I blame my parents

When I was 5 one of my favorite things to do was listen to records on the stereo through headphones. I listened to two records in particular: John Denver's Back Home Again (featuring Thank God I'm a Country Boy and Grandma's Feather Bed, which made me always want pancakes), and Neil Diamond's I'm Glad You're Here With Me Tonight which featured my favorite song at the time, Desire'e. Listening to that song now makes me wonder if my parents even checked lyrics. Of course when I was five I had no idea what "Well I became a man At the hands of a girl Almost twice my age" actually referred to. I just thought it was catchy. So there you go: I enjoyed (and still do) John Denver and Neil Diamond. All this to say that I recently bought Neil's 12 Songs CD the other night, and it is quite good. For someone who is the consummate showman, this is a very restrained album. I think Rick Reuben will do for Neil Diamond's career what he did for Johnny Cash: create a late career renaissance.