THE CD: “Living With War”
PERFORMER: Neil Young (Reprise)
WEBSITE: neilyoung.com
LISTEN: Here
A disclaimer: If you’re into that whole North Korean, Bush-is-God, leader worship thing, stop reading now.

So, 36 years ago today (5.4) students protesting the conflict in Vietnam were shot at Kent State University, providing the inspiration behind Neil Young’s song “Ohio.” Young returns with his much anticipated anti-war, anti-Bush CD “Living With War,” which you can listen to in its entirety on his website.

Young still rocks — for scientific proof of my argument, see “Rockin’ In the Free World.” Yeah, I learned to play that song on bass: It’s easy, and it gives me goosebumps. As do many of the 10 tunes on “War.” Recorded in 10 days (no, ’twas not outsourced to India,) “War” is short, bitter, sweet, and oh, did I mention it rocks?

Young is not alone; he’s brought a powerful afro-spiritual female chorus with him, giving the songs more weight. Black god rulez!

“After the Garden” kicks things off and sets the truly patriotic table with rhetoric that’ll have Sean Hannity rolling over in his grave (he’ll die after hearing the first couple of bars.) A cool reverse-sounding riff opens, with Young singing in his patented nasal voice: “Won’t need no shadow man/runnin the government/won’t need no stinkin’ WAR. Won’t need no haircut/won’t need no shoeshine/after the garden is gone.”

The title track follows “Garden” and finds Young praying for peace and taking the unheard of holy vow to “never kill again.” HUH?? Like me, Young admits he’s “not bound by the thought police.” Rock on, you crazy Canadian! “The Restless Consumer” has nice distorted riffage, along with a Dennis Miller-like rant against TV ads, Madison Avenue, lies, poverty, and war.

“Shock and Awe” is more driving protest rock, with a trumpet solo and a big, cymbal-riding, rock show end to the song. No fade-outs. “Families” is written for the people that suffer daily, while corrupt cronies and their subsidiaries get rich. Potable drinking water? Not gonna happen. Not in Dick Cheney’s America.

“Flags of Freedom” is probably the best song on the CD. Lyrics? Pick ‘em up!

“Today’s the day our younger son is goin’ off to war/Fighting the age old battle/we sometimes won before. . . Do you see the flags of freedom? What color are they now? Do you think that you believe in yours/more than they do theirs somehow?”

The song creating the most buzz, “Let’s Impeach the President,” is a song John Conyers could get behind. Young calls for the prez to be impeached for “lyin’” and “spyin’” and, oh yeah: “hijacking our religion to get elected/Divided our country into colors/and still leavin’ black people neglected.” Young delivers this verbal blow to the Bush admin.: “What if Al-Qaeda blew up the levees? Would New Orleans have been safer that way/sheltered by the government’s protection?” Cool samples of Bush contradicting himself, ala The Daily Show appear. Young gives Bush the rope to hang himself free of charge.

“Lookin’ For a Leader” has Young searching for someone to steer our country away from a Thelma and Louise finish. “Maybe it’s a woman, or a black man, after all. Maybe it’s Colin Powell, to right what he’s done wrong.”

The CD closes with the chorus singing “America the Beautiful.” I wished that Young would rock this song out, but he is nowhere to be found. Weird. Fans, I was able to listen to this entire CD on May 2, one week before this “hot joint” “drops.” The thing that I take away from someone so famous putting out on the Internet is that if you have something important to say in your music, or even if it just rocks, people will support you. Copyright laws? What are those?

People of all stripes can like this CD. Except if you’re a Republican. You will not like it. Promise. I’m off to start my Neil Young tribute band. I play bass.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.