Will Neil Young's "Living With War" be Rock's "Farenheit 9/11"?
Fri Apr 14, 2006 at 09:52:44 PM PST
Music and political blogs have been buzzing today with news that Neil Young will soon be releasing an album called "Living With War." From everything I've read, it sounds scorching -- by the time Bush and his cronies get the Neil Young treatment, Michael Moore will look like a pussycat.
Late today, Neil confirmed the rumors. Reportedly written and recorded in a three-day creative burst, it sounds a return to Neil's "Rust Never Sleeps," proto-grunge style. As Neil himself describes it on his website, it's "Metal folk protest" music in the tradition of Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs.
Is Neil Young a great artist? Definitely. Does this have potential to be a great album? It sounds like it. Is this going to be the most controversial album of the year? Reaction in the last twelve hours says yes. It will be to the midterm elections what "Farenheit 9/11" was to the 2004 election.
The definitive Neil Young site
Thrasher's Wheat has done the hard work of assembling reaction from musical and political bloggers. In the roughly twelve hours since this story broke (I first caught it this morning on
Atrios) reports and speculation about the album have been rampant.
The centerpiece appears to be a song called "Impeach the President." Down with Tyranny claims to have gotten a preview of the album today. Its early, euphoric review notes that it sounds like the former Reaganite has become a Daily Kos convert:
Ok; first: the album is beyond belief. I mean it's so great I was jumping out of my skin. That's the good news. The less good news is that they wouldn't play it for me unless I agreed not to write about it for "a few days." (Not even the label has heard it yet and they felt it would be impolite for me to go blabbing the whole story all over the world until after they get to play it for Reprise and the NY Times.) So what can I tell you before "a few days?" Not much. From the time Neil started writing the songs until he finished recording the whole incredible project: 9 days.
Every song is about... you know what (and who). Musically it is so powerful and emotionally it's even more powerful that that!! Many tears while I sat alone with the headset on. Since I already mentioned "Let's Impeach the President," I'll just say a few things about that. It's this great rocker that ends as a gospel song and reads like an indictment. I mean Neil sounds like he's been reading Daily KOS or FireLakeDog! Someone's gotta get this to Henry Waxman! Neil even lays out some evidence in the form of Bush running his mouth on tape.
Will this go down as Neil's greatest album ever? It will be a contender musically. And the impact lyrically could be profound. I'll talk more about that when my period of musical purdah is up next week. If you're walking down the street and someone comes up to you and offers you the opportunity to hear just one song, ask him to play "Flags of Freedom." (Have kleenex handy.)
Singer Alicia Morgan gives a rundown of the recording session:
On Wednesday, I was at work when I got a call for a Neil Young session the next day. Needless to say, I was excited about it - Neil Young is one of my musical heroes. When my husband and I got to Capitol, we found 98 other singers, a collection of L.A.'s finest. All I knew was that we were singing on a new Neil Young record, but when the lyrics we were supposed to sing flashed on the giant screen, a roar went up from the choir. I'm not going to give the whole thing away, but the first line of one of the songs was "Let's impeach the President for lyin'!" Turns out the whole thing is a classic beautiful protest record. The session was like being at a 12-hour peace rally. Every time new lyrics would come up on the screen, there were cheers, tears and applause. It was a spiritual experience. I can't believe my good fortune at being a part of this.
I got a chance to talk with Neil for a minute, and I told him that every word of every song expressed what I've been screaming about since 2000. I've never been at a recording session that was more like being at church. Heck, I've never been to a church that was more like a church than that session. We stood up for 12 hours (except for lunch and dinner) and I got a massive headache by the end, but I didn't care. It was worth the price of admission. We finished the session by singing an a capella version of "America the Beautiful" and there was not a dry eye in the house.
Some of the reactions gathered on the normally apolitical Thrasher's Wheat show Bush's zombies in early meltdown. Relatedly, the fucktarded teenagers now running Wonkette kick in with a little xenophobia:
That really sounds like the absolute worst song ever recorded. Though at least he left himself open to future political stands by leaving the title generic like that.
Neil, we hate to be the ones to remind you, but you're Canadian. You guys dissolved your parliament or whatever it's called like last week, isn't there a grace period before you go around kicking out other people's elected officers? Sure, "Pass of Motion of No Confidence, Necessitating a General Election That Will Hopefully Result In the Appointment of a New Prime Minister" isn't as catchy a title, but if you're releasing three-day albums now, you can't be too picky.
And why bitch? Under the President's new immigration plan, you'll be allowed to stay in California for upwards of six years if you register as a guest worker!
It might turn out that Neil is preaching to the choir, but there's no one I'd rather hear preach. I know a lot of people haven't gotten over some of the pro-Reagan comments that he made in the '80s, and his post September 11 song "Let's Roll" risked putting him in the Ted Nugent category. But Neil rarely has been a partisan. His recent "Greendale" album is a long, beautiful condemnation of the collapse of the press and the loss of community after 9/11. "Rockin' in the Free World" was the perfect end note to Michael Moore's own jeremiad. As noted elsewhere, when Neil Young connects, he hits them out of the park.
I can't wait.
While we're at it, check out
Cool Blue's Diary
making note of this album and giving a shout for classic protest songs.
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