A friend of mine just sent me this YouTube video of Neil Diamond returning to his old neighborhood in Brooklyn. He talks to people on the street (many of whom are West Indian, I think) and one guy asks him what songs he did, he runs though a few, which the guy has never heard of, before mentioning “Red, Red Wine”, which the guy knows the reggae version of.
I actually didn’t know that Neil Diamond wrote “Red, Red Wine” because I only know the reggae version, but it got me thinking about something I’ve thought about before….there seem to be reggae versions of pretty much all songs. The strangest I’ve heard is the 70s tear-jerker “You Left Me (Just When I Needed You Most)”, but I can’t find it on YouTube. Here’s a reggae group rocking the Christopher Cross.
Of all the reggae versions of songs you’ve heard, which one surprised you the most?
For those who aren’t reggage fans, a Neil Diamond question: what Neil Diamond song represents for you the essence, or quintessence or whatever the right word is, of Neil Diamon? For me, it’s September Morn, which edges out Love On the Rocks, because of how exaggerated the whole behind-the-beat-singing thing is.
Update. If you go into preferences and disable java script, the blog seems to load normally. Probably a good idea to do that for the next few days.
The boot, the roots, the reggae on my stereoPost + Comments (147)