a great baritone, and the lyrics to most of the cuts on this album are fine poetry. Crunchy Granola Suite is perhaps the worst cut, not the best. Maybe the Boston reviewer should stick to the soapy contemporary stuff that gives him a "kick" and leave the smooth poetic style of Mr. Diamond to real connoisseurs that appreciate the beauty of "Stones" and the talent of Neil Diamond. It is a great album.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nNeil's on a bummer, July 14, 1998\nReviewer: A music fan\nDiamond was at low point, literally, when he put this album together. A songwriter who can't sing shouldn't do cover songs. Plus, Neil was already into grunting instead of singing by this time in his career, and too far gone into strings and syrupy orchestrations. The only entertainment on this album is "Crunchy Granola Suite", which is Neil's hilarious attempt at rock and roll. And this was 1971.\n\n\nHalf.com Details \nProducer: Tom Catalano \n\nAlbum Notes\nSomething of an anomaly in the Neil Diamond catalog, STONES features half-a-dozen covers of songs by Diamond's contemporaries, including Randy Newman, Roger Miller, and Joni Mitchell. Diamond's version of Miller's "Husbands and Wives" is a tasteful masterpiece of country pastiche, and his version of Jacques Brel's "If You Go Away" is similarly restrained. The album's title track is a fine example of early-'70s L.A. pastoral pop, while the ache of homesickness in his existential classic hit "I Am...I Said" ('and no-one heard at all, not even the chair...") continues to resonate.\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nRemember how embarrassed you felt on first listening to Neil Diamond destroy "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" only to decide on the tenth hearing that his version wasn't that horrible after all? Those feelings are multiplied sixfold with Stones. Diamond has bucked his habit of recording mostly his own material and has selected six famous ballads by other writers. On first hearing the album sounds like it deserves to be thrown out the window, but after a time one gets friendlier towards Diamond's interpretations.\n\nTwo questions are obvious. Why did Diamond change his custom of recording his own songbook and, secondly, why did he select years-old numbers identified with other singers? To the first it can be said that Neil has proved himself as a performer and that after six years of writing his own hit singles has earned himself the option to record an album of somebody else's material. The more interesting of the questions is why he selected songs from the last decade which have already been over-recorded.\n\nThe pertinence of this question becomes more obvious when Diamond's style of singing is considered. That style is perfect for his own compositions: spoken, barked, semi-recited passages fit in where intended. But there are things Neil's voice gets away with in his own songs that it cannot in other composers' pieces. For example, Diamond punches out the "lonely!" that Judy Collins assuaged on her version of "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today." He matter-of-factly drops the line "And Jesus was a sailor" into Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne." He recites "If you go away" in the song of the same name and tremors like a Bee Gee on the first "If." He attacks "Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning" and whines "can" in the line "some can" from Roger Miller's "Husbands and Wives."\n\nAt first these variations seem like insults to the contemporary standards but after several listens one gets over the heresies. Neil's versions begin to stand on their own and can be evaluated for what they are, not what they are not. In short, these performances are at first tolerable at best and later on disquieting at worst. There are some things that are not permissible. It is not all right to make "Chelsea Morning" a Latin-flavored number, nor is it OK to make "Suzanne" upbeat or to talk about "your perfect bod-dy."\n\nThe highlights of the album remain the two singles, "Stones" and "I Am ... I Said." "Stones," with its cryptic lyrics and lush orchestration, merits one appearance on this LP, but "I Am ... I Said" rates both the opening and closing slots. The first appearance is the single version with its excellent lyrics: "I'm New York City born and raised/But nowadays I'm lost between two shores/L.A.'s fine but it ain't home/New York's home but it ain't mine/No more." The reprise at the end starts in mid-single: "Did you ever hear about a frog who dreamed of being a king/And then became one?/Well except for the names and a few of the changes/When you talk about me/The story's the same one." The song goes beyond where the single faded out and leaves Neil shrieking "I am!" juxtaposed against a flourishing string section. It is as touching as the single itself.\n\nHopefully this effort of Neil's represents a mere sabbatical from recording albums of his own material. It's not that his effort on Stones is reprehensible in any way, it's just unnecessary. The record world already has enough "Suzanne's" and more than enough "If You Go Away's." (RS 100 - Jan 20, 1972) -- PAUL GAMBACCINI
This rock cd contains 10 tracks and runs 33min 25sec.
Freedb: 8607d30a
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