Canada's most successful songwriting duo -- Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings -- have decidedly different views about singer-songwriter Neil Young's new protest album, Living With War, which includes the song Let's Impeach The President.

"First of all, he shouldn't be talking about that s--- because he's a transplanted Canadian, so I have a little problem with that, you know, but that's just me," said Cummings yesterday in Toronto. "Randy's a big friend of Neil's."

While Young isn't an American citizen, he has lived in California and paid U.S. taxes for almost 40 years.

"I think he's pretty ballsy and gutsy to do that," said Bachman at Cummings' side. "Making (the album) available as a downstream free for the first week or month, and then you can get it retail. 'Cause he knows nobody's going to play it (on radio). But he's going to cause an undercurrent thing that I think other artists might jump on. I mean, I don't like the Canadian (soldiers) that get killed (in Iraq/Afghanistan). I don't think they need to be there."

Bachman and Cummings are currently promoting Bachman Cummings Songbook -- a 19-song compilation of Guess Who, BTO and Cummings solo hits -- that was released earlier this week. They also have a June 23 show coming up at the Molson Amphitheatre.

But the duo, who have about 300 songs between them, said they haven't been motivated to write about the current state of the world despite their most well known protest song, 1970's American Woman, which slagged the Vietnam War, race riots, etc.

"I watch CNN for 10 minutes and I want to go slit my wrists," said Cummings."I mean it's far too depressing to dwell on. I don't want to do that kind of a tune anymore. I'm not motivated to be political anymore in the tunes. I don't want to go out and be a flag-waver. That was then and this is now."

Added Bachman: "I'd rather make people feel good and better and forget the war (in Iraq), which is a lot of what music is, it's escapsim. And other guys like Neil want to protest and do it, that's fine. That's what music is, it's artists influencing people."

Lyrics from the nine songs on Living With War have been posted daily on Young's website, neilyoung.com, with the entire album available for streaming (listening) tomorrow. It will be released as a digital download for purchase on Tuesday, with an expected May 9 release date in stores.