Play Me

I don't believe this song is about his girlfriend, nor his guitar. I interpret the other "person" in this song is his creative muse. I say this because as a singer/songwriter myself, I know that inspiration frequently flies in unexpectedly from nowhere, to include waking up in the morning and having a melody fragment or a partial lyric or a song title flitting through my mind, with no idea where it came from. I think that's what Diamond is referring to when he sings "I one day woke up to find her lying beside my bed." He shortly sings "come take me," which to me means "enter me, possess me, join me... I want you inside of me to partner with me to develop this idea (whatever it is) into something fuller." Their man-plus-muse collaboration capitalizes on some beneficial opposites, expressed as "she was morning and I was nighttime" and "you are the sun, I am the moon" and "you are the words, I am the tune." Only when these opposites are allowed to comingle does he finally sing, "Play me." Thinking of the song in this context makes even more sense when he sings "song she sang to me, song she brang to me, words that rang in me, rhyme that sprang from me." Here his muse is showering him with creative contributions, which altogether "warmed the night," meaning he and his muse worked the creative process together and produced something wonderful. The final verse, I think, depicts him moving on toward the creation of something new, some other song. He begins to travel (i.e., moving on) along a road that is "thorned and narrow," which to me means he naturally encounters another bout of needing to create again...to write another song. And that's hard work (i.e., thorned and narrow), which he knows quite well. But he also knows that it's going to take another encounter with his muse to get to "another place" where "another grace would save me." I think this explanation of the song makes the most sense. After all, Neil Diamond sometimes gets rather meta, writing songs about songs. Off the top of my head I can think of four -- "Beautiful Noise," "Song Sung Blue," "The Singer Sings His Song," and "Yesterday's Songs."

Absolutely love this song. It's so sweet! :D

Just a few random thoughts of this song (as the story I see in it)...

She was morning And I was night time I one day woke up To find her lying Beside my bed I softly said "Come take me"

Interesting. Why was she lying beside his bed? Kind of gives the impression she was waiting for him to become aware of her presence. Like she'd been waiting for him for awhile.

Rhyme that sprang from me Warmed the night And what was right Became me

And what was right, became me....He became what was "right", the better man? Or he felt that through her eyes he could do no wrong? Or even that what was right looked more becoming, more attractive, to him because of her presence.

And so it was That I came to travel Upon a road That was thorned and narrow Another place Another grace Would save me

So at some point he decides to leave her, I think. A thorned and narrow road, too narrow, I'm guessing, for more than one to travel. Another place, another grace... Something else destined to save him. Fame? Fortune? Almost a religious connotation to those words.

You are the sun I am the moon You are the words I am the tune Play me

Echoed three times. The third time, is it a looking back to the earlier memories of her? Or is he speaking to the new entity that he has chosen to follow instead...

I still think Diamond is talking about his guitar. Think about it, lying beside my bed (not on it) come take me ,You are the words I am the tune play me. The guitar is his companion and source of the tune, Diamond is the source of the words. I could be wrong here but makes sense the way he wrote the lyrics.

I was floored by the last verse of this song where he says I traveled a road that was narrow and thorny, that led him to another grace that saved him. I googled his religious beliefs and found out that even though he's Jewish, he converted to Christianity. Jesus said the road that leads to life is narrow. The thorns refer to jesus's thorny crown, and the grace that saved him refers to Ephesians 2:8 " For by grace are we saved through faith, not by works less any man should boast." It warms my heart that I'll see Neil in Paradise. I wish I could say the same for cat Stevens, " there is a way that seems right to a man, but leads to death"