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Well I heard ‘ole Neil put him down….

While it is sad that it takes someone from that other quagmire’s generation to release the first protest album for our current debackle of choice, at least we get a real album from one of the most important voices in the history of Rock n Roll.

On May 2nd, Neil Young will release “Living With War” — a 10-song collection that the artist describes as a “metal folk protest” — as a digital download album.

“This album is about exchanging ideas,” Young told CNN in a live interview last week on the steps of Warner Bros./Reprise Records in Burbank. “It’s about getting a message out. It’s about empowering people by giving them a voice. I know not everyone believes what I say is what they think, but red and blue is not black and white. We’re all together. It’s a record about unification.”

You can listen to Living With War Here.

Neil Young on CNN - A Video Discussing Living With War

“Living With War” has already set fans and the media abuzz over the Internet due to its reflections on the Iraqi war and the turmoil in this country.

It was written and recorded in two weeks with Young on electric guitar, vocals and harmonica, Chad Cromwell on drums, Rick Rosas on bass, and Tommy Bray on trumpet, along with a 100-member choir. One choir member, speaking to a British newspaper, said the recording session was “like being at a 12-hour peace rally.”

The Living With War Blog

While to my ears this does not stack up to the best of Neil Young, not much really does, it is far and away the best album I have heard from a 69 year old in quite some time. The third track is vintage Young - Don’t Need rails against the lies of Bish Co. as well as other things in the modern world that we clearly don’t need.

And it seems to me that the point of this record is not to try and rival Tonight’s the Night, Neil has got something on his mind ( and before you reject him as some long hair pinko fag you might want to do some research…) that he needs to share, and something that we need to hear.