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La dimensione politica è sempre stata una costante nell’universo di Neil Young: dai bagliori hippie di CSNY alla copertina del suo capolavoro “On the beach”, recante in un particolare un quotidiano con titolo sul Watergate, epitome del fallimento della sua generazione.
Young ha in tal senso avuto sempre un’attitudine pugnace e diretta, senza mai appiattirsi sugli stereotipi liberal: occupando posizioni spiazzanti, arrivando persino a lambire lidi populisti nel momento di massima disillusione all’ uscita dal tunnel degli anni 70.
Concependo la musica come valvola di sfogo per le tensioni politiche, l’autore di “Harvest” ha forgiato vividi affreschi passati alla storia, come “Ohio”, “Southern man” o “Rockin in the free world”. Egli non è un profeta come Dylan, la sua dimensione poetica è riservata ad altri aspetti del suo immaginario: all’artista attanagliato dai suoi fantasmi e dalla ruggine ad esempio.
Il Young politico è frenetico, scrive di getto ciò che non gli va a genio nella società: è capace di scrivere un capolavoro come “Ohio” in pochi minuti, davanti a un attonito David Crosby. Non stupisce quindi che il suo chiacchieratissimo “Living with war” sia un instant record, concepito e registrato a cavallo del mese di Aprile, e già disponibile sul web nel sito ufficiale. Anche i sassi di Matera sanno ormai che nel mirino del Canadese (dal 1965 trapiantato in California) c’è l’ America di Bush e dei suoi disastri, dai deserti iracheni alle paludi di New Orleans. Molti titoli del resto sono emblematici: “Shock and awe” (nome in codice dell’operazione che depose Saddam Hussein), “Lookin’ for a leader”, ”Flags of freedom” e persino “Let’s impeach the president”.
Intendiamoci: non ci troviamo di fronte a un pallosissimo sermone. Gli strali di Young sono squarci illuminanti sugli USA odierni, cronache folgoranti e persino ironiche. E poi la Musica, già. C’era da immaginarlo visti i temi trattati : “Living with war” segna il ritorno alle sonorità più ruvide ed elettrizzanti, pur senza i fidi Crazy Horse.
A parte i due conclusivi episodi (il midtempo di “Roger and out”, innocuo richiamo a “Helpless” e il divertissement gospel di “America the beautiful”), la nuova fatica di Neil riallaccia i fili della tensione elettrica, ammainando i tenui sapori harvestiani del precedente “Prairie wind”.
Le parti di chitarra sono tutte sue, e c’è da scommettere che il nostro eroe si sarà divertito assai: era dai tempi di “Ragged glory” e "Sleeps with angels" che non sentivamo la perfezione di quei riff al curaro, di quella chitarra distorta come in “Shock and awe” o nella tiratissima “The Restless consumer”, entrambi due gioielli col tiro dei giorni migliori.
Il resto del disco, pur non eguagliando le vette di questi due episodi, scorre come un fiume in piena, degna colonna sonora della rabbia del suo autore. Viene spontaneo il paragone con l’ultima fatica di Neil in sella al Cavallo pazzo, quel “Greendale” dotato di coeve prerogative politiche, ambizioso e forse leggermente pretenzioso: ben più agile risulta l’ascolto di semplici ma perfetti incastri rock come “After the garden”, “Living with war” o la struggente “Families”, sovente impreziosite da inusitati assoli di tromba e da cori che enfatizzano il messaggio del disco.
“Don’ t need no Tv Ad tellin’ me how sick I am” esclama livoroso Neil in “The Restless consumer”, e capiamo tutti - citando i Public Enemy - che è la musica il messaggio di questo meraviglioso sessantenne.
PS tre stellette e mezzo
Elenco tracce testi e samples
01 After the Garden (03:23)
Won't need no shadow man
Runnin' the government
Won't need no stinkin' WAR
Won't need no haircut
Won't need no shoe shine
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
What will people do?
After the garden is gone
What will people say?
After the garden
Won't need no strong man
Walkin' through the night
To live a weak man's day
Won't need no purple haze
Won't need no sunshine
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
Where will people go?
After the garden is gone
What will people know?
After the garden
After the garden is gone
After the garden is gone
(We live in the garden of Eden, yeah
Don't know why we wanna tear the whole thing to the ground
We live in the garden of Eden, yeah
Don't know why we wanna tear the whole thing down
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden)
03 The Restless Consumer (05:47)
The people have heard the news
The people have spoken
You may not like what they said
But they weren't jokin'
Way out on the desert sands
Lies a desperate lover
They call her the "Queen of Oil"
So much to discover
Don't need no ad machine
Telling me what I need
Don't need no Madison Avenue War
Don't need no more boxes I can see
Covered in flags but I can't see them on TV
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
The restless consumer flies
Around the world each day
With such an appetite for taste and grace
People from around the world
Need someone to listen
We're starving and dying from our disease
We need your medicine
How do you pay for war
And leave us dyin' ?
When you could do so much more
You're not even tryin'
Don't need no TV ad
Tellin' me how sick I am
Don't want to leave
Don't want to know how many people are like me
Don't need no dizziness
Don't need no nausea
Don't need no side effects like diarrhea or sexual death
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
The restless consumer lies
Asleep in her hotel
With such an appetite
For anything that sells
A hundred voices from a hundred lands
Need someone to listen
People are starving here and there
They don't see the world the way you do
There's no mission accomplished here
Just death to thousands
A hundred voices from a hundred lands
Cry out in unison
Don't need no terror squad
Don't want no damned Jihad
Blowin' themselves away in my hood
But we don't talk to them
So we don't learn from them
Hate don't negotiate with Good
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
Don't need no more lies
The restless comsumer flies
Around the world each day
With such an appetite for efficiency
And pace...
Don't need no more lies.
04 Shock and Awe (04:52)
Back in the days of shock and awe
We came to liberate them all
History was the cruel judge of overconfidence
Back in the days of shock and awe
Back in the days of "mission accomplished"
Our chief was landing on the deck
The sun was setting on a golden photo op
Back in the days of "mission accomplished"
Thousands of bodies in the ground
Brought home in boxes to a trumpet's sound
No one sees them coming home that way
Thousands buried in the ground
Thousands of children scarred for life
Millions of tears for a soldier's wife
Both sides are losing now
Heaven takes them in
Thousands of children scarred for life
We had a chance to change our mind
But somehow wisdom was hard to find
We went with what we knew and now we can't go back
But we had a chance to change our mind.
05 Families (02:25)
When you try to bring our spirit home
Won't you celebrate our lives
In a way that's right for our children
And families
When you write your songs about us
Won't you try to do us justice
Because we want to be just like you
And your families
I see a light ahead
There's a chill wind blowin' in my head
I wish that I was home instead
With my family
There's a universe between us now
But I want to reach our and tell you how
Much you mean to me
And my family
I'm goin' back to the USA
I just got my ticket today
I can't wait to see you again
In the USA.
08 Lookin' for a Leader (04:03)
Lookin' for a leader
To bring our country home
Re-unite the red, white and blue
Before it turns to stone
Lookin' for somebody
Young enough to take it on
Clean up the corruption
And make the country strong
Walkin' among our people
There's someone who's straight and strong
To lead us from desolation
And a broken world gone wrong
Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it's a woman
Or a black man after all
Maybe it's Obama
But he thinks that he's too young
Maybe it's Colin Powell
To right what he's done wrong
America has a leader
But he's not in the House
He's walking here among us
And we've got to seek him out
Yeah we've got our election
But corruption has a chance
We got to have a clean win
To regain confidence
America is beautiful
But she has an ugly side
We're lookin' for a leader
In this country far and wide
We're lookin' for a leader
With the great spirit on his side
Someone walks among us
And I hope he hears the call
And maybe it's a woman
Or a black man after all
09 Roger and Out (04:25)
Trippin' down that old Hippie Highway
Got to thinkin' 'bout you again
Wonderin' how it really was for you
And how it happened in the end
But I guess I'll never know the truth
If you were really all alone
We were just a couple of kids then
Livin' each and every day
When we both went down to register
We were laughin' all the way
That's when we named it The Hippie Highway
I still call it that today
Roger and out good buddy
I still call it that today
Two camaros racin' down the road
Feels just like yesterday
Roger and out good buddy
I feel you in the air today
I know you gave for your country
I feel you in the air today
Roger and out good buddy
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Altre recensioni
Di Lesto BANG
Ancora qui a provare a recensire Neil Young con questo disco che... è piatto e grezzo come un piatto di fagioli crudi preso direttamente dal freezer.
Questo è un disco tremendamente noioso e moscio che se si può salvare a livello letterario ma che è sicuramente da affondare per la parte musicale.
