It's a very stripped-down, beautiful, emotional album, |
It's really starting to stick. If nothing else, it's a major distraction for management. |
It's stripped-down Neil. I think it's different from anything you've heard from him before. |
Johnny said that recording was his main reason for being alive. And I think it was the only thing that kept him going, the only thing he had to look forward to. |
The inflationary environment we're seeing is still having a disproportionate effect on their consumers for now. |
The songs are classic Neil Diamond songs. Nobody else could have possibly written them. The sound of the album is very personal, intimate and honest. |
These songs are Johnny's final statement. They are the truest reflection of the music that was central to his life at the time. This is the music that Johnny wanted us to hear. |
They're both grown-ups, and there aren't many great albums by grown-ups. There's no reason why great artists shouldn't make their best records when they're 50, 60, 70. In other disciplines, it would be expected. |
Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, we're still not seeing the trading up effect. |
We are not comfortable using the public Internet, although there has been a lot of good work with [virtual private network] and public-key infrastructure technology. |
We felt Johnny's presence during the whole process through to the end. It felt like he was directing the proceedings, and I know that the musicians all felt that as well... More than once, Fergie and I would look at each other and say 'Johnny would love this,' because it was so good and so different from anything we'd done before, we knew he would be excited by what was happening. |
When Neil would play and sing, it changed his relationship to the song. One feels more of a sense of authorship. By playing guitar, Neil controls the rhythm and feel of the songs. It also changes the way he sings them, and it becomes a more pure musical act. |