As Rebekah, Tim and lots of other people report, Neil Young’s controversial new album “Living With War” (this post’s title comes from the title track) is being streamed on his site. The CD comes out next Tuesday. Tim describes the new album well enough:
Here was a howling guitar and a keening voice singing about the stinking war and vowing to never kill again and the false faces on TV and that was just perfect, if radio doesn’t have a place for anger-with-a-back beat well italics not worth listening to.
Neil’s server is running rather slow at the moment, so I only got to listen to a couple of songs. I’ll reserve judgement until I hear some more.
Like my father before me, I’ve been a Neil Young since I was old enough to drop the needle on Rust Never Sleeps. Yes, I said needle. “Powderfinger” and “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” (from another album) would definitely make my desert island iPod Shuffle.
Neil Young’s been very prolific, and the fact is some of his albums suck. You’ve got to pick and choose. Happily, he’s had a long and diverse career, so there’s plenty to choose from.
Some have accused him of being intentionally provocative with this album. After all, the album does include a song entitled “Let’s Impeach the President”. There’s a CNN clip that’s been bandied about a fair bit (thanks for that, James). Being very cynical about celebrity, and having observed Neil Young’s career for a long time, I don’t think this is the case. He’s certainly a straight-shooter, and often speaks his mind, but he’s no publicity-chaser. You need only look at his strange 80s musical experiments to see that. Plus, he doesn’t need the money.
Back in 2003 (good Lord), I evoked Neil Young in a post about Michelle Branch’s photoshopped butt. In terms of traffic, it remains one of the five most popular posts on the site.
DarrenBarefoot.com 