Girl You'll be a Woman Soon - Urge Overkill
Another song that people often don't realise is a Diamond composition is Urge Overkill's "Girl You'll be a Women Soon" made famous by its inclusion in the "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack. Archly chosen by director Tarantino for the scene in which gangster moll Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) has returned home having been baby sat by caretaker guard Vincent played by John Travolta; they have just unexpectedly shared a great evening and their world-weary cynicism threatens to blossomed into romance. He goes to the bathroom and she puts this on on her reel to reel, and tipsily dances to it. The point being that this tough duo, a killer and the wife of a major hood, are both emotionally vulnerable, for all their slick veneer, hence the exquisite track choice; as she dances, she is still wearing his coat, gallantly proffered, which leads to her snorting his heroin which she has found in the pocket and taken for cocaine. Innocence dashed.
If you ignore the implications of the dodgy song title and chorus, worryingly reminiscent of Gary Puckett and the Union Gap's sixties hit "Young Girl" (which is odd as they also had a similarly titled later release with "This Girl is a Woman Now"), you'll find this is a song steeped in Diamond's early recurring themes of loneliness and rejection.
Of the two versions, Urge Overkill's just shades it, with the richer guitar sound and Nash Kato's urgent lead vocal as he delivers the wonderful opening verse, the rant of a desperate outsider in love, jumping right in at the deep end of he song:
"....I love you so much, can't count all the ways I've died for you girl and all they can say is "he's not your kind". They never get tired of putting me down, and I'll never know when I come around what I'm gonna find - don't let them make up your mind....."
Nash sounds more like a troubled young man than the polished Diamond, which you might expect from a guy from a band who had recently toured as opening support to Nirvana. Though written around thirty years earlier, the song emphasises that youth angst is a timeless condition whether in the era of hippy culture or Generation X, and has as much to do with first love and the crumbling of innocence as it does with disillusionment in the system.
"...I've been misunderstood for all of my life but what they're saying girl it cuts like a knife - "the boy's no good"- well, I've finally found what I'm a looking for but if they get their chance they'll end it for sure they surely would..."
You see, Diamond wasn't always square.