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| justinkurian |
Neil Young to Stream Anti-War CD
Rolling Stone previews the fierce "Living With War" days before fans get it for free
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Just seven months after the release of Neil Young's laid-back country/rock record Prairie Wind comes it's complete antithesis: the hard-rocking, furiously politically charged Living With War. Cut in two frenzied weeks at a Los Angeles studio, the album will begin streaming for free on neilyoung.com this Friday, before its release through digital retailers on May 2nd. Rolling Stone got its hands on an early copy, and here are some first impressions.
Key tracks:
"Restless Consumer": Young vents about that "Mission Accomplished" banner, as well as pharmaceutical companies' warnings of sexual dysfunction and diarrhea -- all set against a backdrop of Rust Never Sleeps-era one-note guitar solos.
"Flags of Freedom": This track tells of a family sending their son off to fight a war they don't know if they believe in. Young sings, "Have you seen the flags of freedom? What colors are they now? Do you think that you believe in yours more than they believe in theirs?"
"Looking for a Leader": Young expresses his hope that our next president will outshine George W. -- and might even come from outside the D.C. establishment. "Someone walks among us, and I hope he hears the call," Young sings. "Walking among our people is someone safe and strong. Maybe it's a woman or a black man after all."
"Let's Impeach the President": This track has already drawn the most media attention, with its battle cry for an end to this administration. As if at a rally, Young is joined by a choir on nearly every word. Contradictory Bush sound bites about "weapons of mass destruction" and the Patriot Act are sampled while Young and his choir call out, "Flip! Flop!" It's unlike anything we've ever heard in a rock song. His barely restrained rage at the current state of American politics is palpable on this song, as throughout the album.
"America, the Beautiful": The album wraps with a beautiful rendition of the definitive patriotic song, performed by the choir. Young's voice is nowhere to be heard, but his devotion couldn't be expressed in a better way.
ANDY GREENE
Posted Apr 25, 2006 12:13 PM |
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| Lazy Bones |
quote:
Staffan wrote:
And sure as hell they won't tour Europe! Crosby and Nash did actually play Stockholm last year- but how fun is that? I want Neil... 
Neil is "supposed" to tour Europe w/ Crazy Horse later in the year. |
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| Staffan |
I'm reading the Living with war Timeline at neilyoung.com.
It appears that he did not only record all the ten songs in three days- he wrote a whole bunch of them during those three days! It's fucking amazing; he recorded this things between March 29 and April 1 and tomorrow the album will be available to download at his website and in another week we'll be able to download it!
This makes me wonder how long we waited for A Bigger Bang??? LOL! |
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| Saint Sway |
heres the lyrics...
IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT ~ Neil Young
Let’s impeach the president for lying
And leading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door
He’s the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
And bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war
Let’s impeach the president for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones
What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government’s protection
Or was someone just not home that day?
Let’s impeach the president
For hijacking our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected
Thank god he’s cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There’s lot of people looking at big trouble
But of course the president is clean
Thank God |
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| Lethargy |
quote:
Lazy Bones wrote:
yum, yum...
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CSNY
July 10, 2006
CROSBY. STILLS, NASH & YOUNG bring thier Freedom of Speech '06' tour to Air Canada Centre on July 10th, 2006
Legendary rock and roll supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY) have just announced "Freedom Of Speech ‘06," the quartet's first road adventure together since 2002.
Billed as "An Evening With Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young," Freedom Of Speech ‘06 will tour with no opening act, and the shows will spotlight an extended set from CSNY, as in their past outings. Repertoire will include their classic work together, as well as favorites from their storied individual careers. With these iconic singer-songwriters' reputations for outspoken dialogue, social activism, lyrical expression, musical virtuosity and artistic integrity, Freedom Of Speech ‘06 is certain to ring loud and clear and passionately
Tickets go on sale
May 6, 2006
Tickets go on sale Saturday, May 6th at 11:00am.
Tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets and at the Air Canada Centre Ticket office (no first day sales). Charge by phone at 416-870-8000 or order online at www.ticketmaster.ca
Ticket Pricing
Ticket prices (including GST) are $251.25, $126.25, $90.75 and $50.75 (plus CRF).
Limited number of Gold Circle Tickets are available.
These morons, like tens of millions of other Americans (and Canadians, lest I forget Young) seem to have forgotten (or perhaps they were educated by hippies and never learned) what Freedom Of SpeeCH *IS*.
It means that you can say what you want and not get thrown into JAIL, like you do in communists / socialist paradises like China and Cuba.
Unfortunately, today's idea of freedom of speech has degenerated into the pathetic Dixie Chicks example, whereby if you're an entertainer and your fans become (justifiably) repulsed by you and by less of your records, then your "freedom of speech" has been violated.
The American Left continues to be the laughing stock of the world. Even the European socialist nations that the American Left worship aren't so sheltered and pathetic as to think someone vocally disagreeing with you is a violation of free speech.
I'm so glad CSNY are on tour again. The more vocal they are, the more mainstream America laughs at that which they advocate. That which they advocated, by the way, was arguably valid in the 60s and 70s, but since then has become a perverse, narcisistic characature of itself.
The once honorable progressive movement is now a joke. And it pains me to say this, since I consider my self a Progressive. |
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| FPM C10 |
quote:
Lethargy wrote:
These morons, like tens of millions of other Americans (and Canadians, lest I forget Young) seem to have forgotten (or perhaps they were educated by hippies and never learned) what Freedom Of SpeeCH *IS*.
It means that you can say what you want and not get thrown into JAIL, like you do in communists / socialist paradises like China and Cuba.
Excuse me, Spiro, but where in this article, or any song or comment by any of the members of CSN&Y, or in any post ever written by any of the left-leaning posters of this board, does ANYONE offer the slightest hint of thinking China or Cuba are paradise?
quote:
Lethargy wrote:
Unfortunately, today's idea of freedom of speech has degenerated into the pathetic Dixie Chicks example, whereby if you're an entertainer and your fans become (justifiably) repulsed by you and by less of your records, then your "freedom of speech" has been violated.
I missed that. Did someone say the Dixie Chicks' rights were violated by the fact that Toby Keith started a campaign against them? Please show us where you got that idea. (Actually I don't want you to show us, because I'm pretty sure you pulled it out of your ass.)
The big "backlash" against them making a fairly harmless statement about their own feelings was mostly an invention of Fox News. Last I heard they were still doing okay. Since they actually have some amount of talent, their career will probably last longer than Toby's.
quote:
Lethargy wrote:
The American Left continues to be the laughing stock of the world. Even the European socialist nations that the American Left worship aren't so sheltered and pathetic as to think someone vocally disagreeing with you is a violation of free speech.
America in general is being laughed at and despised, but it ain't the fault of the Left. The whole American political system, Left and Right, is rotten and beyond redemption. And CSN&Y calling their tour "Freedom of Speech" simply means they are exercising theirs, not that they are saying it's being violated.
quote:
Lethargy wrote:
I'm so glad CSNY are on tour again. The more vocal they are, the more mainstream America laughs at that which they advocate. That which they advocated, by the way, was arguably valid in the 60s and 70s, but since then has become a perverse, narcisistic characature of itself.
I'm not going to waste much breath defending that bunch of hippies. Young's the only one I respect and admire. The lyrics I've read from his new album are neither perverse or narcissistic in any way, although your comments certainly are.
quote:
Lethargy wrote:
The once honorable progressive movement is now a joke. And it pains me to say this, since I consider my self a Progressive.
Yet elsewhere you admit chagrin at voting for Bush because "Bush, in my mind, is a run of the mill big government progressive."
You seem confused. Maybe you should order your thoughts a bit more before you start lecturing us about stuff no one said.
[Edited by FPM C10] |
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| Saint Sway |
Mr. Young has made the album available for FREE download here:
http://www.hyfntrak.com/neilyoung2/AFF23358/ |
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| justinkurian |
From today's NY TImes:
Neil Young's 'Living With War' Shows He Doesn't Like It
By JON PARELES
Neil Young unleashes a digital broadside today. His new album, "Living With War" (Reprise), was recorded and mostly written three to four weeks ago and as of Friday can be heard in its entirety free on his Web site, www.neilyoung.com, and on satellite radio networks.
Mr. Young half-jokingly describes "Living With War" as his "metal folk protest" album. It's his blunt statement about the Iraq war; "History was a cruel judge of overconfidence/back in the days of shock and awe," he sings, strumming an electric guitar and leading a power trio with a sound that harks back to Young albums like "Rust Never Sleeps" and "Ragged Glory."
Some songs add a trumpet or a 100-voice choir, hastily convened in Los Angeles for one 12-hour session. During the nine new songs he sympathizes with soldiers and war victims, insists "Don't need no more lies," longs for a leader to reunite America and prays for peace.
In a song whose title alone has already brought him the fury of right-wing blogs, he urges, "Let's Impeach the President." It ends with Mr. Young shouting, "Flip, flop," amid contradictory sound bites of President Bush. But Mr. Young insists the album is nonpartisan.
"If you impeach Bush, you're doing a huge favor for the Republicans," he argued, speaking by telephone from California. "They can run again with some pride."
Mr. Young is a Canadian citizen. But having lived in the United States since the 1960's, he sings as if he were an American. The title song of "Living With War" quotes "The Star-Spangled Banner," and the album ends with the choir singing "America the Beautiful."
The album's release is a high-tech, globe-spanning update of a topical song tradition that's much older than recordings: the broadside, a songwriter's rapid response to events of the day. "They had these songs that everybody knew the melodies to," Mr. Young said. "They'd just write new words, and the minstrels would be traveling around spreading the word. Music spreads like wildfire when you do it that way."
On Tuesday a higher-quality version will be for sale as a download from online music stores, and a CD will be in stores next week as soon as it can be manufactured and shipped. Eventually a DVD will be released with video of the recording sessions, which took place March 29 to April 6. Many of the songs on the album were first takes, recorded immediately after Mr. Young taught them to the band. On March 31 he wrote three songs: "Let's Impeach the President" before breakfast, "Looking for a Leader" after he recorded "Let's Impeach the President" and "Roger and Out" the same evening.
Mr. Young's Web site will have a more elaborate presentation, available free. It will include a page designed like a cable-news broadcast, complete with visuals (including recording-session scenes), ticker and logo: LWW (for "Living With War") rather than CNN. "Even if it turns out that we can't sell it with the news in it, we won't sell it, we'll just stream it," he said. "We don't have to sell it. We can still get it out there. This has nothing to do with money as far as I'm concerned."
Mr. Young wants the album heard as a whole. The online streams play through from beginning to end; until the CD is ready, the downloadable copies will be available only as a bundle of the full album. "That first impression is so important," he said. "Instead of just going to 'Let's Impeach the President,' people will have to absorb the whole thing. To understand the songs, you need to understand where the whole album's coming from. It protects my right as an artist to have the work presented the way I created it."
Mr. Young has always been impatient with the time lag between writing a song and getting it to the world. When four student protesters were shot dead at Kent State University in 1970, he wrote "Ohio," recorded it with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and released it two and a half weeks later by sending acetates — preliminary pressings — to radio stations. (He will be on tour this summer as a member of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in what's billed as the Freedom of Speech Tour.)
After 9/11 Mr. Young wrote "Let's Roll," a song about the passengers who brought down a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania, and released it free online. "Now we have the Internet," he said. "It doesn't sound as good, but it's much faster, and it gets around the world. That's huge, that's as big as we get."
The songs on "Living With War" are straightforward and single-minded, setting aside the allusive, enigmatic quality of Mr. Young's rock classics. "These are all ideas we've heard before," he said. "There's nothing new in there. I just connected the dots."
The protest song, rocked-up slightly from its folky 1960's form, has been making a comeback during the Iraq war, from arena bands like Pearl Jam, the Rolling Stones and Green Day to indie-rockers like Bright Eyes and blues-rockers like Keb' Mo' and Robert Cray. Bruce Springsteen's latest album is a tribute to the protest-song mentor Pete Seeger, although it features old folk songs rather than Mr. Seeger's topical material.
"We are the silent majority now, and we haven't done a damn thing," Mr. Young said. "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. When people start talking and see they can get away with it, it's going to happen everywhere. It's going to be a landslide, it's going to be a tidal wave. This is just the tip of it."
Mr. Young said that he made "Living With War" not with a plan, but on an impulse. "I don't know what actually did it," he said. "It happened really fast, faster than I think I've ever experienced. There was just a kind of a wave."
As in the 60's, protest songs risk self-righteousness and preaching only to the converted. Only the most generalized ones outlast the interest in whatever headlines inspired them. There's not a lot of mystery to the songs on "Living With War"; they make their points as forthrightly as possible. Yet in the Internet era information — not just songs but blogs, videos, photos, drawings, e-mail jottings — is in the paradoxical position of being published worldwide and perhaps archived forever, but also being impulsive and ephemeral. A song for the Internet doesn't have to be one for the ages. Like an old broadside, it just has to get around for its moment, for right now. "Living With War" — irate, passionate, tuneful, thoughtful and obstinate — is definitely worth a click. |
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| Ronnie Richards |
quote:
Saint Sway wrote:
Mr. Young has made the album available for FREE download here:
http://www.hyfntrak.com/neilyoung2/AFF23358/
Y'all should check it out. Sounds defiant, urgent and great! |
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| mportera |
its actually here already if you look hard enough...havent given it a thourough listen to decide if it ranks up there with "Trans"
quote:
Saint Sway wrote:
new 10 song CD from my hero Neil Young is on its way.... called Living With War. Features a song called Impeach The President.
Thank you Neil!!!
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/article358210.ece
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| Nellcote |
Listening to this now.
Sounds like Neil's got game again.
While Neil is heartfelt with acoustic, he slams with electric.
The trumpet parts add a layer which is quite listenable.
IMHO, he's reving up for another Ragged Glory,
which should come later this year when he gets
Crazy Horse back together..
I just might get a ticket to the CSNY show this summa,
drink hooch during CSN, just to hear/see Y! |
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| MrPleasant |
Won't get fooled again. Or, as Ingmar Bergman said: "time is much faster than artists". |
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