Australian singles chart:
I Am… I Said entered the Kent charts on 26 April 1971 and peaked at #10. The song was #77 in the Top 100 of 1971.
Album:
The song is on Stones which entered the Kent album charts on 13 December 1971 and peaked at #13.
Songwriter:
Neil Diamond
Producer:
Tom Catalano
Record label of Australian release:
MCA
Live at Madison Square Garden, New York, in 2008:
Songfacts:
Neil Diamond goes through a full-on existential crisis in this song as he screams out, knowing no one will hear him. David Wild, author of He Is…I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond, told Songfacts: “Neil began the song after doing a screen test to play rebel comedian Lenny Bruce in a film. Feeling that he had failed, Neil was thrown into something of an existential funk and started the song. It would take months for him to finish the song, but in the end it would become a classic.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/neil-diamond/i-ami-said
Lyrics:
LA′s fine, the sun shines most the time and the feeling is “laid back”
Palm trees grow and rents are low but you know I keep thinkin’ ′bout making my way back
Well, I’m New York City born and raised but nowadays I’m lost between two shores
LA′s fine, but it ain′t home, New York’s home but it ain′t mine no more
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
Find more songs to enjoy: Bang a Gong song finder
New to Bang a Gong? Click HERE to learn more about us.