Neil Diamond rides the subway from Manhattan back to Brooklyn, to the neighborhood where he lived until he was 16, in “Welcome Home Neil.” The short documentary is a bonus track on Hot August Night/NYC (Sony Legacy), the DVD of his Madison Square Garden concert from last summer, and unless you’re a fan forever in blue jeans, waiting for a song sung blue, it contains many of the package’s most interesting moments. Let’s face it: Diamond’s Vegas-scale stage production is a well-oiled machine. Surprise isn’t built into his act.
“Welcome Home” tells another, complementary story. Here, Diamond is an affable, gracious man delighted to revisit the apartment he hadn’t seen in 50 years. After decades of decline, the old neighborhood bustles once again with life. The residents are mostly African American. Those middle-aged and older respond to Diamond with a just-folks friendliness entirely unlike the maniacal fans later interviewed outside the Garden. The younger Brooklyn residents view him curiously as a famous somebody they can’t place. When he asks if they’ve heard “Sweet Caroline” and other hits, they shrug no. Only “Red Red Wine” rings a bell, familiar to them from a reggae cover.
Although Diamond wrote his share of insipid songs, he was, at his best, a superb tunesmith with a feel for the urgency of gospel music and the taut melodies of ‘60s pop. It would be great to see him backed by a stripped down rock band. But then, that was probably not what Diamond had in mind decades ago as he made his way from Brooklyn to the Brill Building and from there to stardom.
