Stages: Performances 1970-2002 [Box]

Performer: Neil Diamond
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Includes a DVD disc. Personnel includes: Neil Diamond (vocals, guitar); Eddie Rubin, Randy Sterling, Carol Hunter, Mark Kapner, Dennis St. John, Alan Lindgren, Richard Bennett, Emory Gordy Jr., Reinie Press, Danny Nicholson, Jeffrey Kewley, Jesse Diamond, Doug Rhone, Julia Waters, Ron Tutt, Oren Waters, Art Velasco, Ralf Rickert, Larry Klimas, Don Markese. Compilation producers: Neil Diamond, Sam Cole. Recorded between 1970-2002. Includes liner notes by Laurie Viera Rigler. Stages: Performances 1970-2002 is one of the most cynical box set projects ever issued. While producers Neil Diamond and Sam Cole don't exactly offer untruth in their presentation of this five-CD live retrospective, they might as well have. For starters, this entire project seems like an excuse to issue a new double-CD live album from Vegas in December of 2002, and a live Christmas album (like anyone ever needed that to happen). The other two discs in this set are a compilation of live tracks, from "Lordy" in 1970 (easily the best thing here) to a cloying "I Believe in Happy Endings," from New Year's Eve 2001. The majority of the cuts from these discs come from Diamond's '80s and '90s shows and do not showcase him at his best. The bottom line: his Beatles' covers are losers -- why not do more of the many hundreds of songs he's written? Perhaps the fact that neither the 2002 live Vegas gig nor the live Christmas album are good enough to stand on their own in the marketplace was a motivating factor. One has to wonder why he didn't just release his double live and live Christmas projects without all of this bombast, extra production, and extra cost for his real fans, the only people who would be willing to even consider this. This is a job shoddily and, yes, very cynically done. Where Hot August Night and Hot August Night 2 were real occasions to celebrate Diamond's mind-blowing live potential, Stages is really just a marketing ploy to get fans, the people who should be rewarded, to shell out more of their hard-earned dollars for considerably less aesthetically. ~ Thom Jurek Few singers are as connected with sing-alongs as the New York City born and raised Neil Diamond. From rousing renditions at pubs to interpretations at karaoke clubs, his songs are vigorously sung from sea to shining sea. The incomparable Mr. Diamond's songs are made to be sung lustily, feverishly, with reckless abandon, and as one would predict, Neil himself sings them that way, making his live shows, concert events in the full-bodied, Tom Jones sense of the word. His shows are the ultimate in fan friendly entertainment, interspersed with wandering tales and sudden, direct connections with the crowd. This distinctly Diamond behavior was even the subject of a Saturday Night Live sketch that played in part off his stage digressions and in part off the passion in his songs, songs which sometimes wear arcane, wonderfully obtuse, and even pleadingly earnest lyrics on their sleeve. The box set STAGES gathers all the live Diamond any fan might desire in five audio discs and a DVD. The performances span his formative years in the early 1970s, when he channeled raw yet sweet Stax-style soul, through his ballads of the '80s and his famous Christmas caroling to two concerts from 2002. All of these performances capture the flavor, the passion, the sound bites, and the sweat of a Neil Diamond concert experience.

Q (1/04, p.132) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[H]is sonorous vocal power and masterful phrasing have remained intact..."

With a career as a hitmaker stretching across the decades, Neil Diamond has purveyed catchy, three-chord pop/rock, progressive singer/songwriter material, middle-of-the-road balladry, and even traditional country. He started out as a Brill Building hitmaker; a songwriter for hire, he worked alongside the likes of Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and penned hits for the Monkees and Jay & the Americans. His solo career took off in the mid 1960s and made him one of America's most successful recording artists and concert attractions for a long time to come. Even decades down the road, younger groups such as UB40 in the '80s, Urge Overkill in the '90s, and Smash Mouth in the 2000's were still scoring hits with Diamond's evergreen compositions.

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