Imagine Neil Diamond walking into a tiny New York studio in the 1960s and saying, “Hi, I’m Noah Kaminsky”… or even “Eice Cherry.”
Same voice.
Same songs.
But would the legend feel the same?
Back then, almost everyone in music was changing their name to sound more “cool.” Neil was a shy kid from Brooklyn who thought his real name was boring. He heard “Neil Diamond” every day at home, so it did not sound special to him at all. He actually sat there and tried to replace it.
Years later, Neil laughs about it and admits the truth: there was nothing wrong with his own name. He just could not hear the magic in it yet.
Neil Diamond gone by a different name!
Just when the name “Neil Diamond” finally started to feel real to him, one song turned it from a simple name into a statement: “Solitary Man.” This was the first time he stepped out from behind the scenes, not as a writer for other people, but as an artist standing on his own. If he had gone with “Eice Cherry” or “Noah Kaminsky,” this moment would look and feel completely different.
That is what makes this performance so important. You see a young Neil onstage in 1971, guitar in hand, sweating under the lights, singing the song that carried his real name into the world. The voice is rough, honest, and powerful—nothing “sweet” or fake about it. It proves why “Neil Diamond” was the only name strong enough to hold that sound, and why keeping his own name was the decision that quietly changed everything.
Neil Diamond – Solitary Man (BBC Concert – 1971)
If “Solitary Man” is the moment Neil steps into his name, “I Am… I Said” is the moment he asks what that name really means. By 1976, he is no longer the shy kid in a writing room. He is standing at The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, under hot lights, in front of thousands of people—and still singing about feeling split in two.