nazz

Neil Young, Son of Famed Reporter, Records "Impeach the President" Song

By E&P Staff

Published: April 14, 2006 11:40 AM ET
NEW YORK As an E&P "Pressing Issues" column recently noted, rock star Neil Young is the
son of a famed Canadian journalist, so it should not surprise many that he recently
recorded a song in California with a very reportorial -- or at least pundit -- feel to it.

It's called "Impeach the President," so there can be little question what it is about.

Apparently it was recorded with a 100-voice choir. Rumors have circulated the past few
days on the Web, but E&P has tracked down the strongest confirmation in a blog kept by
Sherman Oaks, Ca. musician/singer Alicia Morgan.

Previous reports quoted hints by Young and Jonathan Demme (who directed the new
documentary "Heart of Gold") that Neil was working on a hard-rocking political or "anti-
Bush" CD.

Last Friday, Morgan wrote on her LastLeftB4Hooterville blog that she had been
"summoned" to a local studio to sing on the new record with 99 others. "I'm not going to
give the whole thing away, but the first line of one of the songs was `Let's impeach the
President for lyin'!' Turns out the whole thing is a classic beautiful protest record. The
session was like being at a 12-hour peace rally. Every time new lyrics would come up on
the screen, there were cheers, tears and applause. It was a spiritual experience. I can't
believe my good fortune at being a part of this.

"We finished the session by singing an a capella version of 'America the Beautiful' and
there was not a dry eye in the house.

"Neil said it should be out in 6 to 8 weeks."

Harp magazine reported on its Web site Thursday that Demme had confirmed in an e-
mail, "Neil just finished writing and recording -- with no warning -- a new album called
'Living With War.' It all happened in three days… It is a brilliant electric assault,
accompanied by a 100-voice choir, on Bush and the war in Iraq… Truly mind blowing. Will
be in stores soon."

The magazine continued: "Details are pretty scarce, but the featured track, titled `Impeach
the President,' features a rap with Bush's voice set to the choir chanting `flip/flop' and the
like."

Young has always been a maverick politically as well as musically. Although he has
recorded a few songs that drew cheers from liberals, such as "Ohio" and "Southern Man,"
he also drew criticism from the left for pro-Reagan comments many years ago.

Jason

Didn't Neil Young record the quasi-facist anthem "Let's Roll" a few years back?

DrRingDing

flip flop flip flop flip flop!

i love neil young, but this is a good point.

-ringding-

nazz

In fairness to Neil I imagine he has a different reaction to passengers on a plane fighting terrorists and the invasion of Iraq.

SeekOnce

Agreed. I don't see any contradiction there.

No one should be surprised about this record. I'm just wondering what took him so long.

astrochimp

I heard Mr Young sing about him,i heard ol' Neil put him down,i hope Neil Young will remember George W dont want him around anyhow.

Sorry just had to do that

PopcornTreeCt

Interesting. It's weird how they talk about people getting choked up when their message is full of anger and hate.

MartinBlank

What does "Let's Roll" have to do with facism?

shaun3000

Oh the irony.

nazz

I think some of that was probably lyrics about war. When they recorded Ohio after Kent State David Crosby cried when they finished.

JoeR63

People are emotional about the songs and lyrics that resonates with their feelings. Nothing weird that I see, nor is there a message of anger and hate. The anger and hate will come later from some people when this is released and they have a "Dixie Chicks" fit over it. I don't see Neil being the type to be the least bit concerned about radio airplay or financial consequences though, and that's refreshing. Can't wait for this release.

cungar

I think I remember Neil being a Reagan supporter in the 80's as well. Glad to see he sees the difference between conservatism and whatever the hell the Bush administration is.

nodeerforamonth

Yeah, but bashing Bush is par for the course these days. If he REALLY wanted to be so rebellious, he'd write a song praising him. Then again, I guess RnR isn't really about rebellion anymore.

maxfisher

Neil Young rapping over a choir chanting 'flip-flop'? It'd be tough to come up with a less appealing song description. I didn't vote for and am in no way a fan of our current president, but no thanks.

Michael Corvin

Saw this on the Colbert Report last night. Apparently he is Canadian, so fuck him. If you don't like our country go back to yours.

Numanoid

With Bush's approval rating in the 30's, that's an awful lot of folks leaving.

Brain Stew

Wow.

Mopower

Anything to try to be relevant I suppose.

cungar

Yeah I'm sure one of the top 5 rock artists of the past 30 years has to go out of his way to be relevant. Sounds like you're bitter about the subject matter.

Mopower

Where'd you dig up that list from? Just because he's in your top 5?

Yeah I guess I'm just bitter because I've never heard a good Neil Young song.

JoeR63

All this means is that you don't like his music, which is fine. We all have personal tastes and preferences in music. He is one of my favorite artists and I could list a whole page of "good Neil Young songs."

To those artists and fans of his musical genre, he is very relevant. Top 5? Top 10? Top whatever? It doesn't matter. Rating artists is so subjective. But he is very relevant and influential. He most definitely does not have to "try" to be relevant.

chess

Rockin' in the Free World?

Mr. Salty

Just because you don't like a particular artist doesn't negate their artistic and cultural relevance.

MartinBlank

"That's one more kid that'll never go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool!"

You see what he did there? He rhymed school with cool!! BRILLIANT!!



And I still want to know what about "Let's Roll" is facist. Let's kill the terrorists before they can kill us/more innocents? What's so wrong with that?

Toad

$10 says Neil doesn't know what "impeach" means.