Neil Diamond must apologize for the pain he’s caused all the Carolines
Since June 1969, good times don’t seem so good for a Caroline
There was always something different about my friend Caroline. She seemed wistful, as if something had been taken from her early in life, as if she were carrying a burden that no one who wasn’t named Caroline could ever truly understand. It was only as I grew older and came to understand the world a bit better that I realized that my friend Caroline, as well as millions of other Carolines, was struggling with having a name that simultaneously imbued her with an identity that she never chose while continuously erasing the identity she tried in vain to build for herself, outside of The Song. Yes, that song.
My mother is a serious Neil Diamond fan, and as all white people that came before me and that shall come after, I learned early on that the song “Sweet Caroline” was very excellent. Sure, “Forever in Blue Jeans,” “I Am….I Said,” and “Cherry Cherry” are jaunty little bops, but “Sweet Caroline” is the song that all white people must learn to love, the song that they feel compelled to sing to all the Carolines they know, as well as all strangers who appear as though they could be named Caroline.
I am not proud of this, but I unwittingly added to my friend Caroline’s secret…
