Neil Young sets his sights on Bush (Entire Album is rumor)

[RamboLiberal]

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/article358210.ece

It started as a rumour - gossip shared by fans on internet chat sites. Could it true, they asked? Could Neil Young, a cultural lodestone for a generation of country rock fans, really be turning his attention to President George Bush and the war in Iraq? Now Young himself has confirmed it. Not only has he recorded an entire album about the conflict, but in one of the songs he spells out who he thinks is to blame for the ongoing chaos and violence and what the consequences for that person should be. That track is called "Impeach the President".

"I just finished a new record - a power trio with trumpet and 100 voices," the 60-year-old says in a ticker-tape message posted at the bottom of his official website. "Metal folk protest? It's called Living with the War."

Further details about the album came from Jonathan Demme, the film maker who produced the recently released documentary Heart of Gold about the singer-songwriter. "Neil just finished writing and recording - with no warning - a new album called Living With War," he told the music magazine Harp by e-mail. "It all happened in three days ... It is a brilliant electric assault, accompanied by a 100-voice choir, on Bush and the war in Iraq ... Truly mind blowing. Will be in stores soon."

Those who have followed Young's twisting career, stretching over more than four decades - from the psychedelia-tinged rock of the folk-rock band Buffalo Springfield in the Sixties, his joining up with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, his huge solo success in 1972 with Harvest, as well as the experimentation of the Eighties and finally his return to country rock - may be a little surprised by Young's decision to launch such a blunt political assault against the Bush administration.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. It's not a rumor

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2006/04/new-neil-young-album-life-in-war-wont.html

[Junkdrawer]

2. Ruh Roh...Neil was a marginal supporter...n/t

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

10. And if true isn't it great news that he's seen the light? n/t

[Junkdrawer]

21. That's my point...Bush's supporters are leaving him. n/t

[OnionPatch]

20. You know, that just blows my mind

I never heard the lyrics to Let's Roll until recently and it really does sound like he was supporting the war in that song. Yikes! I never would have dreamed it, but maybe he just supported the war in Afghanistan? :shrug: Hell, a lot of us did as well. What he said at the PFAW dinner does seem to indicate that he supported the Patriot Act....but so did some of our Democratic senators! It's just that I love and know every word to his album Greendale from 2003, and it is definitely anti-war and anti-administration. One song (Sun Green, I think) was pretty much about the Enron scandal and how the president was in bed with them and was to blame for the recall of the governor in CA, (I always had the thought that "Mr. Clean" in that song was refering to Ahnold...Who knows.) Lyrics to another song called Leave the Driving to Us are "We'll be watching you, no matter what you do and you can do your part, by watching others too..." Oh and how can I forget the part where the FBI breaks into Sun Green's house to spy and kills her cat.....

If Young ever supported Bush, it must not have lasted for long at all. I just can't believe it.

[MnFats]

22. he was anything but marginal when he wrote "Keep on Rockin'.....

in the Free World."
Nor when he wrote "Ohio."

...we got a thousand points of light, for the homeless man..
....we got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand....

Neil's always been in there, "Let's Roll' notwithstanding...

[UpInArms]

3. Awesome!

I'm going to go and see if I can pre-order it :bounce:

[shanti]

4. not exactly LBN

this story was posted on thursday.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=927187

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Methinks it deserves extra attention

.
.
.

[RamboLiberal]

17. The IHT Story is dated 4/17 that's what I went by

eom

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. Dixie Chicks "not playing nice" - glad SOME people are speaking out

.
.
.

hope they wake up some of the electorate down there

y'all need it . .

[otohara]

7. Entire Album is Rumor????

what are you talking about?

[RamboLiberal]

16. That every song would be anti-Bush on album

eom. Little tough to fit everything in to a headline.

[beam me up scottie]

8. I can't wait!

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

9. 'After the oilrush'

Can't wait to hear it.

NEIL YOUNG
:yourock: :applause:

[oldtime dfl_er]

11. Neil Young used to be God

and maybe he will be again, in my Bible.

[beam me up scottie]

12. Welcome to DU!

:yourock: too!

[ThsMchneKilsFascists]

14. Thank-you for the warm welcome

and i can totally relate to your handle beam me up scottie. Some days it feels like I'm in a bad movie with a thinly disguised plot.
And I loved James Doohan.
:cheers:

[beam me up scottie]

18. Hey!

Thanks for getting my user name!

I saw it on a bumper sticker once and never forgot it.

Beam me up, Scottie.
There's no intelligent life down here.

[grytpype]

13. Dubya is being attacked from all sides.

How long can he hang on?

[Arkansas Granny]

15. The fact that Neil Young is making an album that criticizes the

government and the President comes as no surprise to me at all. He wrote many political protest songs in the 60's & 70's with "Four Dead in Ohio" probably the most famous. This is nothing new for him.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Doesn't surprise me at all

He's always been pretty political.

[MnFats]

23. Stumbled across Cavuto on FAUX last night & was amused...

...
he's got some Canadian arts guy on, and trying to get him to agree that Neil Young "will have to take the fallout" for criticizing Bush & the war...

the entire conversation went about like this:
"But don't you think there'll be a price he'll have to pay?"

"Well, maybe, but he has his right to express himself freely, and a lot of people agree with him."

"But is it appropriate for a Canadian musician to be criticizing the U.S.?"

(the guy is amused)
"I don't think so. Americans don't hesitate to criticize Canada. What about the 'South Park' movie? They wanted to declare war on Canada."

[RawMaterials]

24. Neil Young injects antiwar messages into new album Living With War

Canadian Press

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - Veteran rocker Neil Young has recorded a new album filled with antiwar messages and a 100-member choir.

"I just finished a new record. A power trio with trumpet and 100 voices," the Toronto-born, Winnipeg-raised music legend writes in a moving ticker on his website. "I think it is a metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan. Metal folk protest?"

Young also thanks his music label, Reprise Records, and its parent company Warner Music Group, for their support. A representative with Warner Music Canada would not comment Tuesday on the album, titled Living With War, or when it might be released.

The title song is the second of 10 tracks on the record, says Young's website, and contains messages of peace.

"I'm Living With War right now, and when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man. And on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again. And when the night falls I pray for peace," the 60-year-old writes in the lyrics, which are posted on the website.

The song also contains lines from the U.S. national anthem: "The rocket's red glare, Bombs bursting in air, Give proof through the night, That our flag is still there."

Living With War is the highly anticipated followup to Prairie Wind, which Young wrote before his surgery in March 2005 for a brain aneurysm.

That album earned him two Juno Awards earlier this month and is the focus of Jonathan Demme's new documentary Neil Young: Heart of Gold.

Young is scheduled to perform with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg this summer.

On the Net:

http://www.neilyoung.com/


http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=ececafd0-60c8-43ae-84e8-eece10678b4d&k=50286

[pthalomarie]

25. that's great, but who's his audience?

I love Neil Young, but let's be honest here. His audience is pretty much boomers and Gen X-ers who are already inclined towards the left end of the political spectrum.

now, if Britney Spears or J Lo do an album protesting Bush and the Iraq War, that could move mountains. It might suck musically, but it'd give young people a voice they haven't heard.

[mtnsnake]

26. That's bullshit

Neil Young garners more respect in his pinky fingernail than Britney Spears could in her entire lifetime. She could stand naked on top of the Empire State Building protesting Bush and no one would take her serious. The only mountain she could ever move is the mountain of cold hard cash she's made being an asshole with good looks and a smart agent.

[pthalomarie]

27. you're missing the point.

of course neil's a thousand times more talented that britney & co.

but that's not the point. the point is, protest songs don't mean much, if they don't reach the next generation. neil young's tapping into the same folks who were with him when he sang "ohio."

this generation doesn't have a bob dylan or a neil young to challenge them with protest lyrics.

like it or not, the people who influence this generation are a lot of the folks you (and i) loathe. but you can't control the role models people choose; what you can hope for is that those role models challenge their audience.

[mtnsnake]

28. Your mistaken if you think Neil Young doesn't reach the younger generation

You might be surprised if you ask some young people if they follow Neil Young or not.

BTW, I do agree with you that this generation lacks anything close to having anyone who speaks out with their music today like what used to happen in the times of Vietnam. This is arguably the most apathetic period in rock history when it comes to any kind of protesting. That in part is why young people still turn to the likes of Neil Young. None of their peers offer anything similar.