Neil Young is Old

Word. But Neil Young's still at it. He's streaming his new protest album, Living With War from his web page, to be followed by it's release as a download, to be followed by the CD. It's a three-tiered release strategy, the suits will tell you.

It's pretty rockin' from what i've heard, and what's more interesting is that almost every track features a 100 member amateur choir backing up old Shakey. The choir seems like a direct cotinuation with his interest in populist, participatory musical events that he showcased in his Greendale project, as does the entire conception and distribution of this album.

Even if these songs don't become classics, it seems like that isn't really the point, given that the album was supposedly recorded in a few months, and the songs are all referencing current events in pretty specific ways. He supposedly floats Obama as a presidential candidate in one song, which is lame, but you see what i mean. Rock music, the white CNN.

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I had a dream about Neil Young last night. We was doin some kind of tour, by himself, and i was hanging out with him. He was pretty tight-lipped, and i remember saying, "hey after this next show, let's make some time to hang out." And he just kinda nodded and said, "OK."

So we're at a show, and Neil invites me and a young woman (i can't remember what she was doing there) on stage to take guitar solos while he sings. He'd ditched his guitar and was just singing to a backing track (wierd.) I had an arch top guitar with no markings on the fret board, so i was freaking out thinking that i wouldn't know what notes i was playing. I spent most of the first song plugging the guitar into an elaborate set up of effects pedals.

Then the second song started. Neil sang to another back up track. The woman started playing some licks, then she and Neil looked at me, encouraging me to play. I did my best, but i guess i had forgotten to engage the distortion pedal (which i had set to "disrupt") cause it sounded all twangy and pathetic. Apparently my playing was also at issue. The song just sorta stopped, as if everyone was shocked by my ineptitude. Neil just shrugged, he didn't seem too upset, although he and the woman did make fun of how i ended all my guitar lines with the same minor third interval.

***

One time i looked in a bathroom mirror at myself. I was unshowered and i was showing some chest hair. I realized that i look like the fat Baldwin brother.