Customer Reviews

Living With War (W/Dvd)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This set isn't merely a re-issue of the ground breaking and controversial Living With War release. It serves as a deeper look into the sessions that produced the original album and gives a visual dimension to a song set that already leaves the listener with a broad series of mental images. The CD content is stripped down version of the original...4 musicians in a room creating music and captured on tape, using the first mixes out of the control room. These songs are heard once again on the DVD, but in much greater fidelity, which to this reviewer is far superior to the CD. The DVD is packed with a series of videos Neil created in a news channel style to illustrate the songs as well as a group of documentary videos from the recording sessions. The artist explains his work in clips taken from a TV news interview and an appearance on the Colbert Report. Fans interested in the much discussed Neil Young Archives get a treat here with the special preview of two videos from the Crazy Horse Rusted Out Garage Tour in 1986. Biographies, album reviews, and even a somewhat somber, but thoughtful listing of US fatalities in the Iraq War complete the DVD to help cement this release as a historical document of a World in a troubled time.

During the spring of 2006, NPR created a buzz that soon turned into a comsumer roar surrounding Neil Young's initial release of "Living With War". Interviews on NPR's "Fresh Air" with Young uncovered his heated spur-of-the-moment mindset to rifle off a collection of anti-war/administration songs and the station even sound-clipped several of the tracks to give it's listeners an audible sample platter of the issues Young was taking on.

Despite Young's sincere anger and commentary (that I already happened to agree with) the songs came off as over-the-top and too polished. Naturally I was biased to approve of Young releasing some point-and-blame musical numbers, but much of the lyrics were too cliche and the 100 voice choir on several of the songs didn't help either for sounding celeberatory, neverminding the lyrical content's morose tone. After a good once-over, I decided that the initial release of "Living With War" was 3 star material. I'm glad Neil Young was taking a stand, but the music didn't communicate well with the message.

Upon hearing about "Living With War - Raw", I immediately thought of The Beatles "Let It Be... Naked" which is also compiled from the rough cuts of that classic album (classic in its own right, for I am not a huge Beatles fan). Time will tell if "Living With War" will be considered a classic, one thing it does have going for itself is that it's turned out to be one of Young's best all-time selling albums.

"Raw" takes only from the first mixes of each song. Absent are the choir and other overdubs which seemingly made the initial "Living With War" nearly gaudy. A focused but ever-loose distortion-driven Crazy Horse feel gives this stripped version it's best attribute and with the music peeled to it's very bones makes the lyrics that much more effective. Directly qouting Young: "Although they are not polished, they represent the essence of Living With War, in the beginning."

4 stars. Although the horn section still gets a bit annoying.

I thought I liked the album before, I absolutely love it like this. Mr. Young, his guitar, his arrow-shot lyrics and passionate delivery: simply love it. Thank you, Neil Young.

This version of Living With War is a lot more raw than the originally released album. On here, it's only Neil singing, leaving out the choir, which I thought had weakened the first effort just a little bit, but not much. This is taken from the first mix at the time of the recording, and it comes across as more urgent than the first release. The guitar has more feedback, and it sounds a lot like a Crazy Horse collaboration, although it's not.

I haven't even seen the DVD yet and don't particularly care about it. I'm talkin' 'bout this RAW version of Living With War...it's much more powerful than the "choir" version. Don't let the "stripped down" description fool you. I prefer to call it revved up. The bass guitar, particularly, is FAR more powerful and rumbles the walls and bothers the neighbors. Somehow Neil's vocals come across more powerfully as well, and his guitar sounds more Crazy Horse-ish. The only thing missing, in my opinion, is an extended guitar solo...and it may sound a little silly when Neil says "flip...flop...flip...flop" without the George Bush quotes inserted...but that didn't work so well anyway. So...if you haven't bought RAW because you have the "choir" version, my advice is to give that CD away to a friend or relative and get this much more powerful CD. Once you've bought and love it, you'll probably forget the inflated price.

First up, to correct some other comments here, this is NOT a Crazy Horse album.

That said, it sure sounds like one.

Considering the mountain of musical protest during our Vietnam debacle, the relative silence during the last 6 years of folly has been sad.

Neil himself said that he was waiting for the younger voices to take up the task, and finally realized that he needed to do it himself.

In Crosby's fun new book, the Croz has a bit about questioning Neil on the simplicity of his song structure for LWW. Neil responds that he didn't want to waste his better chord patterns on W - funny and very in character.

Living With War is fascinating on all sorts of levels, and will stand the test of time in Neil's catalog. It's a supremely rare piece of musical stream of consciousness. This is a great artist at his most unprotected, un-selfedited best. Emotionally compelling stuff. The power of these songs as CSNY presented them on last summer's tour was overwhelming - (that's another album/video worth releasing...)

While I understand the thinking behind the everyman choir, and enjoy the original album, stripping these songs to the 'power trio w/ trumpet' core recordings is a very different listen, and arguably more powerful.

It's unfortunate that the original release didn't utilize a 5.1 approach, as the choral mix might have been stunning.

Neil is not only a great songwriter/guitarist, but he's got his own way of looking at issues of recording fidelity and especially CD technology.

After bemoaning the fidelity of CD's for years, he's recently been fully embracing DVD-A upsampling and enhanced fidelity - with some amazing results.

The DVD-A of his recent 'Greatest Hits' cd is truly amazing, and the fidelity on this release is nearly as good. (note; the DVD-A of Greatest hits displays an on-screen graphic of a vinyl lp playing on a classic AR turntable, the VW Bus of budget minded audiophiles back in the 70's - a brilliant touch.)

Yes, this is priced as a 'premium' product, but you DO get two discs, and some very well thought out video content. As a limited edition, it's probably a sound investment (pun intended)

Especially a knockout is the CNN/Bloomberg-like LWW channel treatments. First appearing on last summer's tour, and also on Neil's website, this mock news channel material is not only right-on factually, but it's damn good multi-media art - making this package more of a conceptual art project than a purely musical offering.

Neil's always approached things with a strong visual sense, and this is no exception. Long may he run.

MORE BARN!

Sam

Buy this for the RAW audio...the other reviews are right; I prefer this recording to the original LWW with choir, etc.

The LWW videos are not Dolby Surround (they are 2 channel) nor are they wide screen format, but the content is historically significant and adds enjoyment to the listening experience.

The "archive" songs (Mideast Vacation & Around the World) recorded originally during a 1986 Crazy Horse concert are fantastic, appear to be recorded in a different format (dolby?)than the LWW stuff, and are relevant to the LWW theme.

A great package!

You may want to take care in opening the CD/DVD package to save the sticker on the outside...it has format info, etc that I have not noticed inside (although I must admit I have not spent as much time with this set as I would like so there might be info there).

As soon as I heard that NY was releasing the Raw version of his acclaimed yet controversial record from 2006, "Living With War" I knew right away that it would pack a punch, minus the choirs and minimal overdubs, that would place it up amongst the best rock albums the man has ever put out. Neil has written better songs but you have to take your hat of at the continued passion and drive and urgency that still runs through his veins. This record has an instant impact and rocks, sending home all the messages Neil wanted to put out in regard to the records subjects. A power trio recording captures the essence of the material and gets a thumbs up from me.

Neil Young has joined the bandwagon of artists who enjoy making their die-hard fans re-purchase same albums under revised packaging, with extra material. This seems to be a new trend with artists such as Young, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan. What you get with this repackage is a pared down version of the original material combined with a short dvd. The dvd is good, though not excellent. It also contains the entire album which can be played through your dvd player, subsequently your sound system via 5.1. It does sound magnificent. The album is basically the same although the versions of the songs are supposed to be the initial recordings without supplemental mixing and added instrumentation. It's all good, but I have a hard time rationalizing the price tag. At $22.95, I was shocked at the minimal effort on the dvd. I expected much more. What you get is a short documentary on the making of the album, and that's about it. Nonetheless, the album is great, and it deserves the five star rating.

If you like Neil Young for his spontaneous hard rock, the music on the CD is better than the original release of 'Living With War'. The choir may have seemed like a good idea at the time, and a lot of people probably dug it, but I certainly didn't. And-- surprisingly-- the DVD is worth watching. Most 'bonus' DVDs are rubbish, and detract from what should be a purely musical experience. But this one places Neil's anti-war fight in clearer perspective, with video clips in a mock-up CNN style. It also contains interviews carried out with him on the original album's release--forever enshrining one reporter's stupid questions.