  Neil Young’s new album Living With War debuted on his website yesterday. |
Yesterday, rock icon (and one-time Winnipeg resident) Neil Young added his name to the long list of artists who’ve publicly called for U.S. President George W. Bush’s head on a platter.
While his new album Living With War won’t be available online until next week — and won’t hit stores until an even later date — streaming audio from www.neilyoung.com did hit the web yesterday morning.
The self-described “metal folk protest” record has already caused quite the stir, and not just because it’s Young’s second release in just seven months.
Cut in two frenzied weeks — and featuring a spare drum-bass-and-trumpet combo accompanying a 100-member choir — the disc is a rocking, defiantly political meditation on the war in Iraq and the turmoil that’s gripping the United States.
The album’s piece de resistance (and the track that’ll generate the most controversy) is Let’s Impeach the President, a rallying cry for the end of the Bush administration on which Young and his choir cry out “Flip! Flop!” as contradictory Bush soundbites fly by.
There’s also the optimistic Looking For a Leader (where he considers the possibility of a future president who’s “a woman or a black man”), the anti-establishment rant Ruthless Consumer, and the poignant Flags for Freedom, which poses the question, “Have you seen the flags of freedom? What colours are they now? Do you think that you believe in yours more than they believe in theirs?”
It’s not exactly surprising to see Young taking aim at the president, or at his laundry list of missteps (everything from the Hurricane Katrina debacle to Bush’s crackdown on steroids warrants a mention on the new album).
This is, after all, the same Neil Young who shone a spotlight on the killings at Kent State, exposed his contemporaries as corporate shills in the 1980s, and eulogized the heroes of United Flight 93 in the wake of 9/11.
Probably the only real surprise about the album is that it was such a long time coming.
Since almost the day Bush was elected, everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Eddie Vedder to NOFX’s Fat Mike has been clamouring for his removal from office, culminating in 2004’s Vote For Change tour, which saw pro-Kerry concerts and voter registration rallies blanketing the so-called red states.
And while they didn’t succeed in running Bush out of office, their message didn’t exactly fall on deaf ears, either.
Green Day scored a career comeback with the mini-rock opera American Idiot (one guess who the title refers to), while Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst probably quadrupled his audience by performing When the President Talks to God — on Jay Leno’s stage, of all places.
Springsteen, the Stones, even Kanye West all found support after sounding off about Bush in the press, but others — inexplicably — didn’t fare nearly as well.
The Dixie Chicks were vilified by country radio after admitting they were embarrassed to hail from the same state as Dubya, while Steve Earle found himself persona non grata in certain circles after daring to write a song from the perspective of U.S. Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh. Even Linda Ronstadt found herself booted from a Las Vegas casino after championing Michael Moore’s anti-Bush diatribe Fahrenheit 9/11.
That’s why it’s so good to see Young stepping into the fray, even if his detractors are already harping on the fact he’s not even a real American.
Regardless of whether you share his position or not, there’s no denying Young is one of the most astute observers of the 20th (and now 21st) century, a songwriter whose unflinching eye is constantly trained on the world, and who possesses an uncanny ability to put our hopes and frustrations into words.
So maybe Young’s participation in the debate will put an end to all those righter-than-right pundits who keep dismissing arguments like his as the crazed ramblings of the sex-and-drugs crowd.
Because if there’s one thing we should have learned by now, it’s that criticizing the government (or questioning authority or freely voicing a dissenting opinion of any kind) is not treasonous.
Quite the opposite. After all the wars that have been fought in the name of personal and political freedoms, it’s one of the most “American” things a person can do.
Even if that person happens to be from Canada.
