Still Living With War... and Yet More War To Come
Sadly, we're still living with war.
And judging by the beat of the war drums, it looks like we'll soon have another war front open up in Syria.
In a 2008 article on Who Got Iraq Right? by Greg Mitchell and Tom Engelhardt, they include Neil Young and his album Living With War as an alternative voice for:
"... exposing the criminal nature of, and the many costs of, the Iraq war that have emerged from an "alternative" universe that includes former war correspondents, reporters for small newspapers or news services, comedians, aging rock 'n rollers, and bloggers, among others. "As Neil Young has stated: "History is a cruel judge of overconfidence."
More "Shock And Awe" coming our way.
Neil Young / Shock & Awe by ivaxavi
Try to remember peace (visualize)
"I join the multitudes
I raise my hand in peace
I never bow to the laws of the thought police
I take a holy vow
To never kill again
To never kill again
I'm living with war in my heart
I'm living with war in my heart and my mind
I'm living with war right now"
Despite what the critics have written -- if nothing else -- Living With War was the most courageous album of 2006.
ps - Dear World, Americans Don't Want War With Syria
No War
Greendale Film still
Labels: living with war, neil young
by thrasher@PermaLink: 8/28/2013 05:44:00 PM
19 comments
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19 Comments:
America has a leader
But he's not in the house
He's waling here among us
And we've got to seek him out
Dan1
'Beware the military industrial complex'...Eisenhower
Obama supports radical Muslims...end of story
How can we go after war criminals abroad when we let our home grown versions retire comfortably? One even got his fouled and withered heart replaced at our expense!
I've never understood those who say that LWW is somehow a lesser or unmusical effort. It's intense, powerful and certainly rocks hard. Rage and sorrow are powerful ingredients. I'd place it with "Okemah and the Melody of Riot" by Son Volt as one of the distinct voices of protest at that time.
I liked the way NY realized that CSN was the perfect vehicle for the message at the time, and that CSN, despite some of their misgivings, had to go along.
It's still a big mystery to me. I'm not trying to piss people off, but I have never spoken someone in Europe who liked George Bush.
anonymous @ 9:30
perhaps it's that he too willingly played out the caricature of a cowboy yahoo. Yosemite Sam blended with a heedless and incurious frat boy...with a vast military at his fingertips.
War is a sickness. People haven't evolved much since the days of Rome and rape and pillage. We just hide it better. The bad part is that with the technology we have now the danger is a thousand fold. It is hard to have much faith in the human race, or hope. Listening to this great album makes one feel less crazy for still believing in the good people of the world. Thank you Neil. Not everyone in America is pro war. And remember, folks, that most of the people we "help" with our bombs have even less say than we do in how their country is ran.
Will Syria be a just war since Obama wants it?
Yes it's a shame there are bad people in the world. Someone has to try and stop them. It's a thankless job.
Paul
Yes, this is Obamas war, so it will be just...lol..If he has any intelligence he will not do anything in Syria. Why help an enemy?
Paul
"When I sing about love and war
I don't really know what I'm saying
I've been in love and I've seen a lot of war
Seen a lot of people praying
They pray to Allah and they prey to the lord
But mostly they pray about love and war
Pray about love and war
I've seen a lot of young men go to war
And leave a lot of young brides waiting
I've watched them try to explain it to their kids
And seen a lot of them failing
They tried to tell them and they tried to explain
Why daddy won't ever come home again.
Daddy won't ever come home again
I said a lot of things that I can't take back
But I don't really know if I want to
There've been songs about love
I sang songs about war
Since the backstreets of Toronto
I sang for justice and I hit a bad chord
But I still try to sing about love and war
Sing about love and war"
- NY
Let's impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones
'Yes it's a shame there are bad people in the world. Someone has to try and stop them. It's a thankless job.
Paul'
Very much a simplified vision of the workd, dividing people into 'good and bad'. I remember George Bush did the same. One mans freedom fighter is anothers terrorist. Think about the activity in Iraq, for example. Any thing which happens gets branded as 'Al-Quaeeda'. But answer this question. Look out your window and imagine there is an occupying foreign army rolling down your street in huge tanks. Who ten years ago bombed your civic buildings including museums and churches. Would you try to disrupt their plans? Would you stand up and be counted?
Its too easy to say we are the good guys and they are the bad guys. Conrad's thesis argued the heart of darkness is in everyman.
I like LWW - In the Beginning more, actually. LWW is okay, but I don't consider it a tremendous album. Crosby once said that he asked Young where were all the great hooks, special time changes, etc. Young replied: 'I'm not going to waste my good songs on George Bush'.
It's kind of funny, but LWW is a bit rushed. Especially the drums are dissapointing at times. Young should have waited for CSN and record it with them (as was originally planned).
But as a spontaneous protest it surely has it's value.
''if nothing else -- Living With War was the most courageous album of 2006.''
I have to disagree. Slayer's Christ Illusion deals with comparable subjects: a soldier with
Posttraumatic stress disorder, 9/11 from the point of view of a terrorist, manipulation by the government and media in times of war, religion as a mind controlling device.
They also make a connection between religion and war during the history of mankind.
The lyrics are way more extreme. It even got banned in India and a memorandum to Mumbai's police was issued against the band.
It was a highly controversial record, even before it came out (due to bus bench promotions, the artwork & lyrics). So in a way it's like a more extreme version of Living with War.
"It's all illusion anyway."
Winterlong
ny
Anon 4:25
Like I said ..it's a thankless job.
I have no illusions of one side is always right.In my mind/soul I've become numb to most atrocities outside of my country. Doing everything or doing nothing, we/us are still the bad guy.
I see no reason to send any military/monetary assistance to any of the middle east civil wars going on.
You cannot fight a war successfully and worry about civilian casualties. You cannot win a war when your enemy doesn't care about civilian casualties.
Good luck to the middle east...
Paul
"It's all illusion anyway."
Now that's a lyric that's taken us awhile to fully appreciate. In fact, it's still really sinking in because, yes, it does seem to all be an illusion.
Once you realize media and government are the same, your mind will expand.
Please youtube the movie SEPTEMBER CLUES. Everything must be questioned. Media fakery is REAL.
"I don't know why I never asked you about the war you went to. I guess I thought I saw it in the movies."
--Jayne Anne Phillips from Machine Dreams
"It is over too soon. She stays outside, listening to the last small rustle of their voices falling. It is still dark and she feels a chill in the smoky air. The city is quiet for the first time since she arrived. She examines the silence. She looks out past the rooftops, westward. There is a flash out there in the dark near a major checkpoint. Then another in the same spot, several more, intense and white. She waits for the reciprocating flash, the return fire, but all the bursts are in one spot and there is no sound."
--Don DeLillo from Mao II
In the mountains
In the city
You can see the dream
--Neil Young
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