Neil Young: Impeach the President

Earlier this year, Neil Young told Rolling Stone,"I'm always going from one extreme to another." True to form, just months after the release of his studio album Prairie Wind, the legendary singer-songwriter is returning with the incredibly politically charged Living With War. On the album, whipped up in just two angry weeks earlier this month, Young takes aim at the war in Iraq and President Bush -- through songs including the Bush-basher "Let's Impeach the President."

Living With War features what Young describes on his Web site as "metal folk protest" and "a metal version of Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan," recorded with "a power trio with trumpet and 100 voices." Other songs include "Lookin' for a Leader" and the title track, the lyrics of which are partly available on the site:

I'm living with war in my heart everyday/. . . and on the flat screen we kill and we're killed again/and when the night falls, I pray for peace.

While the war certainly remains a divisive topic, it's unlikely that Young is worried about alienating any fans. "There are things that I've done that have been hard for people to get into," Young told Rolling Stone. "They haven't liked everything. They want me to do the same thing over and over, and they think I'm inconsistent and erratic when I don't. That's a very narrow viewpoint, I think."

"I just try to stay open," he added. "I'm happy when I have a new idea, when my music turns a corner."

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Song Stories

“The A Team”

Ed Sheeran | 2011

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.

More Song Stories entries »

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