Neil Diamond vs. Joe Cocker
Tuesday, March 27th, 2007I kind of went on a Itunes spree tonight. I had to pick up a few guitar hero songs from Itunes and ended up buying a bunch of music, kind of like when wikipedia consumes your entire day off. *sigh*. From Guitar Hero came Killer Queen, More than A Feeling, Rush’s YYZ, and Bark at the Moon. Great mix of music.
My transactions were almost complete when I remembered that I wanted With a little help from my friends from. That turned into several Joe Cocker songs, which turned into purchasing his entire anthology. In listening to the demos, I realized that his style has a lot in common with Neil Diamond, the 70s singer who my parents listened to while I was growing up in the 80s….the time when Monster Ballads were in full bloom, thanks to Neil’s lead.
OK. The gloves are off. Who’s the better singer: Neil Diamond or Joe Cocker? That’s right. I’m not an 80 year old woman, even though my 85 year old grandma had Neil Diamond tapes in her car. Damn you Itunes, you enabler.
Neil has some sort of weird 1970s appeal to him. You’d probably throw your soda at him if you saw him dancing on the street corner in a creepy silk shirt, but you’d promptly apologize when you heard his 3-packs-a-day vibrato. Plus, he actually did Saving Silverman, which either really makes fun of him or props him up as some sort of musical god. You decide. Neil has tons of hits which don’t even need mentioning because they’ve been on every radio station your parents listen to hundreds of thousands of times. They’re also on my Itunes list 
Joe’s got a lot of emotion, and he doesn’t always sing about some chick. He sings about chicks sometimes, but not as much as Neil. Joe’s also very much into his music. Check out this video from woodstock if you doubt that:
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He looks really stoned, but I guess that’s just his stage presence.
Winner?
March 29th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Wow! That is such an excellent question, Brent. Just to clarify, we are talking about “early” Neil Diamond, right? Because, if you are expanding this into “all” Neil Diamond, it is clear that Mr. “Only a Woman/You are so Beautiful” Cocker is the clear winner. But, narrowed to early Diamond and 100% Cocker, I would be incapable of selecting my favorite. These are two excellent choices - for nearly opposing reasons.
He doesn’t look so much stoned as he looks mentally handicapped (replace with current PC word in case I missed) - extra points for achieving “hot” on top of that. (No disrespect intended.)
Thanks - good blog.
Amy - your nearly 85 year old friend.
PS - FYI - usability issue - the letters in this little comment box are too small for old eyes.
May 3rd, 2007 at 4:47 am
I am not quite 85 years old and must say that Joe Cocker wins every time! Never could stand Neil Diamond.
Back in the day, on some of the very early Saturday Night Live programs, John Belushi used to do a parody of Joe Cocker that was right on!
P.S. I don’t think it was a stage presence…think he really was stoned most of the time as were many of his contemporaries.
May 3rd, 2007 at 7:00 am
I love that video of John Belushi and him doing Feelin’ Alright…that and the one where belushi has convulsions while doing With a Little Help from my Friends. Belushi had an incredible ability to immitate voices.
Thanks for stopping by, harry.