Sunday Sun/A Modern Day Version Of Love/Honey Drippin’ Times/Pot Smoker’s Song/Brooklyn Roads/Two Bit Manchild/Holiday Inn Blues/Practically Newborn/Knackelflerg/Merry-Go-Round
The strangely titled Velvet Gloves & Spit is a mixed bag of Neil Diamond songs including the autobiographical Brooklyn Roads. He had moved to the Uni label as he wanted to record more ambitious, introspective music.
“Some good and some rubbish. Too much of a mixed bag to be a consistent album. I like Brooklyn Roads and Two Bit Manchild but didn’t care for Pot Smoker's Song and Knackelflerg.”
“I just wish one of Neil Diamond's albums was 100% awesome throughout. He seemed to need a filter to keep dumb songs like Pot Smoker's Song and Knackelflerg out of his LPs. But Two Bit Manchild is good and Shilo a classic.”
“Whereas Diamond's previous two LPs placed the artist firmly against a slick and sharp, gleaming steel and concrete New York backdrop, Velvet Gloves suggests open, dustier vistas. The instrumental differences might be subliminal but when placed in this warmer and wider stereo context, lends the performer an air of the 'travelling troubadour' so profitably prevalent at the time. Thankfully, he knew exactly where his journey had begun. The Brill-Building technician remained intact and all the songs here (with the one exception of the comically massive faux pas that is The Pot Smoker's Song) display his concise, disciplined mastery to the full.”
“I never did understand what the title was all about. It's an interesting album because you don't find most of these songs on other Neil Diamond albums. Brooklyn Roads is a nostalgic piece about childhood that I have always loved and one of his best songs. I think this album shows just what a good singer Diamond was at the start of his career. This is not just for completists; it's an enjoyable album for anyone who likes Diamond's music.”
“This is an all-out, well written and well composed effort by Neil Diamond. Velvet Gloves And Spit is a wonderful collection of songs, pleasing to the senses.”
“Diamond's most enjoyable and consistently great album from the 60s. That is because this is the only album that Diamond wrote and recorded in New York as a serious artist experimenting and expressing personal issues.”
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