A Tribute To Neil Diamond
Unlocking the core of my heart
The fastest way for me,
Is via Neil Diamond’s songs.
Sighs overpower my being,
As that voice travels,
To the physical organ, my heart.
A locked casket of emotions,
Now unlocked through his music,
Releases the bird,
Of feelings I knew not were there.
The passion in his voice,
Becomes an arrow,
On a sure trajectory
Carrying with it, lyrics,
Clothed in resonant tunes,
That weigh down with meaning,
Waiting to be explored.
Vasanti Jayaswal
December 27 2024
Petaluma
In July of 2011, I had written an essay titled “A Far Eastern Look at Western Songs.” (https://www.ambahouse.org/a-far-eastern-look-at-western-songs). There I have included my reflections on “I am I said, I am I cried,”and “Everybody’s talking at me”, sung by Neil Diamond.
Then on I planned to write a sequel to this focusing on one artist. This choice was easy as the one who affects me the most anytime is Neil Diamond. In 2025, I began to work my personal reflections on selected songs, that held a message for me. These seem to rise above all others, like the way butter does when churning milk.
I would recommend to anyone who is reading this essay to first listen to the song, for then only will my reflections make sense.
MORNINGSIDE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4AvpFqxvKY
To choose a favorite song is not possible as there are many that stay in a horizontal line of favorite ones. However, due to my current age as one who is a grandmother in her 80s, blessed with many a gift in the areas of art and philosophy, I chose “Morningside”. I can truly relate to a future perhaps when those that follow, that is my family may have absolutely no interest in the subtle wealth I have accumulated. Like the table the old man carved with his own hands and wrote “for my children”, the legacy I leave, I feel will not be appreciated. Already the signs are there. These are days when the young at large seem to have no value for the special love and wisdom churned from experiences, that blossomed, not in words but in action.
In the song I picture that when the family sat at that table, the old man carved, they had a good time over food, games and conversations. Will they ever retain these in their memories? No wonder “no one cried “after the old man passed away. The gift I spread out for future generations is not a material one, they are there for each one to be able to live, an uncomplicated life full of universal blessings.
FOREVER IN BLUE JEANS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKiemHPECZI
My late husband would often comment upon an aspect of the US, stating that USA is for sale. Buying, selling and such monetary transactions has already spread all over the world. Status and Wealth seem to reign. There are though, a diminishing section of folks, who still value relationships more than anything else. They are there, for who you are, not what you wear, possess or have accomplished.
At every step in my married life my husband I were joyful with whatever we had. We were rich because we had each other sharing each step one by one. We never felt that we lacked anything. So too all those who come into my life are cherished with love for who they truly are, their essential self sans apparel, wealth careers and more.
You may find another angle to this attitude by clicking the link below.
https://www.ambahouse.org/transparency-in-love
SHILO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1JvdC8REhM
When young it seems that often an imaginative and sensitive child can summon up characters custom tailored to his or her needs. This was the case with my older son, at age 3. While playing in the garden I caught him talking to someone. When asked he said that he was conversing with Lady Susan and Little Joey. Mind you here, the child is of East Indian origin, growing up in a home where Indian music, dance and Hindu customs were a natural way of life, even though we were in Los Angeles. I realized that this was the way my son was accepting his pregnant mother who was going to have a baby! Another character that brandished a stick while playing amidst the bushes was “Chuck Richards.” I played along happily with these characters, for I knew that they would soon fade away.
BEAUTIFUL NOISE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf5T2nb99RY
Life has an inbuilt rhythm and music if only we pay attention to it. Tagore has this famous song in Bengali, Nrityera Taley Taley, addressed to Lord Shiva, the dancer. Throughout all creative processes, through time and space, day and night, season after season, he dances.
There is the story about a famous Hindusthani classical music percussionist, Ahmedjan Thirakwa of Agra. While travelling in a train that he took regularly to New Delhi, he warned the conductor once about an impending accident. The “clickety clack” of the wheels had changed in its rhythm. As an expert percussionist he had an innate awareness of the normal rhythm of that train. He got off the very next station, way ahead of his normal destination. Sure enough that train did run into an accident.
Here where I live, near a high school, I know by their high pitched screams that it is a girls baseball game. Saturdays here are marked by the whizzing sounds from the race cars at the local small speedway, a totally different progression of sounds. In LA where I lived across from an elementary school, the lunchtime joyful pandemonium was indeed music, not noise to my ears.
Yes, life has a music and rhythm if only we yield to it.
I AM, I SAID
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA5bFJt9Wp0
In that pathetic refrain, “I am I said, I am I cried,” it feels like that the I is never really understood by the person. “And I am lost and I can’t even say why.” Surely the “sound of being alone” is annoying to anyone who does not know who truly he or she is. Not knowing the source of this discomfort may even be depressing. Dreams, achievements may all come to fruition yet without the thread of knowing oneself, life can remain empty with a feeling of not belonging anywhere. This points to a lack of a spiritual basis to one’s identity.
We also never seem to take stock of how precious energy is wasted in remorse and bitterness. Pursuing the past relentlessly, only serves to fill the pockets of psychiatrists and therapists.
EVERYBODY’S TALKIN AT ME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN6TPEag1W8
The way most conversations go these days you might as well not have them. “Everybody’s talkin at me, I don’t hear a word they’re saying” mind you, not talking at me, not to me! The eyes keep looking but not really seeing and even though you hear what the other person is saying, you are not really listening. This phenomenon is so obvious in large gatherings where even as someone is conversing with you, his or her eyes wander around, looking for who else is to be noticed. Conversations in metropolitan cities are often predictably monotonous. We have become such experts at pretensions that naturally we are no longer genuine. “Scarecrows dressed in latest styles with frozen smiles to keep love away” perfectly elaborates this stance.
LET THE LITTLE BOY SING
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/l629XJVoQ20
A song that can transport one to the past, when slaves were brought to this country by force, to work in the sweltering heat of the southern cotton fields. A nine year old innocent boy uses his gift of music to ride above the agonies of being rooted to the earth physically, and lets loose, all that binds him. What’s more, as the song rises in the air, those that hear him get transported! The mother aware of their dismal life of bereft of any hope, prays to the divine for the recognition of her son’s gift. Indeed, even when away from the fields, while traversing the streets of the city, folks there too respond to his magical music. They feel a sense of home. To me, this feeling is what points to us, our true home, our source and final refuge, the Divine.
BOTH SIDES NOW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPI0d4h3xOc
The human being can flip from romanticizing to a reluctant acceptance of reality as he plies through life. The former phase allows an indulgence in metaphors in its appreciation of nature and the capacity to fully revel in joyful pastimes. When reality hits with age and experiences, the metaphors disappear and the revelry gets tainted with skepticism. The human being still craves for the beauty of romanticism but life proves to him it is an illusion based on its impermanence.
IF I RULED THE WORLD
I have always felt that we human beings who truly have the power to bless, and be able to wish for the welfare of all, hardly seem to give expression to that. This wish for others is so beautifully expressed in this song. Spring is a season of renewal and growth, a reminder for man to allow the best in him to grow and bloom. Here joy or happiness, our inherent nature, would have no inhibitions. Freedom to express would be met with an open heart and listened to. Life then would provide avenues to fulfill one’s dreams. The created world would no longer be an adversary but rather a friend. For me, a Hindu by birth and tradition, am reminded of an age, old Vedic Prayer for Peace, translated below.
May all beings experience wellness.
May they be free from delusion.
May they experience that which is progressive.
May they never partake of unwellness.
Peace, Peace, Peace.
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