Neil Young talks to Charlie Rose: "I'm not happy about it now."

RightWingBob.com ^ | 07/19/2008 | RWB

[Merciful_Friend]

Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young was interviewed on PBS's Charlie Rose show. The show, almost a complete hour, can be watched at this link. (Thanks to Jay for the tip.)

If you can get past some of the political baggage, and you like Neil Young, it's an entertaining interview, where Young comes across funny, sincere and kind of sweetly naïve.

With regard to the politics and his Let's Impeach the President phase, Young certainly is giving the distinct impression of having second thoughts. Some of what he says when Charlie prods him on the war:

I look at it Charlie as "why"? Why are we doing this? And why is the human race doing this? I try to step back and see it. And y'know on this record I got really involved in the present, which is like turmoil, it's terrible. To be involved in, y'know, criticizing the president, and doing this and that, and talking about things in the first person and getting right in there. It's like I got sucked into it. I was part of the turmoil myself. Which I wasn't happy about. And I'm not happy about it now. But it happened.

[...]

I was sucked into it and I got angry. I was angry about things that were happening, and I thought this is just not right. This is not the way it should be. I felt like we were being lied to and things weren't true and we were getting sold a bill of goods [...] but I don't want to harp on that.

[...]

I did the album. I said all of what I had to say, and now I don't like to do it again. I don't like singing the songs. I did it. I'm not CNN. I don't play it over and over again.

Ahem. One can't help but be reminded of Bob Dylan's quote about hearing Neil Young's Let's Impeach the President and how he thought, "That's crazy, he's doing a song about Clinton?" That little dig of Bob's, as I thought at the time, put a finger on what was wrong -- just artistically speaking -- with what Neil Young was doing. He was making music that was more like (lousy) opinion journalism, with a definite expiration date.

Well, I guess Neil realizes that it's now expired. Too bad there are some fans out there who probably still listen to those tunes as anthems, manifestos and mantras.

(Continue reading here.)

[Allegra]

Yes, this stuff was real cute when Iraq was in turmoil and looked so hopeless to the casual observer, wasn't it?

Now that things on the ground have changed drastically, it's kind of funny to see how many people are trying to backtrack.

[Karliner]

I don't know about where the DUCKs name came from, probably from Blackburn or John Craviato( old drummer for Moby Grape" and other SF bands) but yes, he used to play behind or in the barn on 38th ave which, the last time I drove down that street there's no more barn( from the 1800's) and no more pear orchards....no more water tower...wahhh. I believe there's homes and a little kids park there now...no way to even see the way it once was.

Allegedly Neil did lose some guitars and the was an article written about Neil and such regarding this by and old college friend( and before) by the name of Ben Marcus....of course he omitted the needle and the spoon junk I witnessed. Neil used to drive around town in his old Rolls Royce and would frequent the health food store( no longer there either) on the corner of Portola Dr/ 41st Avenue.

Cheers to old Pleasure Point surfers back in the day when life was slower and homes cost less than a million a piece!!

[Joe 6-pack]

"One can't help but be reminded of Bob Dylan's quote about hearing Neil Young's Let's Impeach the President and how he thought, "That's crazy, he's doing a song about Clinton?"

I also like these little reported musician quotes from recent years:

“Why is everybody trying to stop the war? George Bush ain't been saying, 'You all, make shitty records.' Politicians and music don't mix. It's like whisky and wine. Musicians ought to stay out of it.”

-Kid Rock

"“I do not believe that artists or actors and people should be out there like voicing their full-blown opinions on politics because, let's face it, at the end of the day, I'm not that smart of a guy. I play Rock 'n' Roll, that's what I do. Who would you trust to make your decisions, Donald Rumsfeld or the Dixie Chicks?”

-Kid Rock

“If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are.”

Alice Cooper