Neil Diamond:

In one of my favorite movies, "What About Bob?" Bill Murray explained that he divorced his first wife because there are only two kinds of people: Those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't. I can't remember which one Bob Wiley was.

But anyway, I used to consider myself the latter kind. I knew Diamond was a talented songwriter, but considered him more "bubble gum," good at coming up with catchy, commercial friendly melodies, but in songs that were otherwise superficial (he did, after all, write the Monkees' hit, "I'm A Believer"). I'm starting to change my mind.

And that's mainly because of this performance he did with "The Band" on "The Last Waltz." I know Diamond co-wrote this song "Dry Your Eyes" with Robbie Robertson, and Robertson produced Diamond's "Beautiful Noise," the album this song is on.

"Dry Your Eyes" is majestic. It also, for some reason, reminds me of all this Obama-mania.