Living with War Reviews

• Music Rating: 4 stars. Content Rating: 50 stars and 13 stripes.

  
  By A16QODENBJVUI1 on 2006-05-08
  Musically, this is a good though not great album. Politically, it expresses how literally tens of millions of Americans have been feeling for some time now, but with the corporate-owned and controlled right-wing media (which loves to hawk theories about the so-called "liberal" media) squelching the anger many Americans are feeling, Neil Young has been able to give voice to how so many of us believe. By all accounts, this album was recorded very quickly, but it does not for all that show signs of having been rushed to press. Young has never been a studio wonk, polishing and fine-tuning his songs. There has always been a delightful rough-hewn quality to his work, and that is evident here. The songs are performed by Young, a power trio, a trumpet, and a hundred-voice choir. Young typically produces either "plugged" or "unplugged" albums, in the former having been one of the major influences on grunge, punk, and indie rock, while in the latter a major influence on alt-country and folk rock. This is definitely one of his "plugged" albums, with Neil playing his guitar at its distorted best. Leaving aside the political content, the music on the album isn't as strong as on his best albums. This is considerably below ZUMA or TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT or RUST NEVER SLEEPS, but it is not one of his weaker albums. I would compare it to FREEDOM or WELD or RAGGED GLORY.
  
  Most of the songs are at least good, but two I thought were extraordinary, both musically and in content. "Shock and Awe" is vintage Neil Young, solidified by hard-driving guitar and the kind of basic but compelling melody that Young has turned out a hundred times in his remarkable career. The lyrics are the most memorable on the disc, evoking some of the more embarrassing memories of the past three years, first the absurdity of the "shock and awe" campaign to open the war, followed by the humiliating display of Bush landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln (with banner made by the White House, but which they claim was made by personnel on the carrier) and declaring "Mission Accomplished," the thousands of Iraqi children who have suffered because of our military invasion and occupation, and the caskets that have returned during the Pentagons moratorium on any photos taken of their return. It is a string of heartbreaking images that condemns the White House for a string of misdoings. But the final verse is the hardest to hear, because it condemns us, the American people, for our failings in the 2004 election:
  
  [...]
  
  History is always going to ponder the fact that we reelected Bush with disbelief.
  
  The song that has gotten the most attention before the album's release is "Let's Impeach the President." It is a rousing rocker that opens with a trumpet playing taps immediately before Neil plunges in:
  
  [...]
  
  The verses are all intensely angry (as should any thinking American), but the most damning section for Bush is the instrumental break that plays a string of recordings of Bush building his own case for impeachment. Out of Bush's own mouth he is condemned, including such famous instances of nonsense as "War is my last choice" and accusations that Saddam was behind 9/11 and harbored terrorists.
  
  There are several other excellent songs on the album, such as the lovely "Families" and "Looking for a Leader," which expresses the hope that we can find someone decent to lead our country (something that I have heard from my friends on the Right as well as those from the Left-the nation's dirty little secret is that apart from Christian Fundamentalists, few even on the Right really like Bush). The only song that leaves me really flat is the choir's singing "America the Beautiful" to end the disc. I appreciate the sentiment, but musically it seems a bit dull compared with what went before.
  
  Much is being made by the Right and the Pundits that Neil Young is Canadian. While this is true, it is also true that he has resided in California since the sixties, though he also has a home in Canada. It completely escapes me what relevance his being of Canadian origin and a part-time resident has to anything. Do the sentiments on this album reflect how tens of millions of Americans feel? Absolutely. Are the political beliefs expressed well founded? Definitely. There is already overwhelming evidence that Bush misled the American people to get us to invade Iraq, that they ignored the substantial amount of evidence that there were neither WMDs nor WMD programs in Iraq, and the evidence continues to mount. If the Democrats take the House in 2006 and Bush's war actions get investigated, the evidence could well explode. So, instead of repeatedly making mention of Neil's ties to our neighbor to the North, perhaps the pundits should ask: 1) does his album tap into widespread national sentiments (it does) and 2) is he justified in his anger (again, he is).
  
  Political leaders throughout American history, from Jefferson to Thoreau to Teddy Roosevelt, have emphasized that the highest form of patriotism has been protest when the nation or its leaders have departed from the nation's ideals. At few points in American history have the ideals upon which the nation was founded been so thoroughly compromised by our leadership as at the present, with charges of torture, secret prisons for illegally holding detainees, imperialism, and military domination directed at the United States by the international community. Most of the world views the United States as a greater threat to international peace than the terrorists we claim to be trying to root out. Domestically, we have an administration that has consistently tried to squelch dissent, engaged in illegal wiretapping, and promulgated an agenda that has harmed the vast majority of Americans.
  
  My outrage is not directed at people like Neil Young who has had the courage to speak out against a corrupt administration. My outrage is directed at those who refuse to get as mad as he is.
  
  

• Not for the faint of heart

  
  By A16W1V0X40TSQV on 2006-05-09
  This is electric Neil, not acoustic Neil.
  
  I'm one of those people who is (I suppose) middle of the road and when i heard about this album was interested in how Neil would deliver his 'message'. Well, it's direct. Brutally so.
  
  [...]
  
  Shock and Awe is an all time classic Neil song (think Rockin in the Free World on steroids). Bank on that. The Restless Consumer is another great song. Families is a toe tapper. Let's Impeach the President is, well, a pretty decent song (musically a cousin to Powderfinger) but the lyrics are -well wow (Flip/Flop). Listen yourself. There are very few weak moments on this album. This isn't Harvest, Rust or Everybody Knows - but it's a good CD if you like electric Neil.
  
  As someone wrote earlier, this may be the best protest 'album' ever recorded. It is sure to elicit some type of response from you, positive or negative. That's why it gets 5 stars. I highly recommend this album.
  
  If you ever (even if just for a brief moment) think this country is going back to the days of "no taxation without representation", you should listen to this - even if just to admire what someone can do with his art with first amendment protection.
  
  Unlike the brave "A Kids Review", I think we're all capable of knowing this is Neil's perception - not the person reading this (or writing it for that matter).
  
  
  
  

• Rocking and catchy anti-war anthems

  
  By A3Q6OLMTN5HFVD on 2006-05-08
  Few rock and rollers really take advantage of their fame to promote peace or left-wing values. We associate rock music with rebellion, but who's really speaking out? Long hair and drug use is not true rebellion. The hairlines recede and the drugs were for losers. True rebellion is Neil Young producing an album called Living with War, recording it overnight and making it available on the Internet without charge.
  
  I think about John Lennon lying in bed in 1969 with Yoko Ono to promote peace. Hairy John under the covers with his granny glasses, looking 40 years older than Beatle John who sang "She Loves You" on the Ed Sullivan Show only 5 years earlier. The "bed in" was a ludicrous stunt, but it was John Lennon, and that got the word "peace" in the newspaper the next day.
  
  The late 1960's were a political time, with war in Vietnam killing thousands of young men and tearing the country apart. But few rock stars spoke out. The Beatles actually spoke out against Vietnam in 1966, when people thought they were still mop-tops. But then they immediately dove into psychedelia. Bob Dylan, of course, sang protest songs, but when he plugged in his guitar and became a rocker, the protest songs stopped and he began singing about love and all that crap, for the most part. It was great stuff, but it wasn't protest music. Frank Zappa recorded the most biting satire in rock history in the late 1960's, but he was too obscure for public consumption. Lennon did sing about revolution in 1968, but he couldn't decide whether he supported or opposed violence.
  
  On May 4, 1970, President Nixon's goon squad opened fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University in Ohio. Kent State may be a good school, but it will forever be remembered for that horrible photograph of an anguished young woman leaning over the body of her dead friend. The protesters did nothing wrong that day, and the event symbolized an era.
  
  When the students were killed at Kent State, Neil Young, who'd been hanging around Crosby, Stills and Nash, wrote " Ohio." We've heard this song so many times that we've forgotten what it means and how powerful it must have sounded in 1970, right after the shootings.
  
  Living with War was recorded quickly, only a few weeks ago. Some of the songs on this album really smoke. Classic Neil Young: songs that revolve around the same three or four chords he's been strumming for nearly 40 years. Snobby rock critics make fun of rockers who write three chord songs, but the greatest folk songs were three chords used in different sequence with different rhythms so that listeners are not even aware that the same three chords are being used. And if the song is good, who cares? Young is the master of three chord rock, distorting the amplifier and finding a dutiful drummer to pound the hell out of the instrument to drive the point home.
  
  The lyrics on Living with War are not cryptic. Bruce Springsteen learned in 1984 that cryptic rock lyrics are prone to dramatic misunderstanding. His "Born in the USA" was about a Vietnam veteran's misery in the homeland, but Ronald Reagan appropriated the song as his own and, frankly, too many of my contemporaries thought the song was an ode to blind patriotism. It wasn't.
  
  Neil Young was never subtle. A string of great albums in the 1970's led to experiments in the 1980's that we'd rather forget. He didn't care. Neil did an album of electronic music in 1982 called Trans which recycled (and butchered) a classic from his days with Buffalo Springfield, one of the great folk-rock groups of the 1960's. He did a 1950's throwback album in the mid-1980's. Reviewing the album, Creem magazine summed it up: "It sucks, plain and simple." But he found his muse again a few years later with "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World," which sounded hokey at the time but throws in a few jabs at the first President Bush.
  
  What stands out for me is that in the late 1970's many of Young's contemporaries were burning out or running out of ideas. Not Neil, who shocked us with Rust Never Sleeps, a five star album. Rust Never Sleeps was loud and brash and his voice was in fine form. But the quieter songs were sweet and melodic. His songwriting style is recognizable, and so is his guitar playing -- grungy and loud with solos that scream without showing off. The way we love it.
  
  Sometime in the 1980's, Neil commended President Reagan, much to my chagrin. Somewhere along the way, he found his way back. I doubt he's changing his mind anytime soon.
  
  The album is available online without charge but you have to hear the whole thing at once and not pick and choose the songs. As Neil told the New York Times, "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."
  
  A few notes on the songs: "Shock and Awe" says that "we had a chance to change our mind. . . . We went with what we knew, and now we can't go back." This of course refers to the 2004 election. If this song does not get you excited, nothing will. The drummer sounds even angrier than Neil Young. The lyrics are stark, howling about dead bodies, crying widows and "thousands of children scarred for life." A trumpet replicates the guitar solo, probably because Neil's fingers were bleeding from his toughest and loudest guitar work. I'll say it now: "Shock and Awe" may be one of the greatest protest songs in rock history.
  
  "Families" is another three chord grunger which sounds a lot like Springsteen's wonderful "No Surrender" from the Born in the USA album, a chord sequence that I can hear anytime. Here's what he told Rolling Stone about the song and why he recorded the album: "We were in a small hotel and I had already written four songs and was playing them in the room. I knew I was getting sucked in. I went down to the coffee machine and there was USA TODAY, the cover showed the inside of a C130 or similar large military craft, completely converted into a flying hospital. Soldiers were lying on operating tables, with physicians furiously trying to save lives at 100s of miles an hour some 20,000 feet in the air. The plane was a shuttle between Iraq and Germany, where we have these big bases and hospitals. The USA TODAY caption said something about how we are making great strides in medicine as a result of the Iraq conflict. That just caught me off guard, and I went upstairs and wrote "Families" for one of those soldiers who didn't get to come home. Then I cried in my wife's arms. That was the turning point for me."
  
  "Let's Impeach the President" speaks for itself. A choir led by Neil Young sings the beautiful "Living with War." The finale, "America the Beautiful," is the song you're thinking of, also sung by a choir.
  
  When I was younger I could not imagine how the rockers of the 1960's and 1970's could grow old gracefully. We thought rock was the music of the young and that men in their 50's or 60's couldn't do it any better than baseball players could play into their 50's and 60's. But Neil Young proves that notion wrong once and for all, if any further proof were needed. This album is rejuvenating and vital. As far as I'm concerned, Neil Young wins the Most Valuable Player award.
  
  

• Phil Ochs with a Gretsch...

  
  By A13FBTZ8SO8T3D on 2006-05-09
  Getting close to dying tends to sharpen your focus. First the elegiatic paean to his father, PRAIRIE WIND, and his tour de force concert film, HEART OF GOLD, and now the most revved up, furiously infuriated rock record since FREEDOM (he must love the Bush family), finds Young in a more defiant mood than he's been in since, well, Papa Bush. The result is incendiary. Working with Chad Cromwell and Rick Rosas, as he did in FREEDOM, Young let's loose like a metal version of Phil Ochs with songs that on occasion are slogan-riddled ("Impeach", "Looking For a Leader") that would not have been out of place on I'M NOT MARCHING ANYMORE. But there are also some extraordinarily superb Young compositions that sit with his very best, as well as with anything on Ochs' PLEASURES OF THE HARBOUR: most notably, "After the Garden is Gone", "No More Lies", "The Days of Shock and Awe" and "the Flags of Freedom (Dylan references included)."
  The CD closes with an absolute masterpiece in the "Cortez the Killer" vein: "Roger and Out" says more by suggestion than anything Young justifiably shakes his fist about in all that precedes it. If you have ever lost a friend to war, this is a little too close to the bone. I'd even swear Neil knew what he was talking about. If you were ever afraid you might lose someone to this war in particular, this will upset you. Almost funereal, the CD closes with the choir intoning "America the Beautiful." Is it for thee I weep?
  The recording sounds quite immediate and raw, but that's Neil anyway. The trumpet, the choir, the urgency throughout all speak to the way a somnambulent America needs to wake up out of its torpor. The tar flats are gathering around the Yank heels and you don't even need a Canadian to tell you that. To paraphrase Ross Perot, that sound you're hearing is your future getting swallowed in debt to the Chinese and the Arabs. You got stuck with the bill for the lies of Cheney, Rumsfled and Pinocchio. Was there ever a leader who deserved a particular fate? But that's up to you folks. That trumpet is playing taps.
  All in all, with a revived Stephen Stills regaining his edge and compositional skills, one can only hope that this summer's Freedom of Speech Tour (albeit a few years late) awakens a political fervor long lost to self indulgence among a generation of a certain age. Certainly Crosby has been extolling the courage of those who stand up against tyranny for ever, and perhaps even Nash will find a way to harden his act and deliver something worthy of the man who wrote "Chicago" and "Military Madness."
  
  

• Rousing and inspiring, some of Neil's best music and lyrics

  
  By A1BF5HAT81LMWD on 2006-05-10
  Living With War begins with Neil Young singing that we "won't need no shadow men running the government, won't need no stinking war". Angry, emotional words, but this is the most joyous and beautiful angry album I've ever heard.
  
  This is truly an "Ohio" moment, and Living With War strikes a chord that will resonate with the millions of Americans who've tossed off their blinders and who see that this administration hijacked 9/11 for its own twisted political agenda. Now here we are mired in one disastrous war, watching this unpopular administration apparently trying to sell us another, just in time for an election.
  
  Living With War is brilliant and inspiring on many levels: musically, politically, but also as a case study in guerrilla marketing and public relations. A couple of weeks ago word began to leak out that Neil Young, a proud and patriotic Canadian American whom many identify as conservative, was about to release a new song titled "Let's Impeach the President (For Lying)." Faster than you could say 'right-wing blogosphere' Young was in the media gun sights of pro-Bush, pro-war pundits rhetorically blasting him. Of course, none of these critics had heard the song, much less the entire Living With War album.
  
  And what an album it is. It comes wrapped in a plain brown wrapper, but it bleeds red, white and blue. "When the night falls, I pray for peace.... I never bow to the thought police... I'm living with war in my heart and my mind" sings Young. Neil and his PR guerrillas played the attacks brilliantly, parlaying them into perhaps the largest virtual stage and audience that any rocker has ever had to blast out the release of what is Neil's most compelling and timely album.
  
  The seventh song on the album is the one that brought the attacks that set the stage for today's unprecedented web launch. Here is part of what Neil has to say:
  "Let's impeach the president for lying and misleading our country into war. Abusing all the power that we gave him... The White House shills who hide behind closed doors and bend the facts to fit with their news stories of why we had to send our men to war... Let's impeach the president for spying on citizens inside their own homes.... Tapping our computers and telephones.... What if Al Qaida blew up the levees? Sheltered by our government's protection, would New Orleans have been safer that way? Or was someone just not home that day?"
  
  This rousing, upbeat song is backed by a hundred voice choir, as is much of the album, and is filled with audio clips of President Bush's 'flip flops' and false and misleading claims, snipped from news conferences and speeches. This song is a showtune anthem. The entire album is a pro-American, pro-family, pro-troops challenge to citizens in the United States, Neil's adopted homeland, to get it together and make change happen.
  
  On Restless Consumer Neil targets the American addiction to oil and materialism, relating it to the war and to the greater failure to attack problems of poverty: "How do you pay for war and leave us dying? ... Don't need no Madison Avenue War. .... Don't need no more lies."
  
  Shock and Awe is one the best rock anthems Neil has ever penned or played: "Back in the days of shock and awe.... history was a cruel judge of overconfidence ... Back in the days of mission accomplished our chief was landing on the deck. The sun was setting on the golden photo op. Thousands of bodies in the ground brought home in boxes to a trumpet sound. No one sees them coming home that way.... We had a chance to change our mind, but somehow wisdom was hard to find..."
  
  Looking for a Leader calls out for people to arise "to reunite the red white and blue ... clean up the corruption and make the country strong. Someone walks among us and I hope he hears the call; maybe it's a woman, or a black man after all. Maybe its Obama, but he thinks he's too young. Maybe its Colin Powell, to right what he's done wrong. ... America is beautiful but she has an ugly side. We're looking for a leader... ."
  
  Living With War builds from beginning to end, proudly pro-American, pro-troops, pro-freedom, while vehemently anti-war and anti-Bush. The lyrics are inspired; the music is classic, and the 100-voice choir warm and emotional. Some of the songs are about US soldiers, one dead from the war on Vietnam and the other Iraq. The Iraq vet in Families says: "there's a universe between us now, but I want to reach out and tell you how much you mean to me. ... I'm going back to the USA, I just got my ticket today."
  
  In Roger and Out a living friend reflects on his long dead buddy from the 1960s: "Tripping down that old hippie highway, got to thinking about you again. Wondering how it really was for you, and how it happened in the end. ... We were just a couple of kids then, living each and every day, when we both went down to register, we were laughing all the way. ... I feel you in the air today. I know you gave for your country, roger and out good buddy."
  
  Living With War closes appropriately with America the Beautiful, the hundred-voice choir providing the perfect closure to one of the strongest and certainly the most-brilliantly released calls for peace and justice ever from a musician of Young's stature. In releasing Living With War as he has, Young is clearly challenging his artistic peers, fellow patriots and all of us.
  
  
• Neil Young's most engaging album in years
  By A6DRH1ZLR3XVW on 2006-05-08
  I must admit to have grown somewhat bored of Neil Young's recorded output over the past couple of decades. However, Living With War does one thing that the former CDs didn't do. It is keeping me coming back to play it again and again. When this album was originally streamed on the net, I would return over and over to hear a particular song that was playing in my head. I always ended up playing the entire album.
  
  It's hard to pinpoint exactly what has grabbed me. One thing is that Young's guitar, ragged as it still is, has so much more invention and melody than I've heard before. The guitar sparkles and rages, always fitting perfectly within the songs - the solos are never too much or too little, just perfect cues to the finale of the song. The other attribute is Neil's voice, overpowering the words so that you don't have to decipher them to understand the artists' POV. It's not so much rage, as has widely been described, but a feeling of hope and optimism. Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but it is true. This album is not only musical, not only does it rock, but it leaves me feeling hopeful and rejuvenated.
  
  
• Living With Opportunists and Potheads
  By A3AR7OV6FS39S on 2006-06-02
  Well, here it is! The big, bold album being touted by all the knee-jerk, drug-addled, lemming generation who never got past the Woodstock protest vibe of their self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, misspent youth. Let me tell you folks, I was down there in the mud with you back in 1969 in mind, body and spirit. But as time has marched on and I have become older and wiser, I realize that rebellion for it's own sake is naive and childish - worse than frolicking in the mud with a head full of Owsley(which might have had some therapeutic value). "Stickin' it to the man," as some have been quoted here saying, ain't enough if you're writing a check your butt can't cash. You gotta be informed if you want to enter the debate. Stop smokin' the weed for about five years and the fog might lift from your THC-residued brains. Won't you try? That goes for you too, Neil. Please stop embarrassing me for being a fan of yours, you goofy bastard. I still love you.
  
  It's strange, a Blue Oyster Cult lyric from 1974 keeps popping into my mind when I try to listen to Neil's new so called "serious" album. The lyric is: "Poison's in my bloodstream, poison's in my pride, I'm after rebellion, I'll settle for lies." This applies to this record so well. Neil has really gone out on a limb on some of these songs and entered truly wackball Dick Gregory, Oliver Stone, Michael Moore territory. Indeed the whole anti-Bush movement is based on lies which are perpetrated by their allies (agenda driven sketch writers, comedians, news writers who undoubtedly have also been partaking of the cannibis) in the media. The pervasive joke is that George Bush is very stupid. Never mind the fact that he graduated from his Ivy League University with a higher grade point average than both Al Gore and John Kerry. Is the man eloquent? Not very. But until Reagan and Clinton, none of the Presidents in the modern world were much behind the podium. Another big phrase used by Neil and his buddies is "Mission Accomplished." Bush never said it. A banner behind him, which he had nothing to do with, said it. His speech on that day said we had a long hard challenge ahead of us. A challenge for which the me-generation instant gratification crowd doesn't want to sacrifice. Everyone seems to forget the truth for easy buzz words which are lies. Same goes with the assertion that Bush lied about WMD. The whole civilized world had the same intelligence that we did. Bush believed the intelligence. We waited so long to enter Iraq that Saddam had time to move the WMD to Syria. Anyone who thinks it doesn't pain Bush every time a soldier is wounded or killed is just not assessing the situation through reality. And the comparisons of Bush to Hitler show a complete lack of intelligence, knowledge of history and appreciation of evil. Must be that wacky tabacky again. Make's people think up is down, black is white, bad is good, holy is evil, dylan can sing (have you heard him lately? god bless him), etc.
  
  I love a great rock 'n' roll album, I love rock 'n' roll, I have all of Neil's records (the good, the bad, and the ugly)along with a huge collection of music. This album just doesn't stack up very well musically and lyrically. I am embarrassed for Neil. It's that laughable to me. This is the kind of record which will garner praise from most of the people in the critical community because it plays right to their misguided asses (all one has to do is tag a left winged cause to an album or movie and,voila, boffo reviews). They will find the album "important," "bold," "daring," "forceful" and off the cuff. They will refer to it's urgency and mention Neil's passionate "Ohio" which was hastily recorded after Kent State. "Ohio" seems to be a pretty good yardstick for comparison with most of these types. Has anyone ever closely analyzed "Ohio?" James Michener wrote a book about Kent State which comes alot closer to the truth than Neil's angry rant. Did Neil ever mention that the people who fired the weapons at Kent were the same age as the ones who got killed? Did he ever question the differing economic backgrounds of the priveleged students versus the working class National Guard members? Did he ever question what it was the protesting students had done to warrant the National Guard being sent there? Did he ever tell you that no order to fire was ever given to the troops? Of course not. Neil used the incident as an emotional call to arms against Nixon - someone he already hated and considered a square. Neil promoted division in society - as he continues to do now. It also should be pointed out that Neil waited with this album until the polls on Bush's popularity had dipped around 30 per cent - bold indeed.
  
  What is wrong with America today is exemplified by this album and it's fans. We no longer have a country where the majority of the people are educated enough to realize that sacrifices need to be made for the greater good. Gone are the days of entertainers going to see the troops near the battlefield to entertain. I know a few folks went at the beginning of the Iraq conflict for PR purposes, but the days of the patriotic stars are over. Instead we get self-indulgent dope smokers like Woody Harrelson, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Bill Maher, Susan Sarandon and Neil and his CSN buddies. Between the whole bunch of these people I just mentioned there aren't enough healthy brain cells to fill one Condoleeza Rice. And yet they attack, attack, attack. And feebly so I might add. Don't they realize that Bush has placed more blacks in positions of power than anyone before? The left will continue to criticize Condoleeza but she's a true genius who shows alot more class than all of her detractors.
  
  One more thing, it has come to my attention that amazon has been withholding reviews which are critical of this album. So for the record I am submitting this on June 1, 2006. I have heard complaints from reviewers who are getting buried when amazon withholds their review for over a week and then inserts it on the original day submitted - thereby burying it under pages of newer reviews.
  
  So wake up to the fact that the left is easily the most intolerant group in America. I know, I used to be one of them, but have seen the errors of my youth. I just wish I could sit down and talk to Neil about this, because he is adding further fuel to the fire which is dividing America and his fuel is based on lies and half-truths. His material unwittiingly plays right into the hands of our enemies. I guess it doesn't matter because Neil saw his opportunity when the polls hit 30%. And all this nonsense about supporting the troops but not Bush or the war is just that - NONSENSE. So go ahead, smoke your pot, go see Neil and his CSN buddies, smoke some more pot and all be ONE and rebel for rebellion's sake - just realize, that someday you will have to grow up and see that you have been on the wrong side of every issue since the mud at Woodstock (a self-indulgent acid fueled event which has been deified by all the wannabe's in the media ever since) and Vietnam (millions of people were brutally murdered when our forces pulled out - their blood is on the USA protestors hands - everytime we had Ho Chi Minh on the ropes, the radical left would demonstrate and unwittingly help with his victory and the eventual communization of Southeast Asia and the killing fields that followed). Can't you see that if this country adopted every wacky idea supported by the left from the 60's on, we'd be in alot worse shape than we are now if we would even exist at all?
  
  Go ahead, smoke some more pot and bow down to the opinions of artists who never made it through college, some who never got through high school, some who aren't even citizens - at least they aren't squares. I don't know. Seems to me that someone who keeps supporting the same causes even when history has proven them wrong is nothing more than a fool.
  
  So go ahead, smoke some more dope and sing along. "Poison's in my bloodstream, poison's in my pride. I'm after rebellion, I'll settle for lies."
  
  
  
• I love it.
  By A1P98E8Z20JD1Q on 2006-05-10
  The good news is a performer of note finally put our anger, disgust and frustration to music with powerful lyrics and has preserved our thoughts and feelings for future generations.
  
  "Maybe it's Colin Powell...to right what he's done wrong." Neil has documented forever what happens when a good man does not speak out.
  
  
• Hail, Hail Neil Young - Rock N' Roll Will Never Die
  By A34FOBX00IG5ZC on 2006-05-09
  What important anti-war albums can any of us name since 2002? I mean actual entire albums that go straight to the throat of what's happening in Iraq & the Whitehouse right now. No sugar-coating. No BS.
  
  This is an album that does.. Neil Young pushes aside any matter of album sales & goes straight to the throat of George W. Bush & says things in this album 99.9% of artists are afraid to do to the extent he does, because they don't want their precious record sales to be hurt.
  
  This record is an important musical landmark in the inevitable revolution this country must go through... One way or another, for the good or worse.. Something has to change in the USA & this album doesn't hold back saying that straight out loud.
  
  Remember all of the old anti-Vietnam songs? How come so few artists seem to be doing that today when things are more desperate than ever? Well Neil Young lived through the Vietnam experience & he knows that when it comes to war... There is no holding back in the rebelion to stop a corrupt government & a country destroying itself.
  
  As far as the music itself goes, Neil Young has never been a let-down. His worst albums are more fulfilling than the majority of what's played on the radio. This album doesn't break any new musical grounds for him.. But it does give us one more album from one of the most beloved, influential, & powerful songwriters to ever live. I don't think Neil Young is second to Dylan, I think they're equals. But even today, Bob Dylan would rather do Victorias Secret commercials than come out with an album like this when we need it most... So Neil Young is taking complete charge & is proving he is truly one of the very last songwriters around with enough power & followers to help move a revolution forward.
  
  I've never been more proud of any songwriter in my life.
  
  Buy this, & the new Pearl Jam album (the one with the avocado on the cover) which is another vicious anti-war, anti-bush album that doesn't hold back. (he made an album with them in 95' - Mirrorball) Fourtantely for us they're both released the same week. Play them loud, read the lyrics, and feel lucky you're not one of the blind followers.
  
  
• From A Conservative Who Loves This Recording
  By A26R8EWSENFUVZ on 2006-05-13
  Let me say this first and foremost, the last song is the best. The fact that Neil can play it straight up says a lot about where his heart is, and which is also a telling sign about what I think he's saying in a lot of these songs.
  
  As an Canadian-American (I deliberately say this tongue in cheek) Neil's entitled to his opinion. Of course for many of those opinions I find myself 180 degrees to the right. As an artist he's entitled to infuse as many of those opinions into as much of his music as he likes, just as I am entitled to accept (like) or reject (dislike) the sum total of the product.
  
  I like the product because, yes, I love it when Neil plays his axe angrily. Secondarily, I like Neil's earnestness. His musical partners (CSN)make me laugh anymore when they try to be topical. Drippy is all I can say. The irony to me is how so many who disavow God are so GD "preachy" about it. Neil on the other hand exudes righteous anger and I respect that.
  
  The best moments for me:
  
  - the way the music rises in "Living With War" to the lyrics:
  
  The Rockets Red Glare
  Bombs Bursting in Air
  Give Proof Through The Night
  That Our Flag Is Still There
  
  (The fact is all of us are "Living With War," and feel its hurts, and want it to end, so that we can truly live in Peace. I suspect lots of other reviewers posting on this music would disagree with me about what that really means.)
  
  - the stanza from "Families"
  
  I'm goin' back to the USA
  I just got my ticket today
  I can't wait to see you again in the
  USA
  
  (Families torn asunder by war create massive longing and I respect the way Neil salutes the brave men and women sacrificing for the rest of us.)
  
  - all of Flags of Freedom because a love of Bob Dylan (another god fearing and loving soul) is something that really is a bond between me and my kids.
  
  - the end of Looking For A Leader
  
  Looking for a leader
  With The Great Spirit on his side
  
  Someone walks among us
  And I hope he hears the call
  And maybe it's a woman
  Or a black man afterall
  
  (There is an underlying implication that Righteousness ordained by a higher power is what makes a person a leader...otherwise why would a person have to hear the call. Lincoln said it best when asked if God was on his side, saying he thought it more important to figure out how to be on God's side.)
  
  - Roger and Out
  
  good buddy
  
  
  - America The Beautiful
  
  Only God can bless a country where dissent is so openly accepted, because men are so damn spiteful and they prefer to quash it. Left or Right. Makes no difference.
  
  America is The Beautiful Place To Be. And Neil knows it. That he sees some of the details differently from me -- well that's a big so what in my estimation. We have a lot in common. God Bless Neil.
  
  
  
• Not horrible
  By A1D8QXJUV39Q5D on 2006-05-09
  But not good, by Neil's standards.
  
  The lyrics are boring and so is much of the music.
  
  While this is not as bad as Landing on Water, Life or Are You Passionate, it probably is worse than any other Neil album.
  
  Many people blindly praise this album because Neil shares their dislike of Bush. Dislike of Bush does not make a good record.
  
  
• YES YES! THANK YOU NEIL!!!
  By A32C9S048023EM on 2006-05-14
  It's about time someone came right out and said it "Let's Impeach The President." Sure, there have been many great protest songs against Bush and the Iraq War: Springsteen's "Devils and Dust", Reznor's "The Hand That Feeds", and Pearl Jam's "World Wide Suicide." But here is the difference between those and this. Not that there is a problem with what they did, they used clever words and poetry to protest Bush, which was good, don't get me wrong. But let's face it folks, we're in America, people don't listen, they just hear. As great as these songs are, they're not pushing any revolutions. It's about time someone came out and shouted out we have to get this idiot out of power. Good for you Neil. Also this album isn't just incredible for the message, it's one of Young's best albums since the days of Rust Never Sleeps. Good for you Neil!
  
  
• freedom fighter
  By AGRV5YVOWG0F8 on 2006-05-08
  neil young has produced a record with truth. george w. bush has reigned in an era of war long enough, and this album is the cry of the people.
  
  
• Already an American Classic
  By A3080YC6R9G303 on 2006-05-12
  "Living With War" is much more than just some of the best and most on-target protest songs to hit the mainstream airwaves in years. Every song on the album is a tribute to America and, even moreso, to average Americans. From "Families" and "Flags of Freedom" to "Lookin' for a Leader", "Shock and Awe" and, yes, "Let's Impeach the President," each song emphasizes exactly what the current administration does not - putting the needs of the American public ahead of self-serving government hacks, corporate lobbyists, and military chickenhawks.
  
  To say the least, this is one of Neil Young's harder, more aggressive albums in years, and that's good. After all, Neil is at his electric best when he's motivated, and for this collection of songs, he was HIGHLY motivated by the lies, deceit, corruption, and war mongering of the Bush Administration and its Republican accolytes in Congress.
  
  Of course, the same rightwingers who lauded Young for his "Let's Roll" tribute to the victims of Flight 93 now lambast him for his Canadian birth. If anything, though, we should all be asking ourselves why it took a Canadian to write and perform such potent and meaningful protest songs on our behalf. And we should be thanking him, not questioning his right to speak out.
  
  If you do enjoy "Living With War," as I do, I also recommend you check out the EP "Support the Truth" by the band Jim's Big Ego. On it, Jim is at least as angry as Neil, albeit a little funnier and more inclined to profanity, which is why you may not hear much of it on the radio.
  
  Roger and out.
  
  
• Ol' Neil rocks in the free world
  By A3J6GVLYFFCVGB on 2006-05-14
  This album is loud and sloppy. Under-rehearsed and under-produced. Same three or four chords. Occasionally simplistic and naive. Above all, heartfelt and passionate. In other words, a classic Neil Young record.
  
  As a lifelong Neil Young fan, it's difficult to believe that anyone claiming to be a fan is surprised and turned off by Neil's direction on this one. Neil's frequently played around with his persona, but his songs have always been pro-humanity, pro-environment, pro-justice and pro-peace. Maybe some people just listened to the chorus of songs like "Rockin' in the Free World" and didn't pay attention to the rest of the song (much as many people misinterpreted Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A.").
  
  There's no mistaking Neil's angle this time. He's PO'd, and tired of being fed a steady diet of manipulative sloganeering, not unlike a lot of people. Neil is in the fortunate position of being able to plug in, turn up and give voice to this frustration.
  
  It works. Songs such as "After the Garden," "Let's Impeach the President," and the title track rank up there with Neil's rawk classics "Cinnamon Girl," "Hey Hey My My," and the aforementioned "Rockin' in the Free World." The closing track, a simple gospel arrangement of "America the Beautiful" is understated and moving: Even the most ardent lefty will find his inner patriot and sing along.
  
  Neil Young, the Canadian citizen, has based himself in the U.S.A. for 40 years. He has enriched our culture with his music. He has contributed to our economy by recording here, hiring American musicians, buying property (and protecting the wildlife on it), and paying taxes. His wife and kids are American citizens. Neil Young, the Canadian, has done more for American farmers, disabled and underprivileged than anyone in Washington. He's paid his dues, and can say what he wants. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Roger and out.
  
  
• Sorry Neil...but
  By A16OD26K1COB7E on 2006-06-08
  We don't need overly jingoistic political rhetoric at a time when what the world needs is globalised, humanised thinking.
  
  If you wanted to do something good, go to the front line in Afghanistan or Iraq and work for the Red Cross. Spare us the self righteous grunge rock rubbish that is "Living With War".
  
  Look to your contemporary, Paul Simon on how to grow old with grace.
  
  
  
  
• A Novelty Item
  By A3J5ONMWX0S2FJ on 2006-05-09
  I felt compelled to write this review because I was tired of reading comments on Living with War (by professionals and customers alike) that ran in one of two ways: 1. George Bush lied to the American people and lead us into an unjust war and therefore the new Neil Young album is his best album in 30 years, or 2. Neil Young is a Canadian and a rich California liberal out of touch with the average American and so this album isn't worth listening to.
  As a long time Neil Young fan who owns just about everything he's ever put out, I am disappointed that people have little to nothing to say about the music itself and so I figured I'd throw in my two cents. This album sounds like exactly what it is: a hastily recorded novelty item. Now that isn't exactly a bad thing, since the subject matter could lend itself well to that forum, but Young seems to come up a little bit short. He has always been notorious for spending a significant amount of time working and re-working his tracks and so these songs seem half-finished when compared to his other work. First of all, the lyrics tend to ramble quite a bit. Neil Young's social commentary is always at its best when he is getting at the heart of the matter by talking around an issue through extended metaphor. Think `After the Gold Rush', or the song which Living with War is often being compared to, `Ohio'. The lyrics of these old songs are very cerebral and he says more about the subject by NOT coming right out and saying it. In contrast, the lyrics of Living with War could be from almost anyone on the left wing. They lack that personal Neil Young touch which has made his social commentary so vital and timeless for the last 40 years.
  Lyrics aside though, the real point where Living with War suffers from its lack of studio gestation period is in the music. The songs all seem to blend together with recycled chords from old songs and a sorely missed lack of musical changes. Much like the recent Greendale album, Neil Young is so busy saying what he has to say that he seems to lose his musical focus. Also, the 100-person chorus, which I guess is supposed to symbolize the millions of people that oppose the war in Iraq, sounds out of place more often than not. Finally, Young's vocals could have certainly used some re-recording since he hits a bad note or two in almost every song.
  All of this is not to say that the album is not worth listening to or that you shouldn't purchase it - I personally will take Neil Young wherever I can get him - but you should know what this album is. It is basically an unpolished novelty item which probably would have been best marketed as a low-distribution EP than as a legitimate album. It is a bit of a flawed gem. Despite its less-than-stellar quality, Neil Young fans should appreciate it because it shows that the old man is not going to be content to pack up his career in moth balls and run the classic rock circuit playing 30-year old songs like many of his contemporaries.
  
  
  
  
  
• DUD
  By A2ACE3XLR693IS on 2006-05-19
  Just what we need,another musician telling us what's wrong with the US.Does anybody really ask an artist or actor who they should vote for come election time.I hate politics in music.You want something to complain about,how about the price of tickets he's charging for his reunion tour this summer.$$$$200.Do they pay that in Canada??
  
  
• Oh, the inanity!
  By A1MVLC8E5WJDD3 on 2006-06-18
  Let me start by saying that I have been a huge Neil Young fan for many years now, when he is at his best Mr. Young is among the most brilliant songwriters rock and roll has ever seen. I am also a lifelong leftie, staunchly liberal, a virulent opposer of all things Bush. So I should really love this CD, right? Well, no. For the same reason that the Stones' Sweet Neocon is a bad song, for the same reason that Crash is a bad film, Living With War is a really lousy album. That reason is subtlety, rather the lack thereof. Having a healthy dose of righteous indignation and a valid message aren't enough to qualify as great art, the message should be delivered with a certain degree of finesse. But Neil might as well have titled this CD Bush Is A Bad President for the amount of subtlety he invests in the project. Well, okay, Bush IS a bad president. That doesn't make this album good. Living With War is an embarrassment.
  
  All art is political to a certain extent, certainly Neil Young's art is political even when he isn't overtly singing about political issues. His best songs, On the Beach, Ambulence Blues, Crime in the City, to name a few, are cryptic tales of alienation, they show an affinity for society's outcasts, the disenfranchised, these are narratives that are perfectly suited to Neil's wounded coyote voice, and that, in its own way, is political, his music comments on society in a chilling and unforgettable way while still maintaining a certain amount of mystery. Even Southern Man and Rockin' in the Free World, which are more obviously about political issues, are great songs because the lyrics are powerful and poetic and the music is exemplary. Maybe I could have forgiven the political bludgeoning that is Living With War if the lyrics showed even the slightest traces of poetry or insight, or if the music were halfway decent, or if there were a few low key, trenchant numbers added into the mix. But the album is a wall-to-wall polemic, the inane rantings of a tired and burnt out hippie incapable of putting forth a complex argument. Even worse, the music containing this drivel is hamfisted, derivative, often laughable. Okay, the points Neil makes are all valid, in fact they are tragically correct. This country is on the wrong path. The war in Iraq is a wrongheaded endeavor. But he makes these points in such an inane fashion that his arguments lack heft. Surely the left can do better than this. We know Neil Young can do better.
  
  The right wing should be embarrassed by the likes of Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. Well, I'm embarrassed by the Neil Young of Living With War. Now more than ever, we liberals need to portray ourselves as thoughtful, sober, and respectful of the intelligence of the American people. It doesn't help our cause to have a spokesperson who is whiny and one-dimensional, who pounds out his message in simplistic slogans and heavyhanded rhythms a two-year-old would have no trouble comprehending. We need to raise the level of discourse above simply shouting at the top of our lungs, War is bad! We need an anti-Bush album that has the intelligence to match its convictions.
  
  Sorry, Neil. Still love you. Maybe next time.
  
  
• Powerful and Passionate
  By A33KHBDQNNL5GB on 2006-05-10
  Neil's best work in years. I pity the ignorant brainwashed faux news believing zombies. It is obviously difficult for them to hear and enjoy good music when they have their head up their @$$.
  
  
• Neil in '08
  By AQ083WB54LX13 on 2006-05-10
  People who are pooh pooh-ing this record, or calling him a traitor,or out-of touch, or whatever need to pull their heads out of their collective behinds and listen to the first really genuinely angry album in years. The lyrics are blunt and to the point, and the whole thing sounds like it was thrown together in a hasty rage (which it was). There hasn't been a record this spite-filled since the punk movement. Long live Neil. Long live free speech.
  
  
• NY's Weakest Musical Effort To Date
  By ARHRESNV7BGL8 on 2006-05-10
  I'm not a fair weather fan. I've seen Neil in 15 different venues and get a taste of his work almost daily. It's too bad Neil just needed to be heard and hastily pushed out a very weak album.
  
  1. After the Garden is Gone: Catchy tune with big bass lines. "Don't need no purple haze". Good introduction to the political message that is about to follow.
  2. Living with War: Title track with more big bass lines and subtle old black distortion. "The rockets red glare, bombs bursting in the air", chorus could send a chill up and down ones spine. Horn section gives it a feeling of a military band accompaniment.
  3. The Restless Consumer: This is Neil's take on rapping and he presents it in the tone of Grandpa, had he lived another day in Greendale. The drum beat resembles an old unnoticed NY album, "Landing on Water".
  4. Shock and Awe: "Back in the old days of shock and awe". If one remembers, Neil supported GW at this time...but now seems pissed that we were handed the "mission accomplished" BS. A mariachi trumpet solo makes me smile and then think of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" playing on the TV again.
  5. Families: Does Neil have a child in the war? Didn't think so, but he sure knows how everyone feels. Couldn't wait for the song to end.
  6. Flags of Freedom: One of Neil's weaker anthem songs. At this point I'm wondering why he made the album. Guess he needed to be heard, or he wants to be Springsteen or REM when he gets real big. Worst harmonica solo to date, sounds like Bruce could have filled in on this one, as well.
  7. Let's Impeach the President: It was during this song that I decided not to purchase the album. If Neil thinks GW blew up the New Orlean's levies...well, I'm embarrassed. I believe Bono get's invited back to the White House before Neil ever does.
  8. Lookin' For A Leader: I can see Michael Moore playing air guitar in his underwear, and it ain't pretty.
  9. Roger And Out: The only song on the album with any real musical value. True to his sound, without the political whining.
  "That's when we named it the hippie highway...I still call it that today".
  10. America The Beautiful: Whatever...Neil is my hero. What a patriot! Safe to say, I might be joking.
  
  
• An artistic triumph and breakthrough for Neil Young
  By A38U3JIQWUON8P on 2006-05-12
  This is a masterpiece, an artistic triumph, and, incredibly, even a breakthrough for Neil, as far as I'm concerned. All professional reviews (and most amateur ones) I've read or heard have absolutely undersold this album. I'm not hedging like the professional critics. I love this as much as I love "Ragged Glory" or any other classic Neil album, but it reminds me most of Ragged Glory. It deserves a place in Neil's cannon of great works, but that will be tough because of the iconic status since acquired by his classics. Neil is impassioned. His songwriting is inspired. The choral group and the trumpet add the perfect flourishes of majesty and urgency. The social and political commentary is suprisingly clever and witty, and only propels, rather than drags down, the rhthymic pace and tunefulness of the songs. Not an easy task. Sustaining this sublime melding of commentary, melody and rhythm over a whole album marks a musical breakthrough for Mr. Young. It is impossible to not be impressed by the listening experience provided by "Living with War." Buy it now and turn it up!
  
  
  
• Vintage Neil Young
  By AIJ0GL15GAFW5 on 2006-05-13
  The best Neil Young album since Harvest!
  
  As a retired Air Force Medic and a veteran of both Viet Nam and the Gulf War, I feel that I have the credibility to comment on Neil's new album. The lyrics to these songs are powerful and make you stop and think regardless of your beliefs and opinions.
  It is certainly not anti-American or unpatriotic as some have suggested. Thanks to Neil for saying things many Americans and Veterans feel, but somehow, couldn't say themselves.
  
  
• 99% Politics, 1% Music
  By A349ACTAPDEXKR on 2006-06-02
  Sure, I enjoyed Harvest, CSNY and the Crazy Horse stuff. But let's be honest about his most recent effort. The prodution and arrangement is horrible and Neil's voice has never sounded more like Popeye's whiney girlfriend Olive Oil. I don't mind the guy using politics to sell records. Much of his best material was political. But at least in the old days he complemented his opinions with memorable music.
  
  
• A simple review of the MUSIC.
  By AHPFPYZEF1PZK on 2006-05-10
  I think this is his best ablum in 16 years. I thought "Sleeps With Angles" and "Greendale" had their moments of brillance, and "Harvest Moon" and "Silver And Gold" were pretty good, but the rest of his albums since 1990 has bored me. "Broken Arrow" was ok but it was a disappointment compared to his other Crazy Horse albums. "Are You Passionate?" simply did nothing for me, and even though I was and kinda still am a Pearl Jam fan I hated "Mirror Ball. With that said I think this album is his best since "Ragged Glory". It might not be a classic like "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere", "After The Gold Rush, "Tonight's The Night", or "Rust Never Sleeps" but I can't see how any fan of Neil Young would give it anything less than 3 stars. If you are a Republican I can see how the lyrics would get on your nerves, but I'm not reviewing the lyrics I'm reviewing the music. Even the biggest Republican should be able to do some toe tapping to "Let's Impeach The President".
  
  
• Just a thought....
  By A3NSIDBJZO0CQC on 2006-05-10
  Neil Young and his admirers here on Amazon and Democratic Underground, Daily Kos, et al might want to think about this: He lives and works in a country where he can spout off this kind of stuff and all that happens is some people decry his lack of sense, say he should go back to Canada, etc. Now, what would happen to him if he were Iraqi, Iranian, name the Muslim country of your choice (or, at times, some European countries)? Prison, beheading, shredding...DEATH. The people living under that kind of oppression don't deserve the freedom Neil has in America-is that what I'm to understand? They can live in daily fear but at least Neil can "stick it to the man" as one other reviewer wrote. Doesn't seem like Neil is all that bold and fearless to me.
  
  
• There's no mission accomplished here, just death to thousands
  By A9D5ASSJ3XVPM on 2006-05-14
  For an insight as to what this album is all about, I think Neil Young summed it up best in a CNN interview: "This is about exchanging ideas, it's about getting a message out, it's about empowering people by giving them a voice. I know not everyone believes what I say is what they think. But like I said before, red and blue is not black and white. We're all together. It's a record about unification....Living with war and having a conscience is what we're doing. If you have a conscience you can't go through your day without realizing what's going on, and questioning it, and going, 'is this right'? We have to be cognizant of the fact that we can make mistakes. That's part of freedom. We don't all have to believe what our president believes to be patriotic."
  
  This album is both healing and cathartic, and a tremendous gift to all of us who are living with war every day. For me, personally, it serves as a very pure and creative articulation for a lot of feelings I couldn't put into words --- mostly feelings of frustration, anger, and disillusionment. The best expression is probably "Shock And Awe", but the entire album flows beautifully, with each song telling its own unique story. People should be aware that this isn't an entire album dedicated to bashing Bush, but rather one artist's interpretation of the whole experience of living with war. Thank you so much, Neil, for exchanging your ideas, getting your message out, and empowering us with your voice.
  
  
• Not your father's Neil Young
  By A15GI5R37AGWME on 2006-05-14
  If you are old enough to remember growing up during the Vietnam War (mostly Boomers) it is hard, with perhaps the exception of Country Joe and the Fish, to recall a single LP or artist who took on that war as bluntly and directly as Neil Young has taken on this most recent one in "Living with War." Even his own work of the sixties and seventies with Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and Crazy Horse wasn't the .44 Magnum pointed straight at the enemies of peace. Some of it was more hippie anthems of independence and resistance than expressions of rage and frustration. Of course, his new disc doesn't limit its outrage to the Iraq war. He aims straight between the lyin' eyes of the current government and pulls the trigger with a sonic blast of guitar distortion and moral outrage. Not all Young fans will be fully satisfied with the disc. It is obvious that it was hurriedly created and rushed into production and release. By using just a power trio instead of the Crazy Horse quartet instrumention as the basic ensemble the disc doesn't deliver quite the sonic power of say, "Weld." Even Young's playing is a little more laid back in the solos. There aren't really any of the nearly out of control, wailing solos that trademarked Crazy Horse performances. He uses fuzz on almost all of the tracks and the engineering doesn't produce the sound quality that you normally expect with any Young effort. Which leads to the writing. Musically the effort is there but the results are uneven. "Shock and Awe" is a certified Neil Young rocker with as jagged an edge as you could want; but "Let's Impeach The President" is kind of bland musically. As for the lyrics let's just say that the Young fans who rank him up there as one of the five or so best singer/songwriters since the birth of rock 'n roll won't necessarily add this disc to the body of work that put him there. These songs are bareknuckle, up-against-the-wall-motherf&^%$#@r protest songs that aren't going to be coddled by the elliptical lyricism of, for example, one of his masterpieces, "Harvest Moon." Nosirree, Neil's mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. So mad, in fact, that he not only pays homage to the man at the musical epicenter of the protest movements of the sixties -- Bob Dylan -- he puts Dylan front and center in "Flags of Freedom." It's almost as if Young conciously decided that the message was so important that he wasn't about to let it get lost in poetry. And, indeed, the message is important, whether you are liberal, conservative or anything in between. As Young himself asks in the first track of the disc "After The Garden": "Where will people go?/What will people know?/After the garden is gone?" No, Neil's not talking about "some knights in armor comin' sayin' something about a queen." That was after the gold rush. We are perched now at the precipice and the message has to be more direct, at least in Neil's view. I don't know if this disc will become a classic. But I do know that it is an important disc if only because, sadly, the protest genre is so utterly uncrowded these days. Young, at least, remembers that rock and roll will never die, but only if it stays politically healthy. (BTW the one-star rating is a mistake. I meant to give it four stars and simply hit a wrong key when I was editing. Sorry, for the inadvertant mislabelling.)
  
  
• response to: "A Reader" (Bridgewater, NJ USA)
  By A2YLKCSOYOJLB1 on 2006-05-10
  "George W. Bush makes important decisions based on what he thinks is right, on what is best for the world..."
  
  WHAT IS BEST FOR THE WORLD?!
  
  Since when did we ask him to fix the world?! He is the president of the United States (much to our disgust)
  
  NOT THE PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD! (thanks be to god)
  
  To the "reader" who put out the review. Why don't you pay for my
  GAS?
  
  
  BTW: My favorite song so far is "Let's Impeach the President". It just puts my hairs on end. I was wondering what happened to America, I was wondering how long we would sit in silence...I am so glad that Neil Young had the guts to stand up for us.
  
  We should stand up behind him...blast this CD on your car stereo with the windows down everyday at least once a day! make sure to play my favorite track "Let's Impeach the President"... Can we get back to the summer of 67? I doubt it, but it's nice to dream.
  
  
  
  

• Prairie Wind
• Neil Young - Heart of Gold
• Chrome Dreams II
• Modern Times
• Taking the Long Way