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.
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.