Who is the Caroline in "Sweet Caroline"?

[Che Guava]

Now we know!!!!

Diamond reveals 'Sweet Caroline' inspiration: Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg


LOS ANGELES - Neil Diamond held onto the secret for decades, but he has finally revealed that President Kennedy's daughter was the inspiration for his smash hit "Sweet Caroline."

"I've never discussed it with anybody before - intentionally," the 66-year-old singer-songwriter told The Associated Press on Monday during a break from recording. "I thought maybe I would tell it to Caroline when I met her someday."

He got his chance last week when he performed the song via satellite at Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's 50th birthday party.

Diamond was a "young, broke songwriter" when a photo of the president's daughter in a news magazine caught his eye.

"It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony," Diamond recalled. "It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there."

Years later, holed up in a hotel in Memphis, he would write the words and music in less an hour.

"It was a No. 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration," he said. "I'm happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy."

The enduring hit recently reappeared on the singles chart, thanks in part to the Boston Red Sox. "Sweet Caroline" is played at every home game.

"I think they consider it good luck," Diamond said, adding that the Red Sox have become his favourite baseball team.

The tune's return to the charts leaves Diamond "speechless," he said: "That song was written 40 years ago, so I am just overwhelmed by the fact that it has returned and that, more importantly, people have taken it into their hearts for so many years."

Diamond is currently at work on a new album, his second collaboration with producer Rick Rubin.

"We're both very excited about it," Diamond said. "I think it's going to be one of my best ever."


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Anybody else have any good stories behind the people who inspired pop hits?

 

[nonconformist]

Layla was writtten by Eric Clapton to steal George Harrisson's wife from him

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Layla was writtten by Eric Clapton to steal George Harrisson's wife from him

I came here to say that.

Frank Sinatra's "Nancy [With the Laughing Face]" is about his daughter Nancy Sinatra, who is famous for "These Boots."

 

[Whomp]

Isn't She Lovely" is a song by Stevie Wonder about the birth of his daughter, Aisha. You hear her crying in the original soundtrack.



The apparent story behind Neil Young's "Southern Man" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's retort "Sweet Home Alabama".

Southern Man" is a song by Neil Young from his album After the Gold Rush. The album was released in 1970.

The lyrics of "Southern Man" are very blunt, describing the racism towards blacks in the American South as perceived from the viewpoint of a Northerner. In the song, Young tells the story of a Southern man (symbolically the entire South) and how he mistreated his slaves (African Americans). Young pleadingly asks when will the South "pay them back" for years of abuse and racism.

Where the initial inspiration for the song came from is very much debated, but is commonly believed to have stemmed from an incident in a roadhouse in Alabama which Young visited in 1969. As he was having a drink, two local men came up to him, took him outside, and beat him up because he had long hair.

Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote their song "Sweet Home Alabama" in response to "Southern Man". Young has said that he is a fan of both "Sweet Home Alabama" and Ronnie Van Zant, the lead vocalist for Lynyrd Skynyrd. "They play like they mean it," Young said in 1976, "I'm proud to have my name in a song like theirs" (Ballinger 2002:81). Young has also been known to play "Sweet Home Alabama" in concert occasionally. To demonstrate this camaraderie, Van Zant frequently wore a Neil Young Tonight's the Night t-shirt while performing "Sweet Home Alabama". [1] Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot can often be seen reciprocating by wearing a Jack Daniels styled Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt (including at the Live Rust concert.) Lynyrd Skynyrd tried to arrange to have Neil Young come onstage during a performance of "Sweet Home Alabama", where he would have sung "a southern man don't need me around anyhow", but the performers were never able to arrange this performance due to busy touring schedules.

 

[Che Guava]

An interesting story about the inspiration behind Suzanne by one of my faves, Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen specified, notably in a BBC interview, that the song was about encountering Suzanne Verdal, the wife of sculptor Armand Vaillancourt, in a Montréal setting. Indeed, many lines describe different elements of the city, including its river (the Saint Lawrence) and a little chapel near the harbour, called Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours (literally Our Lady of Good Help), which sits on the side of the harbour that faces the rising sun in the morning.

Suzanne Verdal was interviewed by CBC News's The National in 2006 about the song. She is now homeless in Venice Beach, California, USA, where she lives in her automobile. Verdal claims that she and Cohen never had sexual relations, contrary to what some interpretations of the song suggest. Cohen himself stated in a 1994 BBC interview that he only imagined having sex with her, as there was neither the opportunity nor inclination to actually go through with it [1]. She says she has met Cohen twice since the song's initial popularity; once after a concert Cohen performed in the 1970s and once in passing in the 1990s where Cohen did not speak to her (and possibly did not recognise her).

 

[amadeus]

In Malawi, then-President Hastings Banda banned the Simon and Garfunkel song "Cecilia" from the radio because it was rumored he was having trouble with his mistress named Cecilia.

 

[Harbringer]

"Heart shaped box" was about Kurt Cobains wifes vagina.

 

[bhsup]

Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" was about me.

 

[Cu Chulainn]

Blues Traveler's Hook which is about how a generic pop song will be successful no matter how stupid or unoriginal. Is set to Pachelbel's Cannon in D.

 

[LucyDuke]

"Heart shaped box" was about Kurt Cobains wifes vagina.

Source?

(Courtney Love is not a reliable source.)

 

[Harbringer]

If I had a scanner...I would gladly show you the interview.......but I dont.....

Just listen to the lyrics, I cant remember who was who but one of them was a piscees and one was a cancer(there birth signs), plus there were references to meat eating orchids(vagina!) how he wishes he could "eat" her "cancer(birth sign) when she feels bad(eat vagina!) and theres some other stuff he says about it....now im interested agiain ima go dig it up out of my mag box.

*trots off

 

[bhsup]

If I had a scanner...I would gladly show you the interview.......but I dont.....

Just listen to the lyrics, I cant remember who was who but one of them was a piscees and one was a cancer(there birth signs), plus there were references to meat eating orchids(vagina!) how he wishes he could "eat" her "cancer(birth sign) when she feels bad(eat vagina!) and theres some other stuff he says about it....now im interested agiain ima go dig it up out of my mag box.

*trots off

... rosebud ...

 

[sourboy]

Nice, learn something new about ol' Kurt every day. Of course Heart-Shaped Box must have been a follow up to a B-side song, Moist Vagina. Look it up...

 

[Harbringer]

The intervirews pretty funny, its in late 93 when he was all disgruntled, he even asks the interviwer if he "has to do this" and then they start talking about the songs, he talks about heart shaped box and then starts talking about how breed has nothing to do with breeding in the litteral sence(apparently it was about bad eating habits and getting sick from it) and then the interviewer guy asks him about smells like teen spirit and he just says "F*** off" and thats the end if the interview. Feel bad for the guy, BTW did any of you get the Nirvana live in new york unplugged DVD?He also tells the audience "F*** you guys this is our last song" when they all start requesting smells like teen spirit, albeit its more humerous than serious.

 

[sourboy]

Feel bad for the guy, BTW did any of you get the Nirvana live in new york unplugged DVD?He also tells the audience "F*** you guys this is our last song" when they all start requesting smells like teen spirit, albeit its more humerous than serious.

They have that on DVD??

I heard someone asked for Free Bird, and he flicked the guy off saying "here's your free bird." lol

 

[Red Door]

"SWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTT CCAaRRRRROOOLLLLLLLIIIINNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEE"

O-O-O

 

[downtown]

Blues Traveler's Hook which is about how a generic pop song will be successful no matter how stupid or unoriginal. Is set to Pachelbel's Cannon in D.

Really? Haha, that makes sense actually, knowing Popper.

 

[Harbringer]

They have that on DVD??

I heard someone asked for Free Bird, and he flicked the guy off saying "here's your free bird." lol

It just got released on the twentieth of November(this year). Its pretty funny becuase the MTV version cut out a lot, like before they play the last song "where did you sleep last ngiht" they sit around for five minutes just deciding what song theyre going to do. They say theyre going to do sliver and kurt says no, and then they just cassually talk while people shout out song names. Some guy in the bak yells out "rape me" really loud and Kurt just gives him this tupid look and says "ya I dont think MTV would let us play that". Then after a while he just says "F*** you guys this is our last song(humerously)" and they do "where did you sleep last night. Also in the rehearsal section they start to rehears "Sweet home alabama" but they never actually do it.