So where does this division of humanity leaveme? On the fence, I guess, admiring the early songcraft of “I’m a Believer”while shaking my head at “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” My childhood was alsoscored in part to his songs, but I tuned out shortly after “Song Sung Blue.”Although Wild admits to an occasional misstep in the later decades of hishero’s career, he would take strong exception to my insistence that Diamondturned schmaltzy as time went by.
Perhaps Wild and I can agree to disagree, just alittle bit? He is … I Say is anenjoyable read, a highly personal take on “the Jewish Elvis.” Aside fromrevealing the subject of his extended essay as something of a contrarian andmore down to earth than even a fan would expect, Wild makes many interestingcomments about critics, hipsters and their influence on the way culturalhistory in the 20th century was written. Critics are, he says,“Particularly tough on major pop phenomenon that they play absolutely no partin creating” and resent “the far mightier power of paying consumers.” Diamondputs it this way when comparing himself with his contemporaries, Simon &Garfunkel. Their audience, he admits, was hipper. “But then everybody’saudience was hipper than mine … What can I say? I was left with the rest of America.”
