A Biased Review
I still get goose bumps when I listen to Stephen Stills' Find the Cost of Freedom and Neil Young's Ohio. Maybe its because at the time those songs came out, I was a part time college student who feared each days mail because I was certain it would contain the dreaded letter from the draft board that started with Greetings and ended with a trip to a jungle in southeast Asia.Whatever the reason, the experience established Neil Young as the quintessential antiwar protest artist in my mind. Though there were many others of equal caliber, it was Young who resonated at a visceral level for many of us whose lives were affected, directly or indirectly, by the war in Viet Nam.
It is against this backdrop that I have been anxiously waiting for Youngs Living With War album, wondering how my 50-something perspective might alter how I would react, compared to my something-teen self.
Was It the Same?

I wasnt disappointed. Young hasnt lost an ounce of his ability to nail a thought, a feeling, a mood, and vividly express it through lyric, melody, and voice.
Just as it was in the early 70s, Young can be brutal with his lyrics, as in lets impeach the President for lying and the shadow man running the government. He can also be hopeful (I raise my hand in peace, I take a holy vow never to kill again.) He can express disappointment ("Have you seen the flags of freedom? What color are they now?") and optimism ("Someone walks among us, and I hope he hears the call. Maybe it's a woman, or a black man after all.")
Still the Voice
Musically, Young does much with just his guitar, Chad Cromwells drums, Rick Rosas bass and, briefly but poignantly, Tommy Brays trumpet. Young's voice has matured as he has. Although last year's Prairie Wind was a personal, reflective album, the artist seems much more a material part of the songs on this album.A 100-voice choir is used effectively, especially on the closing track, an a cappella arrangement of America the Beautiful that reminds us that the artist is more than just a strident complainer that he is, above all, a patriot.
Will the same radio stations that blacklisted the Dixie Chicks because one of them criticized the President do the same to Neil Young? Probably not. Not only is the mood of the country different now, Young long ago earned his props as a spokesman for values he shares with what is fast becoming the majority of Americans.
Oh, and, in case youre wondering, I never did get that letter from the draft board, and my number never came up in the draft lottery. A couple of my high school buddies went and came back in coffins. A college roommate went and came back with physical, mental and emotional scars that he still carries today. Neil Young speaks for them, too.



