Living With War
Sam | 30.04.2006 05:18 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | World
We don't all have to believe
IT HAS been recorded in two weeks. It is described by its composer as "folk metal protest". It calls for the impeachment of the American President.
It is Living with War, Neil Young's battle cry for the republic. Young recorded it in nine days using just bass, drums, trumpet and a 100-voice choir in a blizzard of creativity. Young's website,
http://www.neilyoung.com, announced its existence last week. It began streaming free of charge at that address yesterday, US time, and is to be released to digital retailers next Tuesday. The film Heart of Gold, a documentary on Neil Young by Jonathan Demme, will be released in Melbourne on May 11.
The subject matter is explosive. Young, in an uncustomary stance as an artist, has recorded an entire album explicitly on current events, specifically his adopted home America, its invasion of Iraq, and the behaviour of President George Bush.
Let's Impeach the President
As Young told American television, the song "pretty much follows the title with a bunch of reasons. It's a pretty long song."
As to criticisms of his stance, Young was not concerned. "I feel I'm exercising my right of free speech, which is what our boys are fighting for — for the Iraqi people to have, and I think if we take it away from the people here in the United States then we're taking a step in the wrong direction.
That's what's great about this country and about all free countries: freedom of speech and the ability to express yourself. I just want to communicate — that's what I've been making records for for 40 years — some of them sell a lot, some of them don't sell any. This is about exchanging ideas, about getting a message out, about empowering people by giving them a voice. I know not everyone believes what I say."
To Young, after three years of war in Iraq, "If you have a conscience you can't go through your day without realising what's going on and questioning it. We have to be cognisant of the fact that we can make mistakes, that's part of freedom. We don't all have to believe in what our President believes to be patriotic.
"We also talk about a 9/11 mentality. No one — not George Bush or anyone else owns the 9/11 mentality. It belongs to everyone who was sitting there with their family watching TV, watching those buildings get hit by those jets. It belongs to George Bush and his family, it belongs to John Kerry and his family, it belongs to me and my family, so I have a post 9/11 mentality. It's just not the same as George Bush's."
Anyone familiar with Young's music would know that he has lived by the credo "expect the unexpected". His career has bounced from folk, folk/rock, rock, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, punk, electronica, grunge, country, country/rock and now … "folk metal protest".
He describes Living with War as a "metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan". This in itself says something of the man. Everyone has heard of Dylan, but Phil Ochs? In the '60s, Ochs was spoken of in the same breath as Dylan. Ochs called himself a "singing journalist". His first album in 1964 was entitled All the News that's Fit To Sing, making a pun on the subtitle to The New York Times motto, "all the news that's fit to print".
Ochs' songs were primarily based on the events of the day: the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War cast a wide shadow on his outlook. His talent was to imbue those songs with a deeper resonance. Many performers, such as Ani DiFranco, Billy Bragg, Dick Gaughan and Joan Baez have covered his songs. It is this quality to which Young probably is referring.
Young is not known for being overtly political. His greatest protest song is Ohio, written in 1970, soon after four students were shot dead by guardsmen at Kent State University. He has sung against the corporatisation of music and sponsorship, and in general terms, against the degradation of the environment. But this latest effort is like a starburst.
In a pop-cultural coincidence, Bruce Springsteen has released an album of cover versions from one of America's pre-eminent social activists and singers, Pete Seeger. He says there was no political agenda to the album. They were just good songs. Be that as it may, but viewed together with Young's Living with War, it throws a light onto the political stage in America from two of that country's most respected singer-songwriters.
In the title song, Young sings: "I'm living with war in my heart every day … on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again/and when the night falls, I pray for peace/try to remember peace."
Peace looms large in Young's world — the dreaming of it, the yearning for it, both personally and universally. After the September 11 attacks, Young performed John Lennon's Imagine at the televised musical benefit America: A Tribute to Heroes.
Young's Living with War is only one of many recent recordings slamming the Bush Administration and its war in Iraq. Pink, in her song Dear Mr President has a go at Mr Bush, while other artists, such as Steve Earle, have been political for years. Why even those nice young men, The Rolling Stones, recorded a political song, Sweet Neo Con, on their latest album A Bigger Bang.
In another interview Young said: "We are the silent majority now, and we haven't done a damn thing. We've stood by and watched this happen. But there's more of us than there is of them, and we have to do something."
1. After the Garden
2. Living With War
3. The Restless Consumer
4. Shock and Awe
5. Families
6. Flags of Freedeom
7. Let's Impeach the President
8. Lookin' for a Leader
9. Roger and Out
10. America the Beautiful
You can listen to it at
http://www.hyfntrak.com/neilyoung2/AFF23130/
It is Living with War, Neil Young's battle cry for the republic. Young recorded it in nine days using just bass, drums, trumpet and a 100-voice choir in a blizzard of creativity. Young's website,
http://www.neilyoung.com, announced its existence last week. It began streaming free of charge at that address yesterday, US time, and is to be released to digital retailers next Tuesday. The film Heart of Gold, a documentary on Neil Young by Jonathan Demme, will be released in Melbourne on May 11. The subject matter is explosive. Young, in an uncustomary stance as an artist, has recorded an entire album explicitly on current events, specifically his adopted home America, its invasion of Iraq, and the behaviour of President George Bush.
Let's Impeach the President
As Young told American television, the song "pretty much follows the title with a bunch of reasons. It's a pretty long song."
As to criticisms of his stance, Young was not concerned. "I feel I'm exercising my right of free speech, which is what our boys are fighting for — for the Iraqi people to have, and I think if we take it away from the people here in the United States then we're taking a step in the wrong direction.
That's what's great about this country and about all free countries: freedom of speech and the ability to express yourself. I just want to communicate — that's what I've been making records for for 40 years — some of them sell a lot, some of them don't sell any. This is about exchanging ideas, about getting a message out, about empowering people by giving them a voice. I know not everyone believes what I say."
To Young, after three years of war in Iraq, "If you have a conscience you can't go through your day without realising what's going on and questioning it. We have to be cognisant of the fact that we can make mistakes, that's part of freedom. We don't all have to believe in what our President believes to be patriotic.
"We also talk about a 9/11 mentality. No one — not George Bush or anyone else owns the 9/11 mentality. It belongs to everyone who was sitting there with their family watching TV, watching those buildings get hit by those jets. It belongs to George Bush and his family, it belongs to John Kerry and his family, it belongs to me and my family, so I have a post 9/11 mentality. It's just not the same as George Bush's."
Anyone familiar with Young's music would know that he has lived by the credo "expect the unexpected". His career has bounced from folk, folk/rock, rock, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, punk, electronica, grunge, country, country/rock and now … "folk metal protest".
He describes Living with War as a "metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan". This in itself says something of the man. Everyone has heard of Dylan, but Phil Ochs? In the '60s, Ochs was spoken of in the same breath as Dylan. Ochs called himself a "singing journalist". His first album in 1964 was entitled All the News that's Fit To Sing, making a pun on the subtitle to The New York Times motto, "all the news that's fit to print".
Ochs' songs were primarily based on the events of the day: the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War cast a wide shadow on his outlook. His talent was to imbue those songs with a deeper resonance. Many performers, such as Ani DiFranco, Billy Bragg, Dick Gaughan and Joan Baez have covered his songs. It is this quality to which Young probably is referring.
Young is not known for being overtly political. His greatest protest song is Ohio, written in 1970, soon after four students were shot dead by guardsmen at Kent State University. He has sung against the corporatisation of music and sponsorship, and in general terms, against the degradation of the environment. But this latest effort is like a starburst.
In a pop-cultural coincidence, Bruce Springsteen has released an album of cover versions from one of America's pre-eminent social activists and singers, Pete Seeger. He says there was no political agenda to the album. They were just good songs. Be that as it may, but viewed together with Young's Living with War, it throws a light onto the political stage in America from two of that country's most respected singer-songwriters.
In the title song, Young sings: "I'm living with war in my heart every day … on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again/and when the night falls, I pray for peace/try to remember peace."
Peace looms large in Young's world — the dreaming of it, the yearning for it, both personally and universally. After the September 11 attacks, Young performed John Lennon's Imagine at the televised musical benefit America: A Tribute to Heroes.
Young's Living with War is only one of many recent recordings slamming the Bush Administration and its war in Iraq. Pink, in her song Dear Mr President has a go at Mr Bush, while other artists, such as Steve Earle, have been political for years. Why even those nice young men, The Rolling Stones, recorded a political song, Sweet Neo Con, on their latest album A Bigger Bang.
In another interview Young said: "We are the silent majority now, and we haven't done a damn thing. We've stood by and watched this happen. But there's more of us than there is of them, and we have to do something."
1. After the Garden
2. Living With War
3. The Restless Consumer
4. Shock and Awe
5. Families
6. Flags of Freedeom
7. Let's Impeach the President
8. Lookin' for a Leader
9. Roger and Out
10. America the Beautiful
You can listen to it at
http://www.hyfntrak.com/neilyoung2/AFF23130/
Sam