Thursday, May 04, 2006

Neil Young Declares War

Here is a link for you that is probably getting more hits than a high class hooker on the backstreets of Peoria. Neil Young. Need I say more?

Neil Young is the kind of recording artist who has done it all, and no matter what he does he makes it unique. A true genius that once went slumming in a neighborhood far beneath him when he joined a trite little band called Crosby, Stills, and Nash, outclassing the second class Stills, and the third rate at best Crosby and Nash.

When Graham Nash, along with David Crosby, who laughingly refers to himself as a minstrel, sing protest songs, it can inspire at worst nausea, at best a feeling of either nostalgia or revulsion at the memory of the sixties, but most of the time just chuckles at their irrelevance. The same goes for most of the other 1960’s icons of their day, such as Joan Baez, to whom the current national mood is their one last chance to make the big time, in a way that speaks of more than just good luck and timing.

In fact, I have a theory that David Crosby’s most significant contribution to rock music was the beatles song “And Your Bird Can Sing”. Yeah, I know that was a Beatles song, a Lennon and MacCartney number. Lennon wrote it after he fucked Crosby’s wife.

Be that as it may, Young is a true artistic genius, and when an artist of his calibe devotes an entire album to a protest of the Iraqi War and the Bush MisAdministration, the Christian Far Right and the Neo-Cons have reason to be concerned. They can be excused if they see no occasion to chuckle in derision.

This is definitely worth a listen, if you can find the time. Send the link far and wide. Smoke a doobie while you’re at it. Remember, it’s better to burn out than to fade away.