Living With War - Neil Young - Printable Version
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- BuffaloHipFan - 05-15-2006
has anyone seen the prices they are charging for the tour? :roll:
- skippy the wonder dog - 05-16-2006
This album sounds pretty good to me (especially the nod to his Bobliness, of course), but it suffers from being topical. A song like "Let's Impeach the President" isn't going to have any lasting relevance beyond, pessimistically, November 2008. (Optimistically, a couple of months from now.
) Then it becomes a historical curiosity.That's unlike say, "Ohio," which chronicles a specific, important, historical event. "Ohio" may no longer be relevant, but it's as meaningful as part of our oral history as, say, Casey Jones.
The other artistic problem is the lack of ambiguity in a song like "Let's Impeach the President." Good art is usually ambiguous.
For example, what does "a hard rain's a-gonna fall" mean? The meaning expands because it isn't specific. "Let's impeach the president" is pretty specific, so the meaning and the song are relatively small.
From the other side, though, this is popular music, so expecting it to be Art for the Ages may be unreasonable.
Neil is taking it on the chin for this album on another forum I frequent. Apparently he is a shitty singer and a shitty guitar player, and he hasn't written a good song since about 1970. By an odd coincidence, the people expressing this view also disagree with his politics ... odd how that works, huh?
- The Horrible Esthete - 05-17-2006
Your criticism of the lack of ambiguity in LItP is spot-on.
We have a way raising certain songwriters to a level of artistic praise that they may not completely deserve, and then we find ways to yank them back down when they don't meet our overinflated expectations. It's not really fair.
I love Neil. He is what he is, and I wouldn't want him to have been anything else.
But truth be told, he's not much more than a simple (though competant) songwriter who has never shied-away from expressing his socio-political perspectives in his music; he's a folk musician. And in that tradition, pure musicianship is often subordinate to the message.
I never thought Neil was a great "guitarist" or "singer" -- yet I happen to love his guitar-playing and his voice (it makes sense if you think about it). They fit his profile, which has always been a kind of salt-of-the-earth persona. He's Mr. Everyman, and given his material, is part of the draw.
- tigerthelion - 05-17-2006
Skippy and esthete, great posts. :thumb:
It is odd that one's disagreement on personA's politics would flow over into one's opinion of personA's art, isn't it? :roll:
Esthete, you hit on something about Neil's lyrics that is spot on. I think he's a great and legendary songwriter but at times his lyrics are ridiculously simple. He'll rhyme something like "cat" with "hat" if the impulse strikes. But then he'll write something like:
There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high.
I was thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.
He doesn't reveal what the friend said that he hoped was a lie.
He's multi-faceted and he's an original. He doesn't write at all like a Gord Downie writes lyrics. Different styles.
Neil is purposely straight forward on this album. He wants it to be in your face and direct and he wants EVERYONE to understand every song and wants EVERYONE to get the message he is sending. He doesn't want confusion. This isn't an album with a fantasy song like "After the Gold Rush" where he's singing about silver space ships flying in the yellow haze of the sun. Neil is angry and wants the president out of office. He's not trying to be clever with his songs. A ten year old could write these lyrics but that's Neil's goal, to be simple and to convey his anger. I can certainly understand that criticism about this album because I'm not much for political protest albums either. I give Neil credit for making the album though. Somehow, I think democrats who listen to the album will LOVE IT and praise it as a landmark album while republican thinkers will dismiss it. Funny how that works.