Consumer Guide Album

Neil Diamond: Hot August Night [MCA, 1972]
From the first guitar riff of this profit-taking double live showcase, it's obvious that the man is some sort of genius rock entertainer, but for the most part the great entertainer is striving for bad art and not even achieving it. The humor here is almost as sententious as the phony canta libre and the country-western parodies might get a poorer, drunker man lynched. D+