CSNY Déjà Vu

Interview with Neil Young.

NY has always avoided the paraphanalia of pop stardom. His collaboration with Crosby, Stills and Nash in the Sixties felt incongruous, even then. What was this hard-edged, politically savvy, angry young (Canadian) man doing with these laid back troubadours? He doesn’t exactly answer the question in his interview with Jezz Vernon, but what comes across is a serious, committed democrat whose dress sense would fit in nicely at a fly fisherman’s trout roast, somewhere up country.

He wrote the songs for the Living With War album very fast and then went on the road. The war correspondent Mike Cerre, who has been to Iraq five times, kept bringing soldiers and their families to the gigs, which is when he had the idea to use Cerre’s team to make video clips for the songs and join CSNY when they embarked on the Freedom Of Speech tour for the purpose of filming a documentary.

Fans of Harvest Moon were not immediately enamoured by the new work. “People in the audience were angry at us for singing these songs and yet soldiers and ex-soldiers were saying that someone has to tell it right. It was very emotional for us.”

Although he wanted to document “the times and the country,” he took pains to “respect the people who didn’t like me – respect their right not to like me.” And there are clips in the film of kids coming out of a concert and complaining about the politics, even tearing up their tickets.

This is Young’s film, which is why he is the one being interviewed. What comes after explains as much about his passion and his feelings. The Living With War videos are a powerful, emotional and unapologetically anti-war testament to Bush’s Folly. Every song from the album is accompanied by a visual interpretation, using newsreel footage of Americans on the ground in Iraq, injured soldiers, Baghdad in flames, tanks in the desert, sand storms, helicopters leaving a carrier, the Mission Accomplished clips of the President, followed by shots that his administration tried to censor of flag-draped coffins returning in the holds of cargo planes. The songs are classic Neil Young, with their compelling anthems and simple, direct lyrics. They are beautiful, as well as beautifully presented.

The trailer is excellent. The lengthened trailer is better. As for the music video, it cuts to the heart of Déjà Vu, touching on the pain of loss and the glory of a band that still cares enough.