What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees? Would New Orleans have been safer?
It would be easy to write off Neil Young and his new album, Living With War, as the incoherent ramblings of an old man who is out of touch. It would also be wrong. Recorded in mere days less than a month ago, Living With War is an out and out protest album against the war in Iraq and President Shrub. Some of you will view that last comment and think “well, of COURSE you like this record, you AGREE with it.” Agreement isn’t the point though. I can agree with a song’s basic message and still think the song (or in this case, songs) suck. If there was a song called “Bush is a f*ckwad” written by Weird Al Yankovic on accordian, I’d probably agree with the message, but the song would suck. These songs most assuredly don’t suck. I’ve never been a big Neil fan, but I did enjoy his last record (Prairie Wind), and have enjoyed some of his past work (though hardly anywhere close to all of it). Since the songs were recorded in virtually no time, there is an urgency to them that gives them potency.
