Lefting and then righting/ It's not a crime, you know. That line from "Are You Ready for the Country?" could be the motto for Neil Young's career, which has seen him swing from denunciations of Richard Nixon to admiration for Ronald Reagan, from swipes at anti-choice jihadis to salutes to the Patriot Act. On his upcoming record Living With War, Neil is lefting with a vengeance, and the chance to take a few shots at George W. Bush has been a tonic for his songwriting, judging from the lyrics filtering out via his web site.
It's also encouraged him to maintain a higher profile than he's done in years — now Neil's even got a blog. And check out the video of the man calling for impeachment of the Liar/Leaker/Loony/Lackey in Chief.
For a hint of the reaction that's in store for Living With War, here's a guest post at Andrew Sullivan's site that no doubt presages a massive wave of wankery to come. Walter Kirn harrumphs that while he's a Neil Young fan, he isn't sure he wants to hear the new release because "his musical protests this time will come with a stamp of cultural approval and a solid-gold provenance that will make them too respectable, I fear."
"Too respectable, I fear" — I love it when mass-media pundits adopt that more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger pose. Especially when it's accompanied by cultural amnesia. When Neil wrote his earliest political songs — e.g., "Ohio," "Southern Man," "Campaigner" — he was a superstar whose concerts drew crowds that filled stadiums and whose records scaled the upper reaches of the charts. While Young's status as a classic rock icon is unassailable, he doesn't have anything like the commercial clout he used to enjoy, and raising his voice against the Boy Who Would Be Emperor will only open him up to the kind of relentless slime attack endured by the Dixie Chicks. How long will it take before Sean Hannity and the other professional smoke-blowers at Fox News announce they never really liked Rust Never Sleeps anyway? How long before Bay Area head case Michael Savage starts talking about Young's kids?
Article comments
1 - Bert
Let's stop beating around the bush, rocking around the clock, and just tell bush to hit the road jack, and take that midnight train to georgia, or texas, but don't call us, we'll call you. No more silly love songs, no more red balloons, and we don't need us no convoy, just get back on that big ol' jet airliner, George, and we won't be missing you at all! LOLOLOL