One year ago this week, Neil Young released Living With War, the only rock album devoted to anti-war songs. What made this album so unique was that Neil wrote and recorded the album very quickly and then made it available for free on the Internet. None of this would matter if the songs weren't any good, but much to my shock upon hearing it for the first time last year, I immediately realized that Living With War was nothing if not a great collection of songs.
Living With War works as an album because the songs are excellent. I do not hold out hope that rock's old timers will continue to release great albums. Everyone has a few good songs left in them, but few from the baby-boomer generation are still capable of making great albums. How did Neil Young write and record a great album overnight, especially one with an overriding anti-war theme?
The album was released to great acclaim and the album became a hit. So why didn't other rock superstars follow suit? Although public support for the Iraq war has vanished, it's still an eye-opener when a celebrity comes out against the war. But rock musicians? Rock music was supposed to be rebellious. Maybe they did not want to suffer the fate of the Dixie Chicks, who made an innocuous statement about George W. Bush and got pummelled for it by the country music faithful. We want more of this, but the rock and roll royalty won't go out on a limb any longer. It's not 1967 anymore, and the rock Gods either don't care about the war or they don't want to make waves.
After listening to Living With War on and off for the past year, I nominate "Shock and Awe" as the greatest rock and roll protest song of all time. That distinguishes the song from Bob Dylan's folk classics. Nothing jumps out of the speaker like "Shock and Awe", which attacks the war like nothing I've ever heard. Few songs about the Vietnam War pack the punch of "Shock and Awe," which highlights Young's grungy electric guitar and a trumpet solo to honor the dead. But this song will never be played at a funeral. Change the lyrics and you could play it at a fraternity party.
Living With War also attacks us, who voted for George W. Bush. Well, I sure as hell didn't, but over 50 million people did. "We had a chance to change our mind," Young sings. He carries this theme to "Restless Consumer" which covers how we are amusing ourselves to death. But if any "patriotic" ding-dong attacks Neil Young for anti-American sentiment, play him "Families" and "Flags of Freedom", songs which place sympathy where it belongs, not with the warmongers and the little men who wanted this war but with the soldiers and their families. The title track's not bad, either.
Living With War was supposed to be a dated document by now. That didn't happen because the war is raging on and no one knows how to end it. Soldiers are coming home every day in body bags and the lives of their loved ones have changed forever because George W. Bush wanted a war to call his own and he whipped up support among the American public which still thinks the government tells us the truth whenever it places soldiers in harm's way. There is little we can do when a pathological killer is sitting in the White House but protest and bitch and moan. If you're tired of bitching and moaning, get your hands on Living With War. Buy two copies, in fact.
