Who is shilo in neil diamonds song

Naturally, we continued to play in the swamps like it never happened. The afternoon of the musical memory I shared above, I had been at one of the swamps, playing with Julia. There is an image I have from that evening of being at the edge of the swamp. I had climbed over a low tree limb into a small hollow that sheltered me with tangled roots and branches on every side but the swamp itself, an expanse of black and green water stretching away and retreating into cattails and dark trees around the edges.

I had the primal realization I was no more than a pound mammal with no claws or meaningful teeth, and anything at all could come out of that primeval soup and drag me back in with it. The memory picks up when I heard Shilo through the front windows of the trailer. In the center of our trailer park was an apple orchard, and in the summers it was rented out in lots for RV campers, bringing to our childhood tribe a constant influx of new kids to impress and initiate.

Potluck dinners were held under the shade there from time to time, each low-income family bringing enough food to be shared, the meal presided over with prayer. In the autumn, we would climb the apple trees to shake down the fruit for our moms to make applesauce. There was a day when I was four I decided to spend the entire day in the orchard stark naked, all other social habits unaltered. My sister found out and came to bring me home. One year a large camper trailer was abandoned in the orchard, and the park owners let my parents keep it.

My dad pulled it out from the trees with an old tractor, affixed it to the side of our mobile home, and cheaply renovated it, giving us an unheated, uninsulated, and unplumbed ramshackle doublewide. It still seems bizarre to think I actually lived those years. I had plenty of friends, but liked and learned more about myself than I did anyone else.

Young child with dreams Dream every dream on your own When children play Seems like you end up alone. In a interview with Rolling Stone , Diamond said he had been a solitary child as well.

I can relate. I spent a lot of time alone as a child, and a lot of time with people, which was often the same thing. Many of my memories from those years include friends and their parents and random passers-through, but as many or more are of being alone with my thoughts and my toy cars and the natural world.

Anne Lamott says anyone who has survived childhood has enough writing material for a lifetime. I am grateful. When I hear Shilo now it snaps me back to those years more surely and viscerally than anything else can, even photos. It is ingrained as a musical muscle memory. The song starts and I am five years old, walking into my mobile home living room, mud on my shoes and the sweat and squalor and vivacity of childhood covering my hands and hair and clothes.

A rowdy bachelorette party was getting thoroughly drunk at a long table behind us. He had a good voice and an affable smile. I found him at the bar and we talked music briefly, and then I asked him if he knew any Neil Diamond songs, and explained why. He forgave the absurdity with a warm grin and said he could do Red, Red Wine , but it would be the reggae version.

It might be my least favorite Neil Diamond song, and I thanked him sincerely. Sitting in that dim dining room with the inebriated bridesmaids and the woman I love and a pint of beer and Lou singing a reggae version of a lesser Neil Diamond hit at my request, everything seemed good again after a very long couple years. Sharing that confined space, the crack of the snare resonates and tom-tom slaps scuttle. A tambourine cavorts in the right channel.

A piano, guitar and bass introduce the melodic hook, then part to carry out their customary functions. He accepts the inevitable—a lonesome existence. But back to those drums. It is about having an imaginary friend. I believe Shiloh had religious significance as an oasis, a place of rest. General Comment Reading the comments here and referencing my own interpretation I would agree with detailrich. It's quite possible that the hame Shilo[h] is symbolic for the feelings felt with his imaginary friend.

General Comment Mnementh was on the right track I think. Shiloh is a Hebrew word that has been translated in different ways. A few include: "His gift" "Oh! May it be. It was used in Genesis and is sometimes interpreted as another name for the Messiah. In the Christian context, this would be another name for Jesus.

However, Neil Diamond is Jewish although his current wife is Christian. Still, the calling of the 'imaginary friend' could be taken as saying a prayer or some such. I think this makes sense considering the grief he expresses at lost love.

It reminds me of a line from Yehuda Amichai's "Love Gifts": You enabled me to live for a few months without needing a religion I'm not saying that either was influenced by the other, but that many people who have lost a loved one in one way or another will often turn to religion for comfort. Neil Diamond has spoken from time to time of his spirituality being an influence on his music.

I think it's somewhat hard to accept a sane grown man asking for an actual imaginary friend to return. Perhaps the song is asking for a return to the spiritual comfort he had when he was a child, rather than the imaginary friend itself. When he got older he fell in love with a "young girl with fire" who made him feel like he could fly, and she made him smile.

After a while she decided that she had other plans, and had to go, saying that she knows that he'll understand. In his grief over his broken heart, he calls back his childhood imaginary friend "Shilo when I was young, I used to call your name, when no one else would come, Shilo you always came, come today. Instead of making friends, he made one up. The girl that he fell in love with bought into his imaginations and reinforced them.

Then when "he had a dream that filled him with wonder", she abandoned him. The best friend a boy could have. Always there when you need him her. God bless. Login Register Login with Facebook.

All lyrics are property and copyright of their owners. All lyrics provided for educational purposes only. What does Shiloh mean? Login Create Account. Neil Diamond : Shiloh Meaning. Tagged: Songs that Tell a Story [suggest]. Shiloh Lyrics We don't currently have the lyrics for Shiloh, Care to share them?

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