Ray wrote:
Riaan C wrote:
It's fashionable to knock Neil Diamond (as it was to knock ABBA, but the context of pop history is starting to turn on that one).
I am not and have never been a fan of either of the above. Or Mozart or Johan Strauss or Eddy van Halen and a whole bunch of others. But you've goto have poofies for brains to knock someone who gives millions what they want and nogal enjoy doing it at the same time.
Abba's magic, their craft, was in making great records - not necessarily writing great songs. They had loads of hooks, fantastic production and two superb vocalists.
I think the problem with Diamond and Abba is the same - quality control. separating the wheat from the chaff. Diamond wrote some great songs (my favourite is "Solitary Man") but he wrote some real dross as well. Both acts had great singles in a time where the singles got the hits and the singles sold the album.
In both cases a greatest hits collection that was confined to a single CD would be a knock-out. A multi-disc set would be a real curate's egg.
That they sold to millions is neither here nor there to me. Celine Dion sells by the truckload and I think she's best used as a weapon of mass destruction. The likes of Dianne Warren and Carol Bayer Sager have written loads of hits, but that doesn't make their songs anything but big-selling.
I don't believe that mass appeal and great craft are mutually exclusive (I give you Buddy Holly and Hank Williams) but one doesn't guarantee the other either.
