I’m blowin’ up on the interwebs today, and I want to shout it from the rooftops! Or here. Yes, here will do.
First, you should know that I’ve written my first feature for The Classical, the new webbed site that aims to be heavy on the latter half of “sportswriting.” It’s about The Baseball Hall of Shame, a series of books that were incredibly influential on my young mind, and, my thesis goes, the young minds of many a lad who grew up to write about sports on the internet. I’m very proud of this piece and it was super fun to write, so tweet, like it on Facebook, put it on your MySpace doodads, and whatever else you need to do, but get the word out there, capisce? And while there, you can also check out a quick blog post I did on the subject of the dad who forced his kid to cry on camera about Albert Pujols. Fun!
But wait! If you act now, you can also read me at Low Times, where I survey my “favorite” holiday song of all time, Neil Diamond’s cray-tacular “Cherry Cherry Christmas.” If you’ve never heard it before, you’re in for a treat. If you have heard it before, my condolences!
For an intro to this series, click here. For the original series way back in 2009, click here.
Neil Diamond is a veritable fount of inappropriate. His unique combination of old-timey showmanship, bombast, and ego is rivaled by few other performers. Witness “Cherry Cherry Christmas,” a Yuletide tune he composed that wishes happy holidays to one and all by namechecking the titles of his own songs. That takes some seriously chrome-plated, sequined balls.
There’s virtually no Neil Diamond song that wouldn’t be inappropriate for the purposes of walk up music. (How “Sweet Caroline” has become a ballpark sing-along staple, most notably at Fenway, is a mystery to me.) But if I had to pick one–and by the dictates of this series, I do–I’d have to opt for “Porcupine Pie.” This somewhat obscure track, from his 1972 live double-album Hot August Night, is an insanely ridiculous song sung with the utmost sincerity and seriousness. It takes a very special sort of person to play this song in front of an audience and not crack a smile. And to also use the image seen here for the cover of your album.
I would have been blissfully ignorant of this masterpiece were it not for The Best Show on WFMU. Years ago, host Tom Scharpling searched for the worst song ever made. The first candidate was “The Loadout” by Jackson Browne, a truly awful, thoroughly cynical song. (“Here’s a tune about how much we love you slobs in the audience!”) But two years later, “Porcupine Pie” was put forward as far worse, and I can’t disagree. I cede to Tom’s analysis at this time, from the episode from June 25, 2006, as it says far more than I can (and also includes a critique of a song that’s almost as weird, “Done Too Soon”).
It appears today’s scheduled Holiday Horrors post is experiencing technical difficulties. In the meantime, please enjoy this pinch-hitting horror. For other Holiday Horrors posts, click here.
I hate to pick on Neil Diamond, but…Actually, scratch that. I don’t hate to pick on Neil Diamond at all. He’s kinda ridiculous, in a way not totally unlike another of my favorite giggle targets, Danzig. He has that perfect blend of theatricality and self-importance that I really admire in a figure of mockery.
Having mentioned Neil’s rendition of “The Little Drummer Boy” (and his Christmas special) in a previous post, I figured that was enough Diamond bashing for one holiday season. But then my cousin hipped me to another one of his Christmas tunes. I am so glad he did, because this is a goldmine (if goldmines contained rich veins of turd instead of gold).
It’s called “Cherry Cherry Christmas”. Perhaps you’ve heard Neil’s smash 1970s hit “Cherry Cherry”. When I first heard Neil Diamond wrote a song called “Cherry Cherry Christmas”, I thought it might just be a repurposed version of the earlier tune. You know, with the lyrics altered slightly. “She’s got the way to Yule me!”
But it’s not. And amazing as this might sound, you’ll wish it was once you hear “Cherry Cherry Christmas.”
I didn’t even know what to say the first time I listened to it, because I didn’t really know what I just heard. Did Neil Diamond just take the title of one of his biggest hits and slap it on a holiday song? One that doesn’t sound anything like the original?! One that namechecks other songs of his? And not just a few times, but constantly throughout the song?!
Seriously, can you imagine anyone else doing something like this? Of course you can’t. Only Neil Diamond has the sheer balls and lack of shame to pen and perform a song in which he wishes everyone a Neil Diamond Christmas.
To really appreciate its grandeur, you need to break it down piece by piece.
Start: Swelling music, jingle bells, flutes, glockenspiel…oh, this is going to be a soft, sentimental Christmas song. That sounds nice…
0:13:Wish you a very merry, Cherry Cherry Christmas/And a Holly Holy holiday too…That is the first line of this song. These are the first words you hear in this song. Look, this tender holiday-themed music isn’t to get you into the Christmas spirit. It’s to get you to check out the remastered Neil Diamond back catalog, currently on sale at Amazon, iTunes, and Best Buy.
If Neil had done this as a rollicking, tongue-in-cheek holiday song, it might have worked. Might have. But The Jazz Singer would have none of that. No, his song about how everyone should have a Neil Diamond Christmas is very serious and can only be appropriately expressed through the use of harp and a 40-piece string section.
0:45: After a bunch of oppressively dumb lyrics (and another shoutout to one of his own compositions, “Song Sung Blue”), Neil ends the first verse with these words: You’ll have a very merry, Cherry Cherry, Holly Holy, rock n’ roll-y Christmas this year. Just a reminder: Neil Diamond was born in 1958. He is not 6 years old, as these lyrics might indicate.
1:11:Feels like pretty amazing grace/If you know what I mean…No, Neil, I haven’t the slightest idea what you mean. Unless you’re referring to the song “Pretty Amazing Grace” off of your 27th studio album, Home Before Dark, which I’m sure can be picked up at Borders and all fine retailers at a reasonable price.
1:29:In a world of make believe, I’m a believer/And I believe in things not always understood…Did you know that Neil Diamond has a wonderful plan for your life? He’s so magical, he can even reference songs he wrote for others but never recorded himself!
2:03:Let’s raise a Christmas toast of red red wine/We’ll even sing “Sweet Caroline”/While the whole world sings along…It take a special kind of man to not only reference two of his own songs in one verse, but insist the entire world will be chanting one of them in his honor to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Is that because Jesus’ mother’s name was Caroline, or because he’s a Sox fan?
2:13: Cue the sax solo from “Just the Way You Are”!
2:44: Makes you wanna have a very merry/Holly Holy/Cherry Cherry/Christmastime the whole year long…Sorry Neil, I think in such a world, the survivors would envy the dead.
3:20: He ends by yelling out CHERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! Because if you’re gonna write a Christmas monument to yourself, the time for restraint has long since passed. You go out with a bang, not a whimper. VERY CHERRY NEIL DIAMOND-MAS IN BLUE JEANS, EVERYONE! AND A HOT AUGUST NIGHT TO YOU AS WELL!
Congrats, Neil Diamond. You’ve written the most self-serving piece of Christmas dreck ever. You may collect your prize from the bursar.
I’m blowin’ up on the interwebs today, and I want to shout it from the rooftops! Or here. Yes, here will do.