Neil Diamond - Gold Rm 2CD (41 tracks) +Album Reviews

Diamond compilations are starting to improve

William | Australia | 12/17/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Let's face it, the "greatest hits" compilations of recent years (Namingly "Essential Neil Diamond" and "Greatest Hits 2CD") failed completely because they featured too many live recordings from later years. NEIL DIAMOND GOLD was released in mid 2005 and is a very impressive collection of his songs during the MCA/Uni period. The digital remastering is simply stunning!

The positives of this CD are:

1. The live recordings only amount to 6 tracks (out of 41 songs). Even better news is that 4 of these live songs are from the brilliant "Hot August Night" 1972 concert, while the other two are from the 1970 concert called "Gold". As most people are aware, the "Hot August Night" concert is one of those rare recordings where many of the songs came across better than their studio versions. And Neil's voice was in its prime, compared to later concerts.

2. There are some interesting tracks on here which aren't found on many of his other compilations such as "Porcupine Pie, "Suzanne" and "Both Sides Now".

3. The price of this CD is excellent when compared to his other brilliant compilation "Play Me: The Complete Uni Recordings".

The negatives of this CD are:

1. While they have picked 4 tracks from the glorious "Hot August Night" CD, they have chosen not to include the live version from that concert of "Crunchy Granola Suite" - which is the better version. This CD contains the original studio recording (which isn't as good IMO). Others will disagree and prefer to have the studio version.

2. A very noticeable omission is "I Am A Believer". If this had been included, I would have been thrilled to call this the definitive collection of the MCA years.

3. Tracks from the later part of the 1970's are not included (eg. "September Morn" "Beautiful Noise", "Forever in Blue Jeans" or "If you know what I mean") but this is because they were recorded under CBS. Still, it would have been great to have them on here.

OVERALL SUMMARY:

Neil Diamond GOLD is a welcome relief after a few inferior compilations (as named in first sentence). The digital remastering is brilliant and crystal clear.The amazing array of songs covering the MCA period has been well compiled except for the omission of "I'm A Believer". The live recordings have been kept to a minimum, and the majority of these are from the excellent "Hot August Night" 1972 concert, and NOT the 1990's concerts. All Diamond fans will want this in their collection, it is a risk free purchase."

Unusual Collection

Graveyard Boots | 08/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Neil Diamond recorded six studio albums and two live albums for UNI/MCA during the period of 1968-1972. The original greatest hits album from that period, entitled His 12 Greatest Hits, is no longer in print. But in 1999, MCA did release an upgraded single-disc replacement for that album called The Neil Diamond Collection. The Neil Diamond Collection contained all 12 of the songs originally included on His 12 Greatest Hits plus half a dozen album cuts and live tracks. If you're looking for a single-disc sampler of the MCA period, The Neil Diamond Collection is the CD to get.

In 2002, MCA released Play Me: The Complete Uni Studio Recordings...Plus! It's a three-disc set and it includes all six of Diamond's MCA studio albums plus a handful of bonus tracks from Gold (live at the Troubadour) and Hot August Night (live at the Greek). Every track from 2005's Gold is included on 2002's Play Me, including the previously hard to find single edit of Cherry, Cherry (featuring an electric guitar overdub). Amazon's list price for Play Me is identical to the list price for this new 2005 collection so it's hard to understand why someone would purchase this set when the complete collection is available for the same price.

Prior to the release of Play Me, the most comprehensive collection of Neil's MCA material was 1992's excellent Glory Road. That title is now out of print but, given the similarity in song selection, this new compilation is a reasonable substitute.

The sound quality on this set is outstanding but it does have one minor flaw. The first second or two from the track "Stones" has been needlessly excised. This mastering error is a repeat of the same error made by MCA when they released Play Me in 2002. Earlier MCA compilations featuring the song (such as His 12 Greatest Hits and Glory Road) contained the unedited version.

While this set contains almost all of Neil's essential MCA recordings, I'm not sure I understand the market for this album. Casual fans will opt for the single-disc, The Neil Diamond Collection. Fans wanting to dig deeper can purchase Play Me: The Complete Uni Recordings...Plus! for the same price as this set and, of course, this entire set is contained in Play Me.

"

A Stellar Collection

Edgar Olivares | New York City, NY USA | 03/20/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Neil Diamond was with MCA Records from 1968 to 1972. This set gathers his best from this period including the number ones "Cracklin' Rosie" and "Song Sung Blue" along with the Top Ten hits "Holly Holy", "I Am I Said" and "Sweet Caroline". All of his other hits are here along with some select album cuts. Other noteworthy tracks include "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (before The Hollies recorded it), a re-recording of "Shilo", the biographical "Brooklyn Roads" and "Play Me"-where he incorrectly says "brang" instead of "brought". He also covers tunes by Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell among others. The set is rounded out by live versions of songs from his pre-MCA years. The audiences were more captive than in later years. The tracks are from the albums "Gold" (what a coincidence) and "Hot August Night".

This is by far the most comprehensive collection from a very successful period. If you want the best of Neil Diamond and then some from his MCA years then look no further."

Collecting Neil Diamond

Bob K | Virginia, USA | 01/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Excellent digital re-masters make "Gold" a good choice for either audiophile or nostalgia groupie.

For anyone assembling a digital Neil Diamond collection, there are two obvious choices on the market: "Classics" [Period #1] offers clean original versions of the mid/late-60's hits ("Cherry, Cherry", "Solitary Man", "You Got to Me", ..., from mono pop 45s), and "Greatest Hits Vol 2" [Period #3] covers ~ early 80s with excellent stereo re-masters ("Love on the Rocks", "America", "Longfellow Serenade",...).

In between was another block [Period #2, ~'69 - '72] of big hits ("Sweet Caroline", "Stones", "He Ain't Heavy", ...), and then there are his later works [Period #4] (which tend to more sophisticated, less "pop hits"), to complete your collection. Hits from the "stereo pop" [#2] interval are available on 3 collections: "Collection", "Gold", and "Play Me". "Collection" says "original hits", but it collected later live (and sometimes very poor) remakes: a waste of money. The same block of songs in the original hit versions are available on both "Gold" and "Play Me", plus another block of later hits ("Cold Water Morning", "Canta Libre", ...). "Play Me" adds more songs yet than "Gold", but interleaves hits with duds, so I prefer the distilled repertoire of "Gold" to complete my collection. There are a few live remakes from the other periods at the end of disc 2 which are only a minor annoyance. And I would sell you "Collection" cheap!"

Pre Columbia Uncut Diamond

W. Grandy | windsor, nova scotia Canada | 01/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This double disc includes most of Neil Diamond hits before he moved over to Columbia Records. Great remastering job. You'll love hearing these super clean versions of 'Sweet Caroline' 'Mr Bojangles' 'Song Sung Blue' etc etc etc. The last 6 cuts on disc 2 are live recordings. I would have preferred the studio versions but may have been some copyright issues. Some of these tunes I hadn't heard before but they are classic Diamond style. Buy this and you'll be playing it over and over."

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