Neil Diamond - BBC in Concert, Royal Festival Hall, London, Britain, 5-29-1971

In the past month or so, I've made a concerted effort to post more music that originally came from the BBC. That hasn't come as fast as I'd like, because a lot of it is new to my music collection and BBC sessions often need a lot of sound editing to get rid of the BBC DJs talking over the music. But sometimes the BBC has played entire concerts without any DJs, and those need more exposure too.

So here's one of those, featuring Neil Diamond. I have to admit my musical interest in him is very limited. I love many of his hits from the start of his career around 1966 until 1972 or so. Songs like "Sweet Caroline," "Cherry, Cherry," and "Solitary Man" are all time classics, in my opinion. But after that, it's very hit or miss, in my opinion. He moved much more into the sappy love song direction, and went all in with schmaltzy Las Vegas style glamour. 

It so happens that there are almost no live recordings of him prior to his hit live album "Hot August Night," recorded in 1972. I've posted one bootleg of him from 1967, but it's rather short and the sound quality is just okay. It's here, if you're curious:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2020/01/neil-diamond-bitter-end-new-york-city-8.html

There's also a little-known official live album recorded in 1969 called "Gold - Recorded Live at the Troubadour." It's very good in my opinion, done before the show biz overproduction overtook him. But that's about it, other than one or two bootlegs that sound pretty bad.

However, there also is a concert he did for BBC TV in 1971. I've seen it around the Internet here and there, but only in video format. So I've converted it to mp3, and I'm sharing it here. I like it because even though it was only recorded one year before "Hot August Night," and it has many of the same songs, it has a different feel. It's not exactly an acoustic concert, he does have a band that includes some strings and some horns, but it has a more subdued "confessional singer-songwriter" feel. I think a lot of that is because he talked a lot between songs, often shedding light on what his songs are about. It's a rather short concert at 45 minutes, but 10 of those minutes are him talking. That may not sound like a lot, but it's a much higher ratio than you'll find for most artists.

Crucially, the sound quality of this show is excellent. Thanks to those BBC professionals, it sounds just as good as a typical official live album from that era.

01 Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond)
02 talk (Neil Diamond)
03 Solitary Man (Neil Diamond)
04 talk (Neil Diamond)
05 Cracklin' Rose (Neil Diamond)
06 talk (Neil Diamond)
07 Done Too Soon (Neil Diamond)
08 A Modern Day Version of Love (Neil Diamond)
09 talk (Neil Diamond)
10 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother (Neil Diamond)
11 talk (Neil Diamond)
12 Holly Holy (Neil Diamond)
13 I Am... I Said (Neil Diamond)
14 talk (Neil Diamond)
15 Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show (Neil Diamond)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15288944/NeilDia_1971_BBInConcrtRyalFestivlHallLondnBritain__5-29-1971_atse.zip.html

For the cover art, I took a screenshot from the exact concert in question. For the text, I used the exact same color and font type as the BBC did for the very start of the show.