Reruns

In honor of his appearance on American Idol tonight, I am rerunning a previous post on the man. It was in response to Opening Day at Fenway Park and was subtly titled "Neil Diamond is a Bozo."

Neil Diamond is a Bozo
Since some time in the late 1990s, fans at Fenway Park have been singing along with Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" between the top and bottom of the eighth inning. It's more of an event than the seventh inning stretch.

The fans really get into it. There are times when watching the game on TV when you can clearly and loudly hear fans continuing to do the "oh, oh, oh" even though the PA has been shut off for resumption of play.

It's fun and it's funny. It's an otherwise meaningless song that's kind of schmaltzy and easy to sing along with. I mean, for crying out loud, it's Neil Diamond.

So since this has become such a popular and well known tradition, Neil himself has been invited to Fenway to sing it live for the crowd during a game. From numerous credible reports I have heard he has declined because his price was not been met.

Huh? Neil Diamond?

I can't even imagine how many people who don't ordinarily listen to Neil Diamond have downloaded this song because they've heard and sung it at Fenway Park.

Now comes the 2008 home opener where the Red Sox celebrate another World Series Championship. And Neil Diamond performs Sweet Caroline for Red Sox fans during the eighth inning...via video.

This jerky actually went into a studio with a Red Sox jacket on, with minority owner Tom Werner serving as one of the background singers, and sang the song to Red Sox fans represented by a camera. Then they showed the result on the jumbotron yesterday.

The cherry on top (pun intended) was the announcement that Neil Diamond would be playing a concert at Fenway Park this August. Remember, please, that Fenway Park has hosted single concerts that last few years that have featured the likes of the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Buffett, the Police reunion and the Dave Matthews Band. In other words, shows waaaaay out of Neil Diamond's league.

So Neil Diamond gets to play Fenway Park and all they get out of him is a video performance of Sweet Caroline? I'd say for the privilege of playing Fenway Park, Neil Diamond should have to sing Sweet Caroline at least once a month and during any home playoff games for the next five years.

Neil Diamond is a BOZO and I'm never going to spend money to acquire his music ever again.