Three things can be said of Neil Young's upcoming new album. It's anti-war. It's anti-Bush. And it's very, very loud.
You've got to hand it to Neil Young. The man definitely defies convention. For some four decades now, he has made a career of doing the unexpected. Where many other artists - especially those of Young's generation who have endured the way he has - often have chosen the path of least commercial resistance, he has consistently followed his artistic instincts.…
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— go to most recent comments26 - Glen Boyd
Vern,
Actually the line was "Even Richard Nixon has got soul" from the song Campaigner.
It was definitely meant to be tongue in cheek by the way.
Also...I have a confession to make...I owned a few GFR records when I was in Jr. High and I even went to a few of their concerts.
Steppenwolf too come to think of it.
For a basically pretty dumb band, they we're also a lot of harmless fun,
So there ya go.
Glen
27 - Glen Boyd
So DJ Radiohead...that was quite the tiff you and Rodney got into today. I was half tempted to send you two kids into seperate corners for a bit there...LOL
Still DJ...Neil Young doesn't merit your contempt?
Hey I wasn't a big fan of Greendale either. And no one says you have to like the guy (just as no one says I have to like...the Grateful Dead for example).
But you got a little vitriolic there for a minute.
Surprising...because you are on most days pretty much the consumate gentleman.
LOL....
Glen
28 - Vern Halen
Thanx, Mr. Boyd. I don't think I've listened to that song or even that album (Hawks & Doves?) since about the time it came out. Maybe I ought to give it a spin tonight.
My favorite Grand Funk moment is the album Grand Funk Live Album, Side 4, where the song "Into the Sun" takes up the entire side. In the last half of the song, the distortion of the guitar, the drums, the fuzz bass, and the screaming crowd blends into on big buzzy...well, buzz. In later years I discovered it's similar to the Velvet Underground's magnum opus "Sister Ray," without so many sailors in it.
Hmmm... maybe a little Neil with Crazy Horse, too. I might be one of the few people who listened to Arc all the way through - twice! I figure THAT'S Neil's real protest record.
29 - Rubberneck
Been following Neil Young with a fine tooth comb since I was 11ish and I'm 40. Seen him 5 times and have every record and many Bootlegs. Love his work to death except when he sways left. I think the real Neil is the "Lets Roll" fella but he has tooooo many Commie-Lib cling-ons which he loves on a personal level and thus he is telling them with things like Greendale and this New Metal Folk Protest Album that hey, I still love you Freaks, Communists and Hippies, here's one for ya. Here's one for you "Forbid Drilling but cry about Gas price Marxists", here's one for you "Pay the man 50 dollars an hour to turn A Lug Nut idiots", here's one for you "Dismantle the Military hate America First Liberals", heres one for you "Abort a harmless Baby but let a Murderer Live bleeding heart Mike Farrell loving pieces of Monkey Crap" here's one for you "Bruce Springsteen coward run to Canada but come back to America when the War is over to make a Fortune off 5 Cords repeated over and over again traitors" Here's one for you "Rich Liberal Tax sheltered, tax everyone else but me let all the Immigrants in because they'll never afford to live next to me anyway Babra Striesand little Bitches"
30 - Rubberneck
P.S. "But I still do Love Neil Young Baby !"
31 - rubberneck
I do Love Neil's Work. Smile.
32 - Neil-Fan
Could not agree more Rubberneck.
33 - Karen Hendrickson
CNN is calling "Living With War" an "Anti-American" album. It really is just a good old "Protest Album", which Neil Young is no stranger to. Ever since I bought the 45 "For What It's Worth", I have been folling Neil!
There is no other artist that does what he feels, writes what he feels, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks, as long as he is satisfied with his work. For that I have a lot of respect!
It's about time someone wrote a new Protest Song!
34 - DJRadiohead
And I thought I held my tongue pretty well, I kept the F* bombs to a minimum. I admit, the shot at Greendale might have been a bit unwarranted but certainly not vitriolic.
I guess I was pointing out Young isn't the first guy to put his activism to music since the outbreak of the Iraq war. I was also suggesting the reason so few of them have stuck is because most of the songs were heavyhanded on the politics and lightweight on the music. If Neil turns in that kind of record, it will be forgotten just as quickly as- wait, who were we talking about? Protest song implies there will be a song in there somewhere. We'll see.
35 - Al Barger
I could give a rat's ass about Neil Young's politics, but I'm pretty skeptical of this project. For starters, Neil Young is WAY past his artistic prime.
Also, his guitar noise records are largely just that- noise. When he goes into that mode, it's just goddam random noise with little signficant pattern or meaning. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH! Mere aggravated distortion does not constitute meaningful or worthwhile music. That he made it in three days strongly suggests that it would be half-assed self-indulgent nonsense- much like most of his guitar albums.
Let me know when this comes out if there's an actual T-U-N-E anywhere on this.
36 - Rodney Welch
Al, I never fail to be amazed by your boundless lack of musical taste.
37 - gonzo marx
Rodney sez...
*Al, I never fail to be amazed by your boundless lack of musical taste.*
Quoted for Truth
nuff said?
Excelsior!
38 - Glen Boyd
Al,
You of course are entitled to be "skeptical of this project" and may even have every right to be. But to say that "Neil Young is way past his artistic prime"?
I simply could not disagree more.
As Karen correctly notes above...what makes Neil Young continue to be such a vibrant artist (at 60 some years old) is the way he continues to "Do what he feels, write what he feels" and not really care what anyone else thinks.
Does this mean there have been more goofy artistic turns throughout his career than a roller coaster ride through the bargain bin at Tower Records? Sure it does.
It means for that every "Harvest" there have been more challenging records like "On The Beach"; for every "Rust Never Sleeps" there has been a Shocking Pinks or a Trans.
This is not a new development by the way. Neil Young's entire career has been a series of commercial peaks and valleys because he steadfastly follows his artistic muse...often to his commercial detriment.
Or As DJ Radiohead somewhat exageratedly pointed out, "he hasn't been able to give away a record in twelve years"...well, heres a news flash.
His last record, released just nine months ago, "Prairie Wind" has done a very healthy...by today's commercial standard of 50 Cent and American Idol anyway...460,000 units.
Not too shabby.
But the bottom line is Neil Young follows his artistic muse without compromise. Can it be frustrating at times when he puts out, lets say "less than classic" material like Greendale? Sure. But it's never boring.
And at his age, I will take a guy who continues to challenge both himself and his audience over the likes of his generational peers like The Stones anyday. Let Jagger and Richards trot out their "grey-test hits" every couple of years or so for a big, fat payday.
And "A Bigger Bang" while I am on that subject?
Overated. Vastly Overated. That "Sweet Neo-Con" song everybody fell all over themselves over...now THAT was calculated.
As for Neil Young's "SCREEECHing" guitar?
Well Al, what you hear as a screech is beautiful noise to my ears. Beautiful, cranked to freaking eleven noise from Old Black.
Neil's guitar playing when it is at his cranked to eleven best is no technical marvel to be sure. It is however, searing, trance like at times, and incerdibly emotional.
"Like A Hurricane"; "Cortez";...and more recently "Change Your Mind" from Sleeps With Angels; "Goin Home" from Are You Passionate; and pretty much all of "Mirror Ball"...are all great examples. You can find yourself getting lost in the emotional, beautiful noise of that feedback laden sound.
I expect more of the same on Living With War.
I also expect plenty of great songs...which contrary to what some of the commenters here have said...Neil still has plenty of.
If you doubt that he does, look no further than his very most recent album, "Prairie Wind".
39 - Mark Saleski
i just want to say that i loved Greendale.
still do.
also love loud, distorted, noisy "pointless" electric guitar.
gotta go listen to some Glen Branca now.
bye!
40 - Glen Boyd
Mark,
Can I get an "amen" brother?
Glen
41 - Rodney Welch
Mark, I went back and reread my original Blogcritics review of Greendale and found it very, very mixed, but it's grown on me since then considerably. And are there really soulful people out there who don't fall under the sway of the sheer sonic corniness of "Be the Rain"? I always crank it up way, way loud.
I'm still very much on the fence regarding Prairie Wind, but I quite liked Jonathan Demme's concert movie of it. It reminded me why I continue to care about Neil Young; he always keeps pushing, even if he falls on his face.
I think John Lennon understood him perfectly when an interviewer asked him about the line "It's better to burn out than it is to rust."
“If Neil Young admires that sentiment so much,” Lennon said, “why doesn’t he do it? Because he sure as hell faded away and came back many times, like all of us.”
42 - Glen Boyd
Rodney,
As far as Greendale is concerned, I don't think it's one of his best...but it has it's moments. "Bandit" could've come right off "On The Beach"...I like that one a lot.
The tour was a typically goofy mess...and as for the "movie"...well, the less said the better.
43 - Glen Boyd
Regarding the above comment...that would be the Greendale movie I refer to when I say "the less said the better."
Demme's Heart of Gold documentary on the other hand is a wonderful film.
44 - dave
"If Neil Young admires that sentiment so much," Lennon said, "why doesn't he do it? Because he sure as hell faded away and came back many times, like all of us."
I think Neil has tried to self destruct many times. He even admits to it in the interview he does on "Year Of The Horse". He builds it up and tears it down, trying to keep it fresh. A lot of people can't get past his voice but one thing they have to admit, Neil is not a phoney.
45 - RUBBERNECK
46 - RUBBERNECK
What the hell is Glen Branca anyway ?
47 - Glen Boyd
I had read somewhere it was 480,000 sold at last count but if the RIAA says it's gold, then gold it is.
So there ya go. Two gold records. Not exactly being unable to "give away a record".
Now about that "firepower" of yours Rubberneck...LOL...
Actually...Never mind.
We've managed to keep the dialog in this particular discussion pretty much centered on the musical aspect so far...
I think that speaks volumes about BC's readership.
48 - Mister E
Lord have mercy, many of you are such devout believers in the formed antimind of fancy sweetness that is whatever pseudodelicioso media teat you may suckle with watery hype...milk blood to keep from running out, I suppose. None of you know the truth, but most believe your own lies, the biggest lies, you know, the ones you tell yourselves. George Bush lied? Sure, why not. You repeat them. Neil Young lies too. You repeat them. Given Neil the Squeal's latest bout with illness and this rather sad and punitively pitiful spouting forth of his bland stale bitch-bile, as if emanated from too long a beached and dead dormant whale’s uncorked without wile blowhole, I must now confirm that I do believe in the mission mantra of Wally the Beaver and His Cleaver-Wielding Clan, from Alabam’: that no south-of-the-St-Lawrence-ern man, nor woman, nor child, needs old Mr Young around. I mean really, golly gee, geezers and non- alike or not, maybe he should go on back to Alberta, where there's not a lot to do 'round there, and stoke up a fattie and all easy-like, just lie back down and relive, in those charred scarred recesses of what remains of his brain, those six or seven great records of his from the sixties and seventies, including the ones he played on with with Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y, and Nowhere, Harvest, Comes, Zuma, stop, and, hey hey my my, my my hey hey, since he obviously won't burn out, then oh, say, why not fade away, just call it all a creative day, instead of embarrassing himself and all of us who share this planet with this released canned digital tripe of boring he's attempting to call a work of art, in lieu of actual artistry any the more.
O Neil, go home, man. You once did sort of wonderful and relatively semi-important work. Good songs, okay? That was then. Now, you are done, sir. If this crap is all you have to say...you are indeed more than well done.
Hang it up.
Respectfully, it's all of a...Mister E.
49 - RUBBERNECK
YOUNG, NEIL PRAIRIE WIND effective 01/23/06 REPRISE (Gold) ALBUM SOLO Std (U.S.)
YOUNG, NEIL GREATEST HITS effective 01/23/06 REPRISE (Gold) ALBUM SOLO Std (U.S.)
PEACE THROUGH SUPERIOR FIREPOWER !
50 - Rodney Welch
Mister E -- Some basic writing advice: know what you want to say, then say it clearly.
51 - DJRadiohead
Gold is stil an important sales figure and no one is more surprised than me to hear he actually sold 500k Prarie Wind. I am man enough to retreat when facts have proven me wrong. That's very solid. Much more than I expected.
I am still skeptical about the songs on this record. I like Pearl Jam a lot (sorry, Al) but that "Bu$hleaguer" song was a piece of shit. I don't care what your politics are (OK, I do but realize we all have different ones) but if you want to write a protest song start by having a song and then protest. Young has, in my opinion, been on both sides of that fence in his career. We'll see what happens with this one.
As to Glen's swipe at the Stones... they're easy targets and "Sweet Neo Con" is a shit song. That said, if someone would have trimmed Bigger Bang down to a 12-song set like it should have been that is a pretty solid record. There are some good moments on it. It's just too long and "Sweet Neo Con" sucked balls.
52 - Glen Boyd
Don't get me wrong DJ...I like the Stones. And I certainly realize the impact they have had on music (I mean if I didn't, then my qualifications to be doing THIS are somewhat in question right?).
It's just that they no longer are challenging their audience or themselves creatively...where guys like Dylan, Springsteen, and YES Neil Young are.
I don't expect another Exile On Main Street from them (just as I don't expect Born To Run from Bruce or another Highway 61 from Dylan)...but A Bigger Bang?
It wasn't even another Tattoo You. And critics fell all over themselves, naming it to 2005 Best Of Lists and the like.
The Stones are gonna have do a little more than plug the amps back in to warrant that kind of praise.
Incredible history notwithstanding.
Neil, on the other hand, continues to challenge himself and his audience.
The results are hit and miss...just as they have always been.
But when he does "hit one"...he usually knocks it clean out of the ballpark.
We'll soon know if "Living With War" is one of those "Grand Slams".
53 - Mark Saleski
i loved A Bigger Bang.
honest.
54 - Karen Hendrickson
Reading this Blog and seeing all the different Neil Young albums that are being mentioned, I noticed that no one said anything about one of my favorite albums, Silver and Gold. Although I have no idea if this was a best seller or not, I think its just a great piece of work.
55 - RUBBERNECK
56 - Rodney Welch
I listened to American Stars n' Bars on the way to work today. Not a great disc, but a damn fine one, partly because it's so erratic: a loose set of romping country blues, offset by Young's weirdest cut, "Will to Love" -- the only song I know told from the point of view of a salmon swimming upstream -- and his sonic masterpiece "Like a Hurricane." Interestingly, these songs follow each other; after the slow, ethereal eternity of one, the other arrives like a thunder clap. The effect is positively cathartic.
57 - El Bicho
Neil Young's "Living With War" will be posted for free Internet streaming next week. Starting April 28, fans can log onto Young's Web site and listen to the 10-track set, according to Reprise spokesperson Bill Bentley.
Billboard.com
58 - El Bicho
Here's a blog for the album.
59 - DJRadiohead
This article was namedropped on BCRadio this week.
I liked A Bigger Bang, too, Saleski. It had some strong moments.
60 - Glen Boyd
DJ,
Thanx for the name drop on BC Radio.
I should be writing a review of Seeger Sessions later today...listening to it right now.
So far, I actually like it a little more than I expected to...especially the more gospel sounding stuff (O Mary Don't You Weep is a particular standout thus far).
...Not that I'd want Bruce to revert to this type of thing full time or anything though.
Glen
61 - RUBBERNECK
THIS COUNTRY HAS NO ROOM FOR TRAITORS AND COMMUNISTS THUS NEIL YOUNG AS MUCH AS IT PAINS ME TO SAY THIS TAKE JOAN BAEZ AND JANE FONDA TO YOUR CANADIAN MANSION AND SHOE EACH OTHER IN THE ASS WHILE TELLING EACH OTHER HOW MUCH YOU HATE THIS COUNTRY. HOW BOUT GIVING UP YOUR MONEY ? COME ON, YOU COULD NOT POSSIBLY SPEND IT ALL. HOW COME ONLY WHEN REPUBLICANS ARE IN THE WHITE HOUSE ARE THERE PEOPLE STARVING IN THE STREETS ? I'LL TELL YOU WHY, CAUSE THE LEFT WING COMMUNIST LIARS IN THE MEDIA SAY SO.
(Living with War ?)-Yeah we're killing ! The fuckin' ENEMY. Something wrong with that ? Peace is not simply the absence of War you stupid Liberal Asshole. Think there's Peace in North Korea ? Oh do ya now ?
(The restless consumer)-Save the planet for another day ? Same fuckin song huh ? No more lies ? Oh, perhaphs we should send some democrats to restore the truth (LOL)Fat Chance.
Shock and Aw (another Am G Fer' Huh ?) Jezz, have you learned a new cord since 67 ? I hear a lot of Mirror Ball on this one. It's a rewrite of Throw your hatred down which is a rewrite of Hey Hey My My which is the Brother of Prisoners of Rock n roll, All along the Watchtower, huh ? got your number Neil.
Don't foget your Republican fans on your next flip flop because the next logical illogical thing you'll most likely do is make an album professing to be a Conservative. Your commy friends must have really broke your balls about that "Lets Roll" thing huh ?
Flags of Freedom- A little Re-Write of Are there any More Cowboys there, huh ?
Impeach the President-We spied on the Enemy Asshole. Not on U.S. Citizens, of course you don't count towards that Group.
Lookin' for a Leader-Look no further, George W. Bush. Thank God for him Commy Boy.
Roger and Out-Humm, Knockin' on Heavens Door anyone ? Now you're not even biting your own tunes, Jeezzzzz. You never Joined shit so stop belly Aching.
62 - Rubberneck
Damn I loved you Brother. But this I cannot take.
63 - Rush Is Right !
Dear Rubberneck,
You don't know how right you are: Maybe you do.
The Federal Government's Three-Month Take from Exxon-Mobil Sales: Nearly $17,000,000,000 (Plus They Took a Chunk of the Company's $8.4B Profits)
The demagogues denounce Exxon-Mobil's profits,
but the government takes double that for itself, and does absolutely nothing to produce gas for your car.
Wonder how Neil would feel if they did that to his music.
64 - Glen Boyd
The whole album is streaming on Neil young's website right now.
So far, I'm two songs in.
65 - Glen Boyd
So far, this is, at least musically speaking, your pretty basic grungy Neil Young. Nothing's really leaping out so far though.
Waiting for that crying guitar solo...
Check it out at http://www.neilyoung.com
66 - Glen Boyd
Five songs in, and I have to be pretty honest...so far I'm pretty disapointed.
I like what he's saying...and posters like Rubberneck may disagree...but I think at a time when our country is as divided as it is, the time is ripe for protest music.
But I expected a lot more musically speaking.
This is kind of like "Mirror Ball" without the great guitar solos. I'm listening to the "Impeach The President" song right now...and the Bush sound bites are pretty cool. But I'm waiting for that great screaming guitar noise to punctuate it...
So far it aint there. Seven songs in.
This is more like a Greendale sound.
The idea is there. The songs aint.
Personally, my expectations have been turned kind of upside down here. I expected this to be really powerful, where I expected Springsteen's Seeger Sessions to be a disapointment.
So far the opposite is true,
"Looking For A Leader" is playing now, and I'm still looking for a great song.
"O Mary Don't You Weep" from Springsteen's "Seeger Sessions" release says everything Neil's album tries to say without hitting you over the head with it.
And Bruce didn't even write it.
67 - Glen Boyd
Yup. Definitely a disapointment.
At least on my first official listen, streamed through my computer speakers.
I still applaud him for bringing "protest music" back...God knows we need it now like we have at no time since the Nixon years.
But the thing is, for protest music to be truly effective, you need a memorable melody to go with the message.
And for the life of me, I can't remember a thing I've just heard. No "Ohio"; No "Southern Man"; hell, no "For What its Worth" (and yes, I know Stephen Stills wrote that one).
Musically this is a slightly louder Greendale.
And again, though I had much lower expectations for it...Springsteen's "Seeger Sessions" hits the mark in all of the ways this tries to without trying nearly as hard.
Bruce's "O Mary Dont You Weep" is streaming on my blog now.
http://theglenblog.blogspot.com
Neil's whole album is streaming at http;//www.neilyoung.com
You make the call.
Good Night.
Glen
68 - Muse
I was worried about his inclusion of America The Beautiful, but, he wrapped the sentiment up well, without the phoney patriatism thrown around by so many today.
Let's just say: no matter what anyone thinks/feels, someone, no matter when, at least put our feelings out in music.
Too bad there aren't more like in the 60s though ; (
69 - Rodney Welch
I like Neil Young's Living with War a lot. Bush, Iraq, the complicit media -- the usual suspects all clearly inspired and focused Young. The record is comprised of ten swift songs, none of which overstays its welcome. Young approaches the subject matter in what might be called classically Dylanesque fashion -- mourning losses, praying for peace, questioning why things happen, and ultimately hating and condemning the responsible parties.
The opening cuts "After the Garden" and "Living with War" are respectively post-apocalyptic, mournful, introspective eulogies. With "The Restless Consumer," Young 's great prowling guitar builds to a very familiar kind of call-and-response bully pulpit:
Don't need no more lies!
NO NEED!
Don't need no more lies!
NO NEED!
Song for song, Young zeroes in more and more on everything about the war that pisses him off -- often leaving it with a barbed, hostile wit (he even employs George W. as kind of a double-talking co-vocalist on "Impeach the President.")
There is also I think a kind of broad thematic question to the record, regarding what the country has turned into under Bush. The closing number, "America the Beautiful," is both hopeful and ironic.
Given its topicality, I don't know how often I'll play this record, once I buy it. Time will only tell.
It makes me think of Freedom, for some reason.
Always good to be hearing Ol' Black.
70 - Glen Boyd
Here is the direct link to
hear the complete album NOW:
(Sorry about the blind url...everytime I have ever tried putting html directly into the comment box it doesn't work for some reason) [That will be because you're doing it wrong, Glen. Take a look at this tutorial. Thank you. Comments Editor]
Glen
71 - Rodney Welch
Thanks, Glen -- that's a better link. I think I'll just leave it on and let it run perpetually a few days.
72 - Rubberneck
After the Garden-The ol' Mr.Soul / Fuckin Up / Computer Age / Too Lonely riff ayy Neil ? Drowned in Fuzz of course, none the less the same riff.
Living with War-Is that Mansion on the Hill I hear ? Yep.
You say you pray but don't believe in God. How is that so Neily boy ? What are you praying to ?
Hang it up with this Communist Bullshit.
73 - Rubberneck
What's the War got to do with you Neil ? Your sons are certainly not in the Army. What are we supposed to do ? Surender ? Give up ? What happen to "Let's Roll" Shakey ? Saddam filling Mass Graves, Failing to comply with UN resolutions time and time and time and time again, that's kool with you Mr. Liberal ? We're supposed to look like a bunch of fuckin' Monkeys to the world ? Didn't hear a word from you about Rawanda, not one fuckin' word. Why not Neil ? Concerts to help pay for Abortions, where's your fuckin' compassion for the Babies LIBERAL-MAN ? The man who could not kill chickens so he left them in his basement does concerts to help pay for abortions of Human beings ? Now ain't that some Liberal Hippie Hypocrit bullshit ? Yeah it is.
74 - Rubberneck
What do you power those 200 Cars you own with ? Piss ?
75 - Rubberneck
This album will go to (23) then to (47) then to (69) then to (84) and will never be heard from again as it will cast itself on History's Ash Pile of forgotten Communist Bullshit. TRAITOR.