Rockin' for a free world

2008-03-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

They didn't have to listen to the lyrics of Let's Impeach the President to guess what Neil Young was getting them into.

For Graham Nash, David Crosby and Stephen Stills, having been Young's collaborator and cohort for the past four decades was knowledge enough.

"It was my attitude that was going to get us in trouble," the Canadian rock pioneer and political provocateur says of the days leading up to the quartet's 2006 Freedom of Speech tour.

It's late January 2008 now and Young and his on-and-off-again bandmates are sitting in a restaurant in Park City, Utah, where they have assembled for the premiere of CSNY: Deja vu at the Sundance Film Festival. This marks the first stop for the project -- the Berlin Film Festival is next -- before its eventual release. Directed by Young under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, the movie follows the re-formed super-group as they perform songs from Young's anti-Bush opus Living with War. Complete with an embedded reporter, visits with soldiers and the backdrop of a polarized America, the result feels almost as much a period piece -- a "snapshot of that moment," as Crosby calls it -- as archival footage might of the foursome in the 1960s and 1970s. Remember, while only two years ago, this was post-Dixie Chicks, but pre-Barack Obama -- before frustration with Iraq would metastasize into disdain en masse for the Bush administration.

Depending on where CSNY played among red-and-blue divided states, crowds could be welcoming or unremittingly hostile.

"Neil could have gone out with his own band and done it as a Neil Young project," Nash says.

"But (he felt) it would be a more potent message if the four of us did it."

Even if some required more coaxing than others.

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While Crosby and Nash came onboard immediately, Stills seemed reluctant.

"Stephen doesn't want people booing," Young says. "If he was writing the songs, it would have been more subtle ... But we all believed in the core feeling of what that record is."

That said, even Young, never shy about controversy for a cause, was taken aback by the vitriol they were met with in some cities. As Stills had feared, there were boos -- and more. In Atlanta, concert-goers hissed, swore, tore up tickets and stomped out, infuriated.

"I was initially surprised at the personal nature of the bad reviews," Young admits. "But I got used to it really fast. But I've never gotten reviews like that. People were writing that since I had an aneurysm, a lot of people make weird decisions after they have a life-threatening thing and perhaps (the album) was a combination of that and me getting older and it made me lose my sense of balance. There were a lot of personal attacks."

Says Nash, "They were even saying things about his nationality."

Adds a sarcastic Young, "Of course Canadians shouldn't have freedom of speech. They should be excluded -- especially if they live in the United States."

Other critics chose to snipe at the songwriting itself -- missing the point entirely, says Young. "It's protest music and it, by its very nature, is not about incredible melodies or complex arrangements. It's about the message and the simplicity of it -- it's a song that has such a simple melody that anybody can sing it."

Says Stills, "It's like singing a bumper sticker."

True, but few bumper stickers last as long as Young has been rabble-rousing. And although his fire and skill is never less than evident, while you watch the 62-year-old and his fellow CSNY-ers perform, their respective ages become impossible to overlook. This in turn begs the question, as Stephen Colbert asks Young at one point during the film in a clip from a TV interview, "Why don't you let someone else have this war?"

Crosby points to the absence of a draft -- something that galvanized Vietnam protesters -- as one reason why today's generation of music artists has remained mostly mum about the Iraq conflict.

Says Young, "I'm not disappointed because there's no draft ... The political damage (from a draft) was unacceptable to this administration, which really seems to only be in it for their own benefit."

Besides which, Young adapted. If protest music now has no voice on radio, Young turned to the Internet, hosting politically motivated artists on neilyoung.com.

"I don't care what side you're on. Just have the conviction to stand up and explain why. Maybe I can learn something," he says.

"(During the tour) people taught me things I can't forget. Some people said things on this tour about why it was wrong that gave me second thoughts."

Crosby echoes the conciliatory sentiment.

"We don't want to stand on two sides of the street throwing eggs at each other."

There may come a time, too, Young says, when CSNY reunites without social distress as chief instigator.

from here http://winnipegsun.com/Entertainment/Movies/2008/03/09/4950696-sun.html

Stephen Stills Battles Prostate Cancer

2007-12-18T23:33:00.000-08:00

Stephen Stills Popular Albums 0.15$

Singer-songwriter Stephen Stills, best known for his work with folk-rock trio Crosby, Stills and Nash, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to bandmate Graham Nash.

Nash told TV talk show host Larry King in a telephone interview late Monday that Stills is set to undergo an operation on Jan. 3, which happens to be his 63rd birthday.

The news came a day after Dan Fogelberg died at the age of 56, three years after the '70s folk singer was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer. Upon learning that he had the disease, Fogelberg urged men over age 50 to get tested.

Nash said an early diagnosis of the disease had potentially saved Stills' life.

"Unlike Danny (Fogelberg), who left it too long to be seriously checked, Stephen found his at an early stage," he told CNN's "Larry King Live" show.

No one was immediately available from Stills' management team to comment.

The third member of the band, David Crosby, has also been ill, forcing the postponement of a U.S. tour earlier this year. Details of Crosby's illness were not disclosed, but he was back on stage by mid-year.

Crosby, Stills and Nash comprised one of rock's biggest acts and embodied Woodstock-era folk-rock sensibilities of peace, love and music. They were known for hits including "Teach Your Children," "Woodstock," and "Marrakesh Express."

Stills rose to fame in the mid-1960s alongside Neil Young in Buffalo Springfield, before teaming up with Crosby and Nash (and sometimes Young). The eclectic guitarist maintained a parallel solo career, which yielded such notable tunes as "Love the One You're With" and "We Are Not Helpless."