Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon" is a bit creepy.

[trumad]

My wife was listening to it the other day at home and said---man that's creepy. I kind of agree.

Love you so much
Can't count all the ways
I'd die for you girl
And all they can say is
"He's not your kind"

They never get tired
Of puttin' me down
And I never know
When I come around
What I'm gonna find
Don't let them make up your mind

Don't you know
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Please, come take my hand
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Soon you'll need a man

I've been misunderstood
For all of my life
But what they're sayin',
Girl, just cuts like a knife
"The boy's no good"

Well, I finally found
What I've been looking for
But if they get the chance,
They'll end it for sure
Sure they would
Baby, I've done all I could

It's up to you
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Please, come take my hand
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Soon you'll need a man
Soon you'll need a man.....

[Scuba]

1. Neil Diamond is more than a bit creepy.

[virtualobserver]

2. He literally wrote the song for his underage fans.....

creepy indeed

[ProfessorGAC]

3. A Big Yep!

And i liked a lot of his early stuff, but not this one.

[BlueJazz]

4. I agree. "Soon you'll need a man" Yeah, I'll bet that's REAL popular with the Ladies.

[restorefreedom]

5. ewwwwww

he is 74, his wife is 45, if that is of any interest to anyone...

[femmocrat]

6. It was written in 1967.

Attitudes were different then. Girls married younger and it was before the feminist movement.

[trumad]

7. Guys had their way with underaged girls in 67?

Don't think so.

[CBGLuthier]

8. Well then you would be wrong. I wouldn't be here otherwise.

My dad was 20 and my mother was 16, 17 when I was born. Different times and different cultures. to be fair it was only 61 and not 67 but still.

[trumad]

10. In the fifties and before---granted it happened.

In the late sixties---not so much.

[femmocrat]

11. Uh huh.

I was there. It was not uncommon for girls to be engaged in high school and get married right after graduation. There were not (as) many opportunities for young women then.

Anyhow, I think the song has a lot to do with his being a "bad boy"--- and those guys loved innocent young teenaged girls. It's not acceptable by today's mores, but this was 50 years ago. Attitudes have changed since the 1970s.

Have you seen "Grease"?

[trumad]

12. I was there to.

Grease---about a bunch of High School kids?

Look---having sex with underaged girls no matter what the decade is ---is fucking wrong.

[NewJeffCT]

15. That was very common back then

My mom said that when she graduated high school (1962?), Italian girls like her either got married, or went right into the workforce, and then got married a few years later (my mom was 20 and my dad 22 when they got married). She was probably smart enough to go to college, but it was very rare in the blue collar/working class community where she grew up for girls to do that, and I doubt she even considered it at the time. And, no way her parents would have let her go to college, anyhow.

Grease was supposed to be somewhat of a parody of that era (the movie took place from 1959 to 1960, if I recall) - the sweet innocent Australian girl (played by 30 year old Olivia Newton John) and the "bad boy" Danny, played by 23 year old John Travolta, "he was sweet, just turned 18..." one of the youngest members of the cast. (Jeff Conaway & Stockard Channing - Kenickie and Rizzo - were both 33, though I think they were recreating their parts from the stage)

That said, with that song and his song about "Sweet Caroline", Diamond does seem a bit creepy

[Art_from_Ark]

45. I like "Sweet Caroline"

but probably because it reminds me of a big snow day we had back in '69 when I was finally able to ride my sled down the big hill near my house.

[astral]

9. Attitudes about alot of things were different then.

I have loved Neil Diamond my whole life, he wrote some beautiful songs. This was never one of my favorites tho, even as a kid.

If you really like getting hot under the collar about Neil Diamond, listen to Free Life, off of Tap Root Manuscript.

Yep I still love that song and chuckle at its political incorrectness but hey.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

13. I'll forever associate it with the Urge Overkill cover and Uma Thurman OD'ing in Pulp Fiction. nt

[PennyK]

14. Never like him...no authenticity

I always felt that Neil Diamond is for people who thought the Monkees were real.

[astral]

24. The Monkees BECAME real.

Its a real cool story. Not that i would compare them to Neil Diamond, but he did write Im a Believer and maybe a few other of their hits. They wrote a few of their own songs too, and while Michael Nesmith was a real guitar player - songwriter, the rest learned what they needed to to get more control over their music. Ok so they didn't exactly soar to the stars, but for those of us in gradeschool during the 60s they sure did.. I think it was right here in the lounge that i found the links to this interesting info, and spent an entire evening listening to the Monkees.

Wait what was the topic ... Oh yeah, Neil Diamond...

[Art_from_Ark]

46. I remember watching the Monkees after Saturday morning cartoons

Kind of silly, but kind of fun, too.

[2naSalit]

29. LOL!!

Yeah, most of their music was written by Gerry Goffin and if you listen closely you will find that other bands Goffin produced, like the Bangles, have the exact music with different lyrics as many Monkees songs including the guitar solos!

Such is the pop music biz.

[Lizzie Poppet]

16. There's a shit-ton of ephebophilia in pop lyrics.

Or at least there used to be.

"She was just 17...you know what I mean."

[oberliner]

30. McCartney was 20 when he wrote that lyric

And his girlfriend at the time was 17.

[astral]

44. The Jerry Garcia Band played an addictive version of this song

I must go find it now ...

[Arugula Latte]

17. Here's a long list of creepy songs like this:

http://creando-tu-vida.com/list-of-songs-about-young-girls/

38 Special – Caught Up In You (Little Girl)
Alex Chilton Jailbait
All the girls love Alice – Elton John
Andy Partridge – Young Cleopatra
Ani Difranco – Letter to a John
Aqualung by Jethro Tull
Are you old enough – by Dragon
Art Lover by the Kinks
Baby Fat by Wet Willie
Beach Boys – Hey Little Tomboy
Billy Idol Cradle of Love
Billy Joel – Only the good die young
Bob Markley & West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band – Sweet Lady Eleven Lyrics
Bob Markley & West Coast Pop – Eighteen is Over the Hill
Bob Markley & West Coast Pop Experiment – Everyone’s Innocent Daughter
Bob Seger – Let It Rock
Bobby Vee – Come Back when you Grow Up Girl
Boogie Down Productions – 13 & Good
Brian Jonestown Massacre – Thirteen
Cher – Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves
Chocolate Overdose – Under the Blanket
Christine Sixteen by Kiss
Chuck Berry – Almost Grown
Chuck Berry – Little Queenie
Chuck Berry – Sweet Little Sixteen
Conway Twitty – Don’t Cry Joni
Conway Twitty – You have never been this far before
Cousin Dupree – by Steely Dan
Cracklin’ Rosie by Neil Diamond
Cypress Avenue by Van Morrison
D-Day – Too Young To Date Lyrics
Damn Yankees – Coming of Age
Deana Carter – Strawberry Wine
Del Shannon – Hey Little Girl
Depeche Mode’s Little 15
Depeche Mode’s Question of Time
Diana – by 3LB
The Lurkers covered by Die Toten Horsen – Just Thirteen
Do Me by Bell Biv Devoe
Domino by Kiss
Donnie Osmond – Go away little girl
Doreen by the Old 97’s
Fifteen – Mother Hips
Flower – Pansy Division Liz Phair
Foreigner – Hot Blooded
Forgotten Rebels – Time to Run
Francine by ZZ Top
Gary Puckett – The Girl is a Woman Now
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap – Young Girl
George Michael – Father Figure
Gilbert O’Sullivan – Clair
Girl you’ll be a woman soon – Neil Diamond
Girls Grow up Faster than Boys Do – The Cookies
Good Morning Little Schoolgirl – Sonny Boy Williamson
Graham Coxon – My Little Girl
Grateful Dead – Mexicali Blues
Henry Essence – My 14 year old lover
Holding You, Loving You – Don Blackman
I saw her standing there by the Beatles
I Want a Little Girl by Nat King Cole
Iggy Pop – Dog Food
“Jail Bait”, written and performed by Ted Nugent
Jailbait by Andree Williams
Jethro Tull’s Cross Eyed Mary
Jim Croce – Five short minutes
John Sebastian – Lovin Spoonful – The Younger Girl
Just 17 – Paul Revere And The Raiders
King Crimson – Easy Money
Kinko the Clown by Ogden Edsl
Kris Kristoferson – Jody and the Kid
Lemon Incest by Serge & Charlotte Gainsbourg
Liz Phair, “Flower” and “Fuck and Run”
Lyle Lovett – Up In Indiana
Magdalena by Frank Zappa
Mary by Sublime
Maurice Chevalier – Thank Heaven for Little Girls
Mellow Yellow (Donovan Leitch in Concert)
Memphis – By Chuck Berry
Metalica Garage
Brown Shoes don’t make it – Mothers of Invention – Zappa
Motley Crue – All in the name of …
Motorhead – Jailbait
My Sharona by the Knack
Nick Gilder – Hot Child in the City
Nils Lofgren – Jailbait
Oh Carol by Smokie
Oingo Boingo – I love Little Girls
Only Seventeen by Tony Banks
Paul Simon – Me and Julio down by the School Yard
Peter Cetera – Daddy’s Girl
Playground Bangaround – and other Urban Legends
Police – Don’t stand so close to me
Poni-Tails – Born too Late
Premarital Sex by Daniel Johnston
R Dean Taylor — Shadow
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Catholic School Girls
Ringo Starr – You’re Sixteen and you’re mine
Rod Stewart – Maggie May
Rod Stewart – Tonight’s the night
Rolling Stones – Stray Cat Blues
Ronnie Hawkins – Patricia
Roy Harper – Forbidden Fruit
See the Children by the Cure
Serge’s Song – The Paranoids
Seventeen by Winger
Sex & Candy by Marcy Playground
Sex with Minors 援助交際 by Hatsune/Hagane Miku
She Can’t Do Anything Wrong – Bob Seger
She Got to Move Me – Grand Funk Railroad
She’s only 16 – Dr Hook and the Medicine Show
So Young So Bad – Starz
Sparks – Young Girls
Steely Dan – Everyone’s gone to the movies
Steppenwolf – Magic Carpet Ride
Steve Wright – Evie
Stray Cats – Sexy & 17
Teenage Love Affair – Rick Derringer
The Archies! Seventeen ain’t young
The “Child Molesters” – 13 Is My Lucky Number
The Crests – 16 Candles
The Doors – Show me the way
The Infant Kiss – Kate Bush
The Melodians – Come on Little Girl
The Milkshakes, Billy Childish: She’s just 15 years old
The Vandals – Fourteen
Thirteen by Elliot Smith
Tim McGraw – Seventeen
Tonight, I’m going to rock you – Spinal Tap
Toots and the Maytals – Premature
Twelve Year Old Woman by Boyzvoice
Ursula Finally Has Tits – The Queers
Vegabond Virgin by Traffic
Vehicle by the Ides of March
Walk this way by Aerosmith
Waterfront – cry
Will Smith – Parents just don’t understand
Young Gunz – No Better Love

[oberliner]

31. Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard?

I don't think that song is about that.

And Only The Good Die Young is told from the perspective a teenage boy who wants to hook up with a teenage girl.

And it's kind of weird to include a Spinal Tap song that was obviously written as a joke.

[Arugula Latte]

32. Yeah, some of those don't fit

but a lot of them do.

[oberliner]

33. Agreed

There are some very creepy songs on that list.

Even creepier is what probably went on backstage after concerts.

[Arugula Latte]

37. Definitely.

Some of these guys had scouts who would pick young babes out of the audience and bring them backstage.

[Tipperary]

43. "Pretty Young Thing"

by Michael Jackson is another.

But I have to disagree with some of those on that list.

[Art_from_Ark]

47. What? No Neil Sadaka?

Happy Birthday, Sweet 16!

[Arugula Latte]

48. ...

[LiberalElite]

18. From around the same time - Young Girl

https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tsfn2fn6hiteqotjayvmic5tt4u?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-lyrics
-snip-
Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl
You're much too young, girl

With all the charms of a woman
You've kept the secret of your youth
You led me to believe
You're old enough to give me Love
And now it hurts to know the truth, oh

Young girl, get out of my mind
My love for you is way out of line
Better run, girl
You're much too young, girl

Beneath your perfume and make-up
You're just a baby in disguise
And though you know
That it is wrong to be alone with me
That come on look is in your eyes, oh
-snip-

[Yurovsky]

21. Yep, I think Gary should've done time for that...

if not for the child rape, then for that terrible fucking song and the over-the-top song delivery.

[oberliner]

34. He didn't write it though

That was Jerry Fuller of Travelin' Man fame.

[alphafemale]

19. "The boy's no good"

I think that implies he is young as well.

And knows he needs to grow up fast.

There are plenty of other creepy songs,

But with that one line I don't think this song is referring to an adult lusting for a teen.

He is just acknowledging he needs to do what is needed.

He needs to become a man.

[Iris]

20. yeah. I'm uncomfortable with the assumption here that teenage girls lack any sort of free agency

and that their minds are completely pure. I had lots of sexy thoughts when I was a teenager.

Lots.

[Reter]

22. What about the Stray Cats - (She's) Sexy & 17?

Similar premise.

[pokerfan]

23. A lot of his songs are either creepy or have weird origins...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x692ix_neil-diamond-storytellers_fun

[nolabear]

25. "Only the Good Die Young"

"I might as well be the one" is pretty damned cold. But I still love the song.

[MuseRider]

26. There was SO much of that.

So many songs that I loved as songs but hated the lyrics because of this kind of thing. I think I was born a feminist and these songs always just grated on me. Gary Puckett was worse. Ewwwww.

Anyway, that Neal Diamond song was only one of them that were kinda creepy but may have been the worst. I have not listened to him in years. I recall one other that really creeped me out but can't recall it at this time.....old brain!

[Miles Archer]

27. I clearly understand why Levon Helm was pissed off to see Diamond on the "Last Waltz" stage

The ambitious among us can easily Google the incident, but the short version is that Helm saw Diamond and said "What is he doing here" and Robbie Robertson said "I'm producing his new album" (which, at the time, he definitely was).

I remember seeing "The Last Waltz" in a little movie theater in San Francisco with a group of friends. We had all radically altered our body chemistry in order to enjoy the show, and boy oh boy, did we.

When Diamond came out on stage in his spiffy blue lieisure suit, the buzz fell off the cliff.



I always thought that Diamond looked a little too much like Jim "People's Temple" Jones in that appearance for comfort. Not a fan.

[2naSalit]

28. All my

hippie musician friends and I always thought of Diamond as a buzzkill musically and was a polyester pimp-style performer who couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to be totally Vegas or what.

Never liked his music and couldn't figure out why he had any popularity in the first place since he was just creepy. My dad, the pedophile, liked him... go figure.

The young, sweet, innocent girl meme was the thing back in the day - early 60s through the 80s and wasn't seen as a totally wrong thing for most en back then as I recall. Sure was a dangerous time for young girls and women, especially in the northeast as anything that happened as far as sexual impropriety was always the female's fault. At least that's the way it was where I grew up. The creepy lyrics helped reinforce the idea that exploiting young girls was okay and Diamond was real popular as was Frank Sinatra, creepy. Oddly, there was only one song that Sinatra eve did that I liked and it was because of the other musicians rather than him who made the song worth listening to.

[pinboy3niner]

36. I liked him

[2naSalit]

38. Everybody has their

preferences, I just never found him worth my interest. Obviously he has a hefty fan base, I just don't happen to be one them.

[ailsagirl]

35. Love "Solitary Man" and others...

but not this one!! It is a bit.... peculiar

[U4ikLefty]

39. "Christine Sixteen" by KISS

She's got me dizzy, she sees me through to the end
She's got me in her hands and there's no use in pretending
Christine sixteen, Christine sixteen

She drives me crazy, I want to give her all I've got
And she's hot every day and night, there is no doubt about it

Christine sixteen,
Christine sixteen

"I don't usually say things like this to girls your age, but when I saw you
Coming out of the school that day, that day I knew, I knew, I've got to have
You, I've got to have you."

She's' been around, but she's young and clean
I've got to have her, can't live without her, whoo no
Christine sixteen, Christine sixteen

[Tipperary]

40. Remember "Young GIrl?"

I cannot remember who sang it, but that was a huge hit. I was indeed a "young girl" in those days lol, and loved that song.

Different days.

[DebJ]

41. Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. n/t

[Tipperary]

42. Oh my goodness, how could I forget? I had that 45 and played it to death. Thank you!

And on the subject of the songs to youngsters, I remember "PYT Pretty Young Thing)" by Michael Jackson. That was not even that long ago either.