Random Thoughts Musickal

Have you ever listened to Neil Diamond's Tap Root Manuscript? Do yourself a favor and get a copy.

I have been listening to it as long as I can remember (it was released when I was in my terrible two's), and I have long associated it with fun family road trips to Colorado, other parts of the Southwest and Rocky Mountain states, and Canada. (Yes, Canada. We drove 3 days from Texas to visit family in Ontario at Wasaga Beach on the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron).

Putting aside nostalgia, and acknowledging that this marks me as tragically unhip, this album by Neil Diamond is one of my top-25. The high point of the album is the African Trilogy (actually 7 discrete songs), which I would cover in an instant, were I a progressive metal band. The instrumental Madrigal could certainly stand up to some re-arrangement for performance by a group like Yes or Rush.

(Yes, I am procrastinating on the novel).