1973 · Behind the Songs
Six and a half minutes at the heart of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
In 1973, at the commercial peak of his early career, Neil Diamond took an unusual detour: he wrote the entire score for the film adaptation of Richard Bach’s best-selling novella Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The soundtrack, released that October on Columbia with Tom Catalano producing and Lee Holdridge arranging and conducting the orchestra, marked Diamond’s return to the label — and it outgrossed the film itself, taking in $12 million to the movie’s $2 million by 1976. It won the 1974 Grammy for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special. The album reached number 2 on the Billboard 200 and topped the charts in Australia.
“Be” sits at the center of that score. Listed in the liner notes as the “Introduction of Jonathan — his flight and fall,” it runs six and a half minutes, opening with a hushed orchestral swell before Diamond’s voice enters with the record’s most direct statement of purpose. He clearly knew what he had: Diamond folded “Be” into the Jonathan Livingston Seagull suite he performed in concert for years, including his 1976 Love at the Greek shows, alongside “Dear Father,” “Lonely Looking Sky,” “Skybird,” and “Sanctus.” It remains the least radio-friendly and most ambitious thing he ever put his name to — a pop star writing a cantata about a bird, and making it soar.