Album Reviews
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View Living With War is one man's opinion: Young reports, you decide. But it is an indictment of the sorry state of open debate in this country -- and its rock & roll -- that the most direct, public and inspiring challenge to the Bush presidency this year has been made by a sixty-year-old Canadian-born singer-songwriter who, even at his most apoplectic, can't resist a line like "trippin' down the old hippie highway" ("Roger and Out"). It is also an impressive measure of Young's refusal to burn out or fade away that he states his case with clarity as well as dirty garage-trio momentum. For me, the most damning lines in "Let's Impeach the President" have nothing to do with Iraq and everything to do with Washington's shameful delinquency at home: "What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees?/Would New Orleans have been safer that way/Sheltered by our government's protection?"
Young has stuck his neck out before, not always in the expected direction ("Even Richard Nixon has got soul," he noted in "Campaigner"). But he has not written and recorded with such emergency since "Ohio." You can hear the haste in the sometimes odd balance of Young's strangled tenor and the gospel army behind him. And many songs are built on mantralike repetition: Young's chanting of "Don't need/No more lies" in "The Restless Consumer," the circular worry in the melody of the title song. But much of the album is set to the rhythm of Vietnam repeating itself. In "Flags of Freedom," a young girl watches her brother march off to certain death to a chorus that echoes Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom." And since the White House ensures that we don't see the soaring price of Iraq -- the coffins coming home -- on the evening news, Young has trumpeter Tom Bray blow a bruised, elegiac solo for the dead in "Shock and Awe," against sandstorm guitar and the harsh splash of drummer Chad Cromwell's cymbals.
Right-wing foghorns will go to town with the fact that Young is not a U.S. citizen, even though he has lived here since the late Sixties and has three American-born children who will have to live through the consequences to come. But at the end of the album, Young lets America speak for itself, in the choir's Sunday-prayer-meeting delivery of "America the Beautiful." There is no irony, anger or guitars, just faith and a final warning that until we truly live up to the perfection in the final verse -- "Brotherhood/From sea to shining sea" -- no one has the right to say, "Mission accomplished."
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- After The Garden
- Living With War
- Restless Consumer
- Shock & Awe
- Families
- Flags of Freedom
- Let's Impeach The President
- Looking For A Leader
- Roger And Out
- America The Beautiful
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Your Turn
Review 1 of 17
pink1tat writes:
This disk was awesome. It is time America wakes up, the truth hurts and it shall set you free! Too many people have died in this stupid Iraq war for NOTHING! Neil can say what he wants, and there is nothing you or anyone can do to shut him up. If you do not like it then stand aside. He has been in this business for a long time; just listen to the words of all his songs that has span a number of generations. He ROCKS; EOM
May 25, 2007 03:35:43
Review 2 of 17
Binxsy writes:
I borrowed this album from a friend. I like
Neil Young, I have 3 or 4 LP's of his I am
proud of finding/owning. But this album pissed
me off, the entire album seemd to sound the
same. The song Restlss Consumer made me feal
sick. The bacround vocals did not fit, Im not
shure if it was his attempt at modren sound but
this is horrible. And the insturmental parts
are boring, impeach the president sounds like a
spew of differant songs.
Dont buy this album get one of his old ones or
something he did while he was with crosby
stills and nash.
Nov 5, 2006 21:16:55
Review 3 of 17
Thrasher writes:
Back in those old Folksy days. The air was magic when he played. Neil has got the magic and the passion back with LWW.
Like the "On the Beach" cover Neil turns his back on Bush as he did with Nixon. I prefer living with Neil ( aka LWN ) anytime to those "shadow Men"
Jul 11, 2006 16:35:24
Review 4 of 17
Thrasher writes:
Back in those old Folksy days. The air was magic when he played. Neil has got the magic and the passion back with LWW.
Like the "On the Beach" cover Neil turns his back on Bush as he did with Nixon. I prefer living with Neil ( aka LWN ) anytime to those "shadow Men"
Jul 11, 2006 16:35:24
Review 5 of 17
lfm56 writes:
Living With War is Lennon-esque. It is grunge on steriods. The truth hurts!
May 31, 2006 15:25:18
Review 6 of 17
Longhunter writes:
Once again, this just proves that celebrities have almost zero grasp of what is really happening in the world. Yes, we can take our frustrations out on the President, we can protest all war, and we could all sit down and write little songs to try and bring back our somewhat jaded past, but it isn't reality. Having had a son who fought in Iraq, I was somewhat amazed to find that he himself had seen a few of Saddam's training camps built to help out his terrorist friends......WMD's be damned, violations of U.N. accords set aside, this brings back the sadness of 9/11, a truly righteous fight for America if there ever was one. That is reality.
Neil didn't impress me much years back, and he still falls flat today. I can only recall the quote of that great Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, "A Southern man don't need him around!"
Maybe he should go home to Canada,as most Americans that I know, don't really want him around either.
May 29, 2006 09:32:57
Review 7 of 17
portuguesepete writes:
Neil Young's Living With War is only shocking because it is so unsual that songwriters actually have anything to say these days. And of course, it had to fall on a "sixties" type to do it. Where are the new songwriters? (Besides the brave Dixie Chicks who got caught up in a controversy not related to their music)
So when a songwriter actually takes a stand on something it gets some people's goats because they have been numbed by listening to so many mindless lyrics. I personally think that Young's lyrics could have been a bit more subtle, but due to the fact that he is carrying a huge load for the absence of any outrage from most of contemporary songwriters, he probably felt the need to bludgeon what passes for foreign policy these days. Let's hope that some other songwriters step up to the plate and put their two cents in. There is so much to be upset about, it is almost incomprehensible that more artists have not taken to express themselves.
May 23, 2006 07:16:19
Review 8 of 17
conrad writes:
If I wanted to listen to politics, I would have tuned to CNN. I have been a long-time fan, but when artists start abusing their position to spew their own political beliefs, I hit the off button. Why is Neil any more qualified to speak on these issues? Because he has great musical talent?
May 19, 2006 17:14:41
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