Shilo Lyrics
Dream ev'ry dream on your own
When children play
Seems like you end up alone
Papa says he'd love to be with you
If he had the time
So you turn on the only friend you can find
There in your mind
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
And we'd play
Something said she understood
I wanted to fly
She made me feel like I could
Blind as a child
All I saw was the way that she made me smile
She made me smile
I used to call you name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
And you'd stay
She had other plans
"Got to go, and I know that you'll understand"
I understand
I used to call your name
When no one else would come
Shilo, you always came
I too had a friend, but she was not imaginary and she used the name Shiloh as a nickname. We both loved the movie, Journey to Shiloh, and often quoted it to each other. Sadly, I lost her last year to cancer, but I play this song and think on her, as she was my BEST friend... I miss you Barbara Knutson, I hope when I leave here, I will see you again
I think it's pretty obvious what this song is about. Yes, an imaginary friend - "the only friend you can find/there in your mind" - and how he turns to the friend again in later life after having his heart broken by a real woman.
This song breaks my heart. It's the sweetest song for someone who isn't even real, and the line "she had other plans" can bring me to tears. I grew up on Neil Diamond, and this song was such a staple of my youth. My mother used to listen to him all the time, and since she passed on this year, I've returned to him, renewed. First time I listened to the studio version of this in years, and it felt like coming home.
@Artemisian Amen. Very similar. Grew up hearing ND and my mother passed six years ago. I replay Neils albums now with much joy and sadness. This particular song strikes at my feelings at the same spot...she had other plans.
@Artemisian Amen. Very similar. Grew up hearing ND and my mother passed six years ago. I replay Neils albums now with much joy and sadness. This particular song strikes at my feelings at the same spot...she had other plans.
Great song.
Great song.
I wish I could thank this man in person. If it wasn't for this song I would be without a name. My mother said she heard this song just one week before I was born and she knew the meaning of this song and this imaginary friend named Shilo that would come to the rescue of this unloved child was her idealogy of what she wanted from me. I hope I have never let my mom down and will continue to be there for those who need to be helped.
I think Shiloh is about a person who is used to being alone without a nurturing relationship of a father and as a result cant relate to others very well and ends up alone when children play and later as an adult desires a relationship but cannot comment out of fear of being alone, "Got to go and I know that you'll understand" and choses to stay in her peaceful predictable lonely comfort zone alone. That's my thought. Beautiful insightful song with lots of depth!
Shilo is an imaginary friend Neil had a child. Like the dragon in Puff the Magic Dragon, it is left behind with childhood. Yes I know Puff is not a Diamond song. It is also NOT about marijuana as some suggest... but I digress. Neil still rocks. See him live!
Anyone catch in Wedding crasher when the guy was on the stairs admitting that he liked the crazy girl that he also had a imaginary friend, his name was shilo. I wonder if they used that name in reference to this song.
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." and "He whose it is" . 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.
He was a lonely child who didn't have any friends, so he decided to find/invent a friend in his own mind to play with, and named him Shiloh. 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...
He was a lonely child who didn't have any friends, so he decided to find/invent a friend in his own mind to play with, and named him Shiloh. 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."
I think that this is a terribly sad song, because the child, later a man, never really saw reality. 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. Perhaps the dream was his first move into reality that he made after he felt secure in her love, or perhaps he was going deeper into his own mind's dreams, and the girl didn't want to go there with him. But her departure drove him back to his old invention - a friend who will always be there when he called.
Shilo, or Shiloh, is in the Bible first at Genesis 49:10, as part of a series of prophecies that Jacob pronounced for each of his twelve sons. He said that his fourth son Judah will always have the scepter (a symbol of kingship) until Shiloh comes, to whom all people will be obedient. It turned out in history that most of the kings of Israel descended from Judah, and according to Matthew and Luke's gospel, so did Jesus, which is where the identification of Jesus with Shiloh came from. The name, meaning either "he whose it is" or "he who is to be sent (like a gift)" would be a fitting name for Neil Diamond's song character's steadfast friend.
Neil Diamond split with Bert Berns, proprietor of Bang Records, over this song. Berns thought it was too heavy and introspective and wanted Diamond to continue doing lighter, poppier, happier songs like "Cherry Cherry."
I looked up the name Shilo(h) to see what it means. There were a lot of similar but slightly different meanings. Basically it all boiled down to provider of peace and/or a reference to the messiah (or Jesus depending on if your Jewish or not). Being that Neil Diamond is Jewish (I think) it would seem that it would be more along the lines of provider peace, and that he might have chosen the name in the song for that reference. Maybe he didn't necessarily have the imaginary friend (I don't know for sure, maybe "johnboysv" read this in an interview, in which case I am way off) so much as it's a reference to himself as a lonely kid and finding peace with his faith and religion that in turn helped him through the hard times of solitude. When he grew up he found his stride and didn't lean so much on that aspect. In the end he simply used the story here as a symbolic piece, took a little creative license to make it more acceptable for the masses.
Then again, I'm probably just rambling and finding things that aren't there. In either case, like "johnboysv" says, Neil does rock. I wish I was able to see Hot August Night, but I'm too young, hell I wasn't even born for another 5 years after it happened.
This was the first Neil Diamond song that left an impression on me. It is about having an imaginary friend. I believe Shiloh had religious significance as an oasis, a place of rest.