Home Before Dark, Neil Diamond‘s 27th album, was a collection of original songs that topped the Billboard 200 and featured several musicians who continued on with his Rick Rubin-produced releases from 12 Songs in 2005, including guitarist Jonny Polonsky, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. Both albums were more stripped back, showcasing Diamond’s vocals and lyrics.
“This record represents a giant step in my evolution as a writer and a recording artist,” said Diamond in a 2008 interview. “You will see I’ve gone deeper. It was more painful to write this, maybe the most difficult album I’ve ever written, and maybe my best.”
One of the more personal stories on Home After Dark for Diamond was “Act Like a Man,” a song he says said was an “honest” look at himself as an artist throughout the decades.
“There’s a lot of talking to myself in the songs,” Diamond told the Daily Telegraph. “That song is an exploration of how I’ve spent my life and whether I’ve been honest or just a poser. What is this thing? Does it have any value?”
Song-maker
You heart-breaker
You figure
Better stop it while you can
You know you’re just a worthless daydreamer
But hey dreamer
It’s time to act like a man
Song writin’
It’s just a little bit frightenin’
Like playin’ with lightening
I’m not complainin’ now you understand
You get to sing and dance all day
Like children play
But it’s time to act like a man
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Being a man means responsible
You hear it wherever you go
Nothing is ever impossible
Something inside tells me so
And I know
What I know
Say lover
Better discover
Some other way to turn your head around again
And really, don’t you wait now
It’s gettin’ late now
It’s time to act like a man
Breaking Bob Dylan’s “Oldest” Record
Once released, Home After Dark topped the UK and U.S. charts, making Diamond, then 67, the oldest performer to go to No. 1 and breaking Bob Dylan’s previous record. Dylan was the oldest artist two years earlier with Modern Times at the age of 65. He regained his title in 2009 with the release of Together Through Life. When released, Dylan was 67 years and 11 months old compared to Diamond’s 67 years and three months when releasing Home After Dark.
Another link to Dylan came with the two deluxe bonus tracks on Home After Dark, including Diamond’s rendition of Harry Nilsson’s 1967 song “Without Her” and Dylan’s Time Out of Mind classic, “Make You Feel My Love.”
12 Songs, Diamond admitted, was a “testing of the waters” and a “getting to know you” album, working with Rubin. The album also featured one track, “Delirious Love,” with guest vocalist Brian Wilson. “This one is ‘we know each other and respect each other and let’s try and knock people’s socks off,’” added Diamond, “and that’s what we went for, and that’s what we did.”
Diamond added, “Critical acclaim is always helpful, any kind of encouragement for an artist is helpful, but my music is going to be written or recorded with or without critical acclaim. I appreciate it when it comes, but it will not stop me for a moment when I don’t get it. It’s unpredictable.”
Photo: Gie Knaeps/Getty Images
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