Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show

by

Neil Diamond

Album: Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show      Released: 1969

US Chart: 22     

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Diamond performed this on The Johnny Cash Show, where he explained: "This song was written about a revival meeting I was at in Jackson, Mississippi. I went there because I was curious, and also because I was a college kid who had all the answers - no one was going to teach me anything and I could lay a few answers on them. I sat in the back of this tent meeting and I got really caught up in the music - clapping, the singing - tremendously exciting. After a while I felt something about the people - there was a tremendous yearning, looking for answers. Trying to ease a very hard burden of very rough lives. After a while the music stopped and a preacher walked out. I remember thinking that all the education I had, all the books, all the words, all the learning I went through at college didn't mean anything to these people, I had nothing for them. So I found myself pulling for this man who was about to give them something that I couldn't even begin to give them."

Diamond wrote the lyrics on a flight to Memphis, and he set the words to soulful tune he had already written.

This marked a turning point for Diamond, as it was a character-driven song as opposed to something personal and introspective. This allowed Diamond to play a character on stage, and he quickly developed into a very charismatic performer. In the liner notes to his boxed set In My Lifetime, Diamond wrote: "This recording became a hit and was to make a showman out of me. How could you not let go of your inhibitions when playing such a wonderful character?" (thanks to David Wild, author of He Is...I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond, for all above)

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Comments:

On the origial studio version,when Neils' voice breaks when he says "i say!!".......sooooo cool.
- kurtis, portland, OR

Jay It's a great line, from a great writer, and great showman. An American Icon.
- mark, worcester, MI

This song has one of my all-time favorite lyrics: "... and when you'd almost bet you could hear yourself sweat, he walks in."
- Jay, Brooklyn, NY

Every time that I hear this song, I think back to when I first started lifting weights in the old Y.M.C.A. in Kokomo, Indiana and this song was playing when I first picked up a weight. It reminds me of all of the stuff that I've accomplished and all of the interesting places and people that I've been able to see and meet through my weightlifting. Also, if I'm not mistaken, literally ALL of Neil Diamond's hit records were written by him! That just amazes me!
- Stormy, Kokomo, IN

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