Track Listing

1. After The Garden
2. Living With War
3. The Restless Consumer
4. Shock And Awe
5. Families
6. Flags Of Freedom
7. Let's Impeach The President
8. Lookin' For A Leader
9. Roger And Out
10. America The Beautiful

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #117349 in Music
• Released on: 2006-12-19
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Special Edition

Album Description
For this raw limited-edition CD+DVD version of Living With War, the critically acclaimed original album, Neil Young strips away the choir, ratchets up the guitars and blasts away with all the passion and volume worth of one of rock's greatest singer-songwriters. In addition, packaged with the new audio CD is a DVD featuring video clips documenting the recording sessions for each of the 10 songs on the album (which is also presented with new artwork). With this Living With War, Neil Young is once again rockin' the free world

Customer Reviews

Powerful Social Commentary and Innovative Videos
This set isn't merely a re-issue of the ground breaking and controversial Living With War release. It serves as a deeper look into the sessions that produced the original album and gives a visual dimension to a song set that already leaves the listener with a broad series of mental images. The CD content is stripped down version of the original...4 musicians in a room creating music and captured on tape, using the first mixes out of the control room. These songs are heard once again on the DVD, but in much greater fidelity, which to this reviewer is far superior to the CD. The DVD is packed with a series of videos Neil created in a news channel style to illustrate the songs as well as a group of documentary videos from the recording sessions. The artist explains his work in clips taken from a TV news interview and an appearance on the Colbert Report. Fans interested in the much discussed Neil Young Archives get a treat here with the special preview of two videos from the Crazy Horse Rusted Out Garage Tour in 1986. Biographies, album reviews, and even a somewhat somber, but thoughtful listing of US fatalities in the Iraq War complete the DVD to help cement this release as a historical document of a World in a troubled time.

Less Is More With Raw War
During the spring of 2006, NPR created a buzz that soon turned into a comsumer roar surrounding Neil Young's initial release of "Living With War". Interviews on NPR's "Fresh Air" with Young uncovered his heated spur-of-the-moment mindset to rifle off a collection of anti-war/administration songs and the station even sound-clipped several of the tracks to give it's listeners an audible sample platter of the issues Young was taking on.

Despite Young's sincere anger and commentary (that I already happened to agree with) the songs came off as over-the-top and too polished. Naturally I was biased to approve of Young releasing some point-and-blame musical numbers, but much of the lyrics were too cliche and the 100 voice choir on several of the songs didn't help either for sounding celeberatory, neverminding the lyrical content's morose tone. After a good once-over, I decided that the initial release of "Living With War" was 3 star material. I'm glad Neil Young was taking a stand, but the music didn't communicate well with the message.

Upon hearing about "Living With War - Raw", I immediately thought of The Beatles "Let It Be... Naked" which is also compiled from the rough cuts of that classic album (classic in its own right, for I am not a huge Beatles fan). Time will tell if "Living With War" will be considered a classic, one thing it does have going for itself is that it's turned out to be one of Young's best all-time selling albums.

"Raw" takes only from the first mixes of each song. Absent are the choir and other overdubs which seemingly made the initial "Living With War" nearly gaudy. A focused but ever-loose distortion-driven Crazy Horse feel gives this stripped version it's best attribute and with the music peeled to it's very bones makes the lyrics that much more effective. Directly qouting Young: "Although they are not polished, they represent the essence of Living With War, in the beginning."

4 stars. Although the horn section still gets a bit annoying.

Neil Young is More Relevant Than Most People Alive
I thought I liked the album before, I absolutely love it like this. Mr. Young, his guitar, his arrow-shot lyrics and passionate delivery: simply love it. Thank you, Neil Young.