1976 Songs: Dry Your Eyes

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Holy cow, what happened? Both the 40-year-old and 50-year-old songs today are by people you’ve heard of!!! (Well, EBDE*. ) And what’s cool about today’s song from 1976 is that this guy will be back on the 60-year-old songs next month!!! Here’s today’s song that’s half a century old now. Dry Your Eyes - Neil Diamond *EBDE: Everybody But Daddy Evil. (Hey, he’s not a music fan, no shame in that!) For whatever reason, The Band’s Robbie Robertson teamed up with Neil Diamond, who was transitioning from rocker to popster by the mid-70s. Diamond was getting dangerously close to his “schlock” years of “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” and “Heartlight,” but he still had enough musical cajones in the mid-70s to pump out powerful songs. This is one of them. The association with Robertson turned out this mighty tune (which, if you remember back a few years, topped my favorite Neil Diamond songs list). It’s a sad song (Diamond sang it in tribute to the victims of the Manchester bombing in 2017), and I can’t help but think of The Band’s Richard Manuel (who played on this album), another “falling angel who descended much too soon.” After Manuel’s suicide, Robertson’s solo album had a tribute to him called “Fallen Angel,” pulling that term from this song. Despite being a sad song, it’s also a celebration. Diamond is retired now, because of Parkinson’s, but we’ll “still recall the tune” of the countless great songs he’s given us. Dry Your Eyes Written by Neil Diamond and Robbie Robertson Recorded by Neil Diamond From Beautiful Noise, 1976 It was more than being holy: