Neil Young's harsh words
To anyone who's followed Neil Young's socially crusading, four-decade musical career, it was hardly a surprise to learn earlier this week that he's just recorded a 10-song collection that takes President Bush to task and sharply criticizes the war in Iraq.
The real surprise for Young loyalists is that it took him so long. As the veteran rocker explains it, he was finally moved to record the album, "Living With War," in a two-week burst of creativity after his patience with Generation Next ran out.
"I was waiting for someone to come along, some young singer 18 to 22 years old, to write these songs and stand up," Young said. "I waited a long time. Then, I decided that maybe the generation that has to do this is still the '60s generation. We're still here."
The album's explosive centerpiece is "Let's Impeach the President." Over an urgent, guitar-driven backdrop, Young sings:
"Let's impeach the president for abusing all the power we gave him and shipping all our money out the door.
Let's impeach the president for bending the facts to fit their new story of why we have to send our men to war."
In Young's view, the number is more than simply a political diatribe; it's an affirmation of free speech.
"You're always going to rub somebody the wrong way when you sing 'let's impeach the president,' " Young said. "But that's what this country's all about -- being able to express your views." Warner Bros. Records executives heard the 10-song set for the first time this week. Though news of the aggressive anti-Bush tone had already led to a flurry of comments on blogs. (Young's manager, Elliot Roberts, also played the CD for The Times.)
But "Impeach," with its mocking use of Bush sound bites, represents only one side of Young's emotional reaction to the war in the CD.
The collection is by turns empathetic toward soldiers' families and scornful of runaway consumer culture. With a nod to '60s protest music, Young shares his optimism and outrage -- at social ills including religious zealotry and patriotism run amok.
There is more anger, most notably the reference to Bush's famous 2003 "one victory" remarks against the backdrop of a "Mission Accomplished" banner atop an aircraft carrier deck, which the singer ridicules in the song, "Shock and Awe."
