Among the writers whose material Jeff Berry used was Neil Diamond.
Anything that goes on plastic, the basis of that thing is the song so it seems like a natural thing for me to have been a songwriter first and to understand that and to learn to express myself in that way. Of course when you write you sing all the time.
It’s been great for me because over the period of years that I’ve been writing I’ve also learned how to sing and to understand my voice and then finally, just recently, just begin to enjoy my voice because it took me a long time to realize that I was a singer as well as a writer. And uh, I never particularly enjoyed my voice. It was all based on the song.
Cracklin’ Rosie plays and Neil does the following voice over during the song.
Cracklin Rosie is the name that is given to a wine on all reservations in northern Canada. It’s called crackling rose wine because it would assume the identity of a woman for them. It seems that there are more men than there are women on some of these reservations and on Saturday night or Friday night some of the men go down to the local general store and get themselves a large bottle and they’d drink straight through the weekend and this was their woman for the weekend and that’s what they call that woman is Cracklin’ Rosie.
Songwriters, contemporary songwriters that I’m familiar with don’t plunk out the note of the melody on the keyboard or guitar. They’re a theme.
They certainly understand the song better than anybody. That’s why I think the records that come out of this have a certain genuineness to them and a warmth to them as opposed to necessarily a technical vocal quality.
The of this concept since …… and the Beatles, it has become possible for a growing number of performers to write about and their own experiences and reactions in almost any musical context and to find a large audience to watch and listen.
I Am, I Said plays
(Interviews does brief voice over during)
Neil Diamond’s I Am, I Said in part 22 of The Story of Pop
It was narrated by Alan Freeman and written by Tim Blackmore and? Guinness