I Am, I Said – Neil Diamond
Rewinding the timeline back to 1973 again, I find myself having recently lost my first love relationship which I thought would never end, my home because I had now joined the Air Force and struggling from having moved around the country since I was 10 years old. Moving often at a young age tends to remove a certain stability in your life and makes you begin to feel like you don’t know where home is.
As I mentioned in another video in this series, I was very deeply depressed at this time in my life and felt lost in so many ways. To keep myself company, I bought a small cassette tape player and a couple of albums. One album I bought was Neil Diamond’s, “Hot August Nights” concert album. I don’t remember why I bought it because I remember not liking Neil Diamond. But I discovered he really spoke to me in his music. One song that became my anthem at that time was, “I Am, I Said”. Oh, the words to this song came right out of my heart. Just change New York to Atlanta and L.A. to San Francisco and that is how I got lost between two shores. So there I was in Illinois in my dorm room listening to this sing:
And the feeling is “lay back”
Palm trees grow and rents are low
But you know I keep thinkin’ about
Making my way back
But nowadays
I’m lost between two shores
L.A.’s fine, but it ain’t home
New York’s home
But it ain’t mine no more
To no one there
And no one heard at all
Not even the chair
“I am”… said I
And I am lost and I can’t
Even say why
Who dreamed of bein’ a king
And then became one
Well except for the names
And a few other changes
If you talk about me
The story is the same one
And I’ve tried
But it won’t let me go
And I’m not a man who likes to swear
But I never cared
For the sound of being alone
To no one there
And no one heard at all
Not even the chair
“I am”… I cried
“I am”… said I
And I am lost and I can’t
Even say why
“I am”… I cried
“I am”