Neil Young: Music Can't Change World

BERLIN — Neil Young has a pessimistic message: Music has lost its power to change the world.

The 62-year-old singer brought his new movie, "CSNY Deja Vu," to the Berlin film festival Friday. The film was shot during the 2006 Freedom of Speech tour by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Young, who directed the movie under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, wasn't making any big claims about its effects.

"I think that the time when music could change the world is past," he told reporters. "I think it would be very naive to think that in this day and age."

Young added: "I think the world today is a different place, and that it's time for science and physics and spirituality to make a difference in this world and to try to save the planet."

"CSNY Deja Vu" intersperses footage from the tour, which featured performances from Young's "Living With War" album, with archive and television news material _ and unfavorable reactions from critics.

"If we didn't do that, it would just feel like a bunch of old hippies up there saying what they thought _ and who cares?" Young said.

Young said he called his fellow band members before the tour and told them: "This is all I'm going to do, I won't be doing anything else and I don't want to sing any ... pretty songs; we can only sing about war and politics and the human condition."

Story continues below

advertisement

"The goal was to stimulate debate among people, and I hope that to some degree the film succeeds in doing that," he said.

"CSNY Deja Vu" is showing outside the main competition at the annual Berlin festival, which runs through Feb. 17.

___

On the Net:

Berlin Film Festival:

http://www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html

Neil Young:

http://www.neilyoung.com/

Comments

[MetalCanuck]

Art/Music have died pretty much. Its a sign of an oppressed spirit in the people. Things turned to shit after 1994, you could feel it. There was NAFTA, then China, then crash, then bubble NOW HUGE CRASH...ju­st watch.

[transendentilist]

Things started turning to shit in 1969. Wall street and the market place have ruined music's power to really motivate people. Pop music in America is no different than a can of peaches on the grocery store shelf. When big money entered the picture, rock and roll started to lose it's rebel appeal.

[MetalCanuck]

I liked the 70's stuff but yeah you are right, it has been a steady downturn since then.

[kardwell]

A few months ago I went to Young's show in LA and found myself perplexed by the absence of his typical outrage and political commentary, which I had expected. I was at a Neal Young concert back in '90, the night that Gulf War I started and he was positively on FIRE. For this show, he was curiously silent about the state of things. I suspected he might have given up...

Now I know.

How sad.

[RevMetheus]

The angry radicals speaking out during the 60s and 70s got tired of their message becoming advertising during the 80s. At least Neil Young is still around. People like Hunter S. Thompson gave up for real, he saw the writing on the wall and found the nearest exit.

[transendentilist]

Hunter Thompson killed himself because of his illness and constant pain. It had nothing to do with politics or revolutions gone bad...etc.

I can understand someone taking their own life because of debilitating and painful diseases. What I do not condone using suicide as a way of ending your problems in this life. It's the coward's way out. It's a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

[transendentilist]

Why do people place such a huge burden on our music heros? Hasn't Neil done enough to change the world??? How is it right to expect an artist to carry the world on their shoulders, indefinately??


Hey Jude?

[Wilburrr]

Neil,

"Let's play something that's not so damn depressing­..." It's been a few years since Yosemite's Camp 4. By itself? Music never could change the world; it was only a piece of a larger movement. We have the same movement again today; look at Pink, Sherry Austin, Bruce, The Dixie Chicks, GreenDay, Melissa Etheridge, Jewel.... a newer generation of Woody, Arlo, Pete, Bob, and you.

They are all an integral part of a larger phenomenon. The winds of change that we tried (and failed) to catalyze in '68 and '72 are blowing again (Deja Vu). Keep writing... keep singing, my friend; you taught us all how to be a piece of that whole.

[ergoth]

shakey still puts out great music.

for ordinary people.

[hozer]

Well.....
Maybe nowadaze music just duzzint have the ooomph that it used to have for Neil and me...

...but, maybe this summer Neil's old 1959 Lincoln Continental will be fun to cruise around the country in and make our own drive-in movies with in many different venues.

Check out these two links and you'll see whuttzappenin' and whuttz reeeely coool!!!!

http://mobmov.org/
~~~~~~~~~~­~~~~~~~~~~­~~
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=neil-young+goodwin&btnG=Search
~~~~~~~~~~­~~~~~~~~~~­~~

[kirotahoe]

i have a web page called victim of the sixties.
maybe neil young knows how i feel.

[kirotahoe]

well i dreamed i saw the silver spaceships flying
in the yellow haze of the sun
there were people crying....

[goldcoastsailor]

We must embrace war, famine, and disease, as vital checks on the population as Malthus (English economist) said. Human life will mean nothing in the vicious future we all face. Music still matters if it rings true to the times. This is more of a death metal age.

[strifeknot]

Or we can just live and breed more responsibly and forestall the misery.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

I hope that he's wrong but he may be right. Some days I don't even want to go outside my door and into this hateful world. The world is driven by greed and greed alone now and the scales have tipped as the golden ring is dangled before people and the temptation is overcoming many. The media and the governments of the have say it's ok to take and kill and get all you can now and like Joni Mitchell said ' the weak suffering what they must'. I slog on but I'm not optimistic. Maybe I'll be better tomorrow.

[weedhighbuckeye]

Clear Channel controls the music. If they don't like the message then the message isn't heard.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Yes, Neil Young is right. Music can not change the world. In the same way that the corporations have Orwellized television media, the music industry long ago killed music and the corporate control of radio, buried the Orphean voice. No one will allow the authentic voice of revolution to be heard in the land. There is not yet an Air America of music. Until there is, "The schlock goes on."

[ErnestineBass]

"Video killed the radio star".

I blame it all on MTV and teevee babies.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Blame it on the music industry carnival barkers Ernestine. The kids were just being fed the latest crap, just like we were fed some crap. Of course, when children started watching music, their imaginations were being stunted. They were fed prefabricated visions in place of conjuring dreams in their own creative noggins. Poor little programmed buggers. What Richard Lester had created in 'Help," and what had been born in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," or in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," became the trick-bag of tools to opiate a generation. Poor little buggers. And now, the music is dead, except when it is live and the great D.J.s are just a sweet memory to us old geezers.

[ohiomark]

The reason there is no "Air America" of music is because it would fail just like the real Air America.

Memo to Neil Young: You make music to sell CD's, not to change the world. If one of your songs happens to change the world, then so be it. First things first.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

Oh Markie, Markie, Markie. Did I push your little ole buttons by mentioning that evil old libural Air Amerika? Yes, I think I did. Mailice, Mark, does not equal wisdom.

[ChristianEcon.com]

You sound like a cd.

[transendentilist]

Who are you to advise Neil Young about music?? Music made purely for the market place is not art. It is stock and commodity. Real art happens when an artist produces from the heart, not for the wallet.

[RWFOOL]

Sadly, I'm afraid he's right.

Alot of people sang "Blowin" in the Wind", "We are the World", "Candle in the Wind", "Kumbaya", etc., like it matters, and wars, crime, and genocide rage on all over the world, proving that it doesn't.

[yummymaplesyrup]

Put that way.......­..STOP the music

You are right things are not better I'm not sure but I also think more people suffer now. The optimism isn't here anymore. Listening to the radio catch a tune and it would make people happy because it was so upbeat.

Those were the days my friend we thought would never end.......­.

[transendentilist]

Musicians made a huge impact on the country in the sixties. It fueled an anti-war movement that ran for years. Protests and protest songs contributed heavily to the ending of our involvement in Vietnam. A song like "Give Peace a Chance," was anthem for the youth of our country. That song has been sung by more people than any I can think of. By people, I don't mean musicians, but the people. It was the song that was sung the most and the loudest. It had power, and helped end a bloody war like Nam.

[waitng]

Well hell no, music doesn't have the meaning it had in the days that it made people understand the issues AND were motivated to protest them. And I am sure that the 'producers' and owners as far back as when that came about were doing their part to make a living off someone else's talent. Now it has become such a bunch of empty fluff devoid of real meaning, it is all made for money.
Now, the listners to what is put out on the airwaves are so pumped full of the mostly crap that passes for music that they will suck up any sound and try to act like that is cool for about 3 minutes. When I found out what the iPods and such were(listening devices the produced that few second snipet of a song someone likes)I knew then that the meaning of music was altered to a lot lower standard. What part of continuous music in the ears does anyone not understand as to be overloading the brain to a point where other sounds are meaningless? The new monopolistic MSM mind controllers know this and take great pride in the mind control they have exerted on the masses.
So where does the continuous cell phone or iPod permanently attached to the ear make a more intelligent and well rounded individual?

[yummymaplesyrup]

it does not......

but try telling them that....pe­ople can't cope if they don't have some electronic gadget for just about everything and a spry bottle for most other things, pssst, pssst that will freshen the air. No wonder mother earth is protesting.

Ask what is a partyline.­......

[transendentilist]

Leave me out. I didn't even own a computer until last year. I don't own an IPOD or even a cell phone.

[RogerHWerner]

One thing I always liked about Neil Young was his humility. The guy is one of the most influential musician of his generations; one of the most prolific song writers and one of the greats rock and folk guitarists. I've been a fan since Buffalo Springfield and I never get tired of his music (there's such variety).

Perhaps I'm a little cynical: I never thought music changed anything. Forty years ago, people of my generation were ready for change and all music did was provide the beat. Times were right for Young and the rest. He's correct: Times have changed and although people do want change they seem intent to cling to what they know even if it is what had helped wreck this country.

[HamletsMill]

Very nice post Roger.

Once a week I try to watch this video just to clear my head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bUch5dveX0

I also play Leon Russell's "Stranger in a Strange land" from the 1973 "Leon Live" album to listen to the great Carl Radle's bass line just to try to keep going in life.

We are on a planet of idiots in a nation of idiots but we must all try to soldier on to try to fight the good fight for some kind of spirit of humanity.

I once was in a band that played much CSN&Y and Leon Russell. There should be a Major World Religion founded on the music of Leon Russell. After all these years I finally got to see him play in person in a little town in Pennsylvania in August 2001 right before 9/11. At the end of the small concert of no more than 1,000 people I spotted a guy that had to be Neil Young. It just had to be him! He was walking around talking to Leon's roadies tapping with a cane like a blind man wearing a white Panama hat. I grinned at him and he grinned at me. Maybe it was a metaphore for his own being. In a world of blind men if you see someone else who can see you, tip your hat to them.

I tip my hat to you.

[militarymomma]

Amen, brother! Thanks for the link, it will now viewed weekly as well. Having always been a huge Leon fan, I do think his work from the 70's need to be revisited and globally. Not only can he write the most beautiful love songs, he hits the nail on the head every time on social issues.

Neil is dispirited as we all are. It is so hard keeping on the good battle of right versus wrong. I am hoping that he gets re-energized because we all need music now more than ever. It is the only thing that keeps me sane in these insane times. I have often lamented, where are the musicians speaking out? I know they are out there but it has motivated me to pick up the guitar and make my own.

[transendentilist]

I was a big Leon Russel fan. Still am, I guess. The title of the song Stranger in a Strange Land, is taken from a book by Robert Heilein. It's an excellent book about religion and sex. Heinlein called it his Jesus and sex book. That book influenced many to start communes, in the late sixties. Water brothers! Can you grok it?

[transendentilist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBG4vxi9mtk

[QueenCeleste]

Maybe he's right about music today. But who can forget "Ohio" and the impact it made? As a very young teen anti-war songs were inspiring to my friends and me and gave us hope during a horrendous time. I haven't really felt that since a Morrissey song a couple years ago about the Iraq war.

[transendentilist]

I was at Kent State the day after the shootings, and things were so tense, you could have cut the tension with a knife. Much of the more profound music of the sixties was there due to the draft and the war. Rock and roll became an expression of discontent and theme songs about the war and the draft.
If there were a draft today, the anti-war movement would be huge.

[detached]

IMAGINE, no war, no religion, no countries. Music lives, it is only sleeping.