Terry Gross

That you recorded yourself, yeah, okay.

Okay, so this is Neil Diamond, Solitary Man.

Now, did you write this song for yourself or for somebody else?

There's this like urgency in the song and in the way you sing it.

And I think of you in a way as kind of specializing in some of your work in that urgency.

Is that something you've been conscious of that you think really like works especially well for you as a songwriter and as a singer?

So how did Solitary Man change your idea of what you wanted from your musical life?

When you were working as a songwriter for publishers, writing for other people, were you writing for specific people?

Were you writing with specific singers in mind?

Now, the Monkees did a couple of your songs, I'm a Believer and A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You.

Did you write those with them in mind or for yourself?

I'm trying to think of what the chronology was.

You start recording in, what, like 67?

66.

66, okay.

And what year are the Monkees?

Is that after that?

You know, it's funny, the common wisdom goes when telling the story of like songwriters from the Brill Building and the Beatles is that the Beatles changed everything.

After the Beatles, bands started writing their own songs.

It drove out the professional songwriters.