Really? Neil Diamond?

I am not sure I believe this story, but nonetheless the Los Angeles Times' Ann Powers insists today that the new anthem of the Latino immigration movement is...Neil Diamond's "America"? I have a hard time believeing that, unless my mother is DJ'ing the protests; I'll never forget Neil in the...

By Robert Wilonsky

May 9, 2006

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I am not sure I believe this story, but nonetheless the Los Angeles Times' Ann Powers insists today that the new anthem of the Latino immigration movement is...Neil Diamond's "America"? I have a hard time believeing that, unless my mother is DJ'ing the protests; I'll never forget Neil in the round at Reunion Arena, try as I might. Powers, a longtime rock crit with cred, says the song from Diamond's 1980 The Jazz Singer remake:

"Opened and closed the May 1 speakers' program at City Hall [in Los Angeles]. It's made its way into reports of rallies in Dallas, Kansas City and Milwaukee. Although hardly the official anthem of La Raza, 'America's' portrait of travelers 'traveling light...in the eye of a storm' is outdoing more standard fare such as 'If I Had a Hammer,' giving Diamond something like the role Bob Dylan played during the civil rights era of the 1960s."

Coulda been worse. Coulda been "Love on the Rocks." --Robert Wilonsky

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