A Girl's Best Friends

December 18, 2005... !*@# (a.k.a. Exclaim!), is a monthly magazine of music alternatives available free of charge across Canada. Much of its content is also available online, for those of you not lucky enough to live near a Canadian city with a hip record store.

In "Questionnaire," which has been a regular monthly feature of the magazine for quite a few years now, famous people are asked to respond to a set of partly relevant/partly silly questions. The questions have been the same since the get-go, which imposes a certain discipline on the respondents. Most graciously roll with the punches, giving straight answers to bent questions like "What would make you kick someone out of your band and/or bed, and have you?" A few comment on the insipidity of it all.

A couple responses attributed to this month's subject, Neil Diamond, really caught my eye.

First, to the question, "What are your feelings on piracy, Internet or otherwise?" Diamond responded: "It's stealing. The sad thing about it is that so many people who have devoted their lives to music are without jobs and work because of the availability of music..."

Then, later, to the question "How do you spoil yourself?" Diamond replied: "Occasionally, I will rent a jet plane to go somewhere. Maybe a couple times a year." Note that he's not talking about buying a ticket and flying down to Cancun on a jet with the rest of us great unwashed. Nope, he's talking about renting the whole fucking plane for himself ... and his many handlers, I suspect.

Hmm... I wonder if one of the reasons piracy is so widespread is that so many of the people who have "devoted their lives to music" seem to think that a lifestyle that allows them to "rent a jet plane to go somewhere" a couple times a year is reasonable compensation...

Anyway, on a less serious note, I couldn't help but notice the similarities in the melodies of the choruses of the Neil Diamond song "Sweet Caroline" and the verses of the Roxy Music song "More Than This."

Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline

Roxy Music - More Than This

To compensate you for suggesting that you sit through two lackluster numbers, here's a surprise bonus track that is in no way connected thematically to the rest of this post, but just happened to be on my mind this morning.

Mystery Artist - Surprise Bonus Track

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