View my friends and you shall see the story of Sonic Youth and the Diamond Sea . . . oh,well, I tried . . . In truth, this is, if not the best, one of the best tracks of Sonic Youth ever!  For me, it is both a spiritual experience and nourishment.  It starts off as a typical Sonic Youth song and remains so on the “Washer Machine”  album.  On the album, it is edited to be more “palatable.”  Of course, it does the song (and, indeed the band) a disservice.  On the album it clocks in at under ten minutes whereas on “Destroyed Room” (the outtakes album)  it clocks in around 24 minutes.

The full version is something I consider a religious experience.  The main parts of the song are great and can stand up on their own as a good song.  Ah, but it is extended part that makes it great.  When the Doors released “Light My Fire” as a two and a half minute song, it was only a concession.  “Light My Fire” was only released because the album cut of over seven minutes was receiving  more airplay on the (then new) FM radio tham any other single.  WHY?

The extended version showed more of the soul of the song.  Just like John Coltrane kept extending the song , “My Favorite Things,”  “Light My Fire ” seemed to offer more at an extended length than the cut version.

In these days of short soundbytes, people naturally think there has to be more.  The truly great thing about “Diamond Sea” happens after the lyrics.  There is this voyage into the subconscious. This where feedback becomes religious experience.

Here is an experiment for you!  After a rough day of people screaming at you, lock yourself in a car.  Set the volume at a rate that is not deafening but is still really loud. It might help to boost the low mids, if you prefer.  Then put in the cd and start on track 11.  It starts with this weird, almost comical, throbbing sound effect.  The song is like any Sonic Youth song.  It is what you expect.  The lyrics are cool and abstract.  The music is hypnotic and flowing.  Thurston Moore’s vocals draw you in.  They are naïve and open but seem to have some unlocked knowledge nonetheless.  You float on the music the obediently adheres to the main melody and strays only slightly.  Then, finally, the next verse appears after some discordant strumming and extraneous noise.  It then turns meditative and now your voyage begins.  You not only hear of the Diamond Sea, you experience it. you not only can hear the waves, you experience them.  The sound is no longer outside, it is inside as well.  It embellishes you wave after wave. The change of EQ and the increase is in volume helps but its significance does not hit you until 19:20 into the song.  The feedback and backward tracking carries you onward.  There is a sense of ease and comfort that covers you.  With the four speakers and the floating panning you are hypnotized.  You are in another plane.  You are somewhere else.

By the time the song ends you are more together and confident than when you began listening.  You feel healed.

That is kind of my experience.  There really is no way to put it into words what this song does to me.  There some albums that really heal me spiritually.  But, so far, this is only individual song gives me the feeling of being ready to face the world.  A close second would be  “Saucerful Of Secrets” by Pink Floyd.  But even still . . .

There is, on YouTube, a great live version they did in Germany.   It comes close to the  studio’s effect and probably surpassed it if you were in the audience.  Still, a great and different take on a great song!