Living with War

Neil Young

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 8, 2006)
• Original Release Date: May 9, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Reprise Records
• ASIN: B000FI9OSG
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (340 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,775 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Even if you don't agree with Neil Young's politics, you can't help but be daunted by the intersection of his genius and ire on his second album in less than seven months. It is the very rare artist who is able to channel indignation and moral disgust in such a coherent and forceful way--without sacrificing any of the vivid imagery, passion, or the high level of musicality that we have come to expect from him over the past four decades. But that's not what elevates this album: it's his pure, naked, visceral reaction to the Bush administration's foreign policy, building on a canon of outrage that he began with 1970's "Ohio," penned in the wake of the Kent State student deaths. But here he goes one better, filling in the lines that he began to draw on 2003's Greendale about a family caught in changing times. But Young's done with musing about lost ideals. On Living with War, he demands much more from his audience, and himself. This is nothing less than a call for fearless action in extraordinarily fearful times. --Jaan Uhelszki

Product Description

The Canadian music hall of famer and former member of Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young is responsible for hits like Southern Man, Heart of Gold and Harvest Moon. But on his newest record, to be titled Living with the War, Young is taking a page from Bob Dylan and putting together an album of protest songs against the actions of American President George W. Bush. One of the tracks on the upcoming release, which as of yet has no release date, is said to feature the single Let’s Impeach the President whose subject is fairly obvious. Not a stranger to protest music the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young tune Ohio was written in reaction to a protest against the Vietnam War.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

348 of 391 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for the faint of heart, May 9, 2006

By	Mark A. Cartier "Cartier" (Portland, Or. USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is electric Neil, not acoustic Neil.

I'm one of those people who is (I suppose) middle of the road and when i heard about this album was interested in how Neil would deliver his 'message'. Well, it's direct. Brutally so.

[...]

Shock and Awe is an all time classic Neil song (think Rockin in the Free World on steroids). Bank on that. The Restless Consumer is another great song. Families is a toe tapper. Let's Impeach the President is, well, a pretty decent song (musically a cousin to Powderfinger) but the lyrics are -well wow (Flip/Flop). Listen yourself. There are very few weak moments on this album. This isn't Harvest, Rust or Everybody Knows - but it's a good CD if you like electric Neil.

As someone wrote earlier, this may be the best protest 'album' ever recorded. It is sure to elicit some type of response from you, positive or negative. That's why it gets 5 stars. I highly recommend this album.

If you ever (even if just for a brief moment) think this country is going back to the days of "no taxation without representation", you should listen to this - even if just to admire what someone can do with his art with first amendment protection.

Unlike the brave "A Kids Review", I think we're all capable of knowing this is Neil's perception - not the person reading this (or writing it for that matter).

52 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Phil Ochs with a Gretsch..., May 8, 2006

By	o dubhthaigh (north rustico, pei, canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Getting close to dying tends to sharpen your focus. First the elegiatic paean to his father, PRAIRIE WIND, and his tour de force concert film, HEART OF GOLD, and now the most revved up, furiously infuriated rock record since FREEDOM (he must love the Bush family), finds Young in a more defiant mood than he's been in since, well, Papa Bush. The result is incendiary. Working with Chad Cromwell and Rick Rosas, as he did in FREEDOM, Young let's loose like a metal version of Phil Ochs with songs that on occasion are slogan-riddled ("Impeach", "Looking For a Leader") that would not have been out of place on I'M NOT MARCHING ANYMORE. But there are also some extraordinarily superb Young compositions that sit with his very best, as well as with anything on Ochs' PLEASURES OF THE HARBOUR: most notably, "After the Garden is Gone", "No More Lies", "The Days of Shock and Awe" and "the Flags of Freedom (Dylan references included)."
The CD closes with an absolute masterpiece in the "Cortez the Killer" vein: "Roger and Out" says more by suggestion than anything Young justifiably shakes his fist about in all that precedes it. If you have ever lost a friend to war, this is a little too close to the bone. I'd even swear Neil knew what he was talking about. If you were ever afraid you might lose someone to this war in particular, this will upset you. Almost funereal, the CD closes with the choir intoning "America the Beautiful." Is it for thee I weep?
The recording sounds quite immediate and raw, but that's Neil anyway. The trumpet, the choir, the urgency throughout all speak to the way a somnambulent America needs to wake up out of its torpor. The tar flats are gathering around the Yank heels and you don't even need a Canadian to tell you that. To paraphrase Ross Perot, that sound you're hearing is your future getting swallowed in debt to the Chinese and the Arabs. You got stuck with the bill for the lies of Cheney, Rumsfled and Pinocchio. Was there ever a leader who deserved a particular fate? But that's up to you folks. That trumpet is playing taps.
All in all, with a revived Stephen Stills regaining his edge and compositional skills, one can only hope that this summer's Freedom of Speech Tour (albeit a few years late) awakens a political fervor long lost to self indulgence among a generation of a certain age. Certainly Crosby has been extolling the courage of those who stand up against tyranny for ever, and perhaps even Nash will find a way to harden his act and deliver something worthy of the man who wrote "Chicago" and "Military Madness."

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just listen., May 10, 2006

By	Richard D. Hodgson (Madera, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There's not much I can say that hasn't been said in other reviews. I will only say that everyone in America should hear this album. No-- not just hear it. Listen to it. Absorb it. I would strongly suggest that one should listen to this the first time, as I did, while reading along with the written lyrics in the booklet. This is powerful stuff, written and performed by a man who is using his music (and yes, his clout as a musician) to express the anger and outrage that he shares with a good many of us who care enough to speak out against this illegal and unnecessary war and the so-called leaders who put us there.

Numerous references have been made comparing this to "Ohio". I don't want to sound like the proverbial broken record, but this is indeed probably the most important music he has written since then. Musically it is a bit rough at times. But this is Neil Young, after all. Even at his most polished his music has always been purposefully rather primitive and rough around the edges. It's part of what makes him Neil, and in this context it fits perfectly. This is angry music from a deservedly angry man, speaking for an equally angry populace. Some have criticized the choral rendition of "America The Beautiful", saying that it breaks the mood and seems out of place, but I disagree. It makes a poignant statement, and (much like "Find The Cost Of Freedom" did on "4-Way Street") it closes the album-- and the statement-- perfectly. When the song ended I found myself sitting silently for several long moments, just staring at the album cover. I was genuinely moved.

Those on the right will continue to criticize Young because he's from Canada. To this I have two replies. First, while he was born and raised in Canada, he has spent much of his life living in America. And second, what this nation and its leaders do affects all nations. Was it wrong for those to criticize Hitler who did not live in Germany? It is an absurd argument presented by those who have no other valid arguments to offer.

I will say it again. Everyone in America should listen to this album. It's raw, and it's real, and it's honest. Our country is in deep trouble, and something has to change. My hat is off to Neil for being one of the few in today's music world-- and hopefully the first of many-- to have the guts to tell it like it is.