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Neil Young: In the Aftermath of 9/11
Young's 2001 single "Let's Roll", was a tribute to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the passengers and crew on Flight 93 in particular. At the concert he performed a cover version of John Lennon's "Imagine". Young's shift towards political commentary became more pronounced with the advent of the Iraq War and Young's next project, an anti-Bush rock opera that would come to take a unique position in the Young canon.
That project was Greendale
, the album version of which was recorded with Horse members Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina. Greendale chronicles the saga of a California family torn asunder by post-9/11 America. This tale of the Green family also resulted in a movie called Greendale, written and directed by Neil Young (again using his "Bernard Shakey" pseudonym) and starring a few of his friends that act out and lip sync the songs from the album. Young toured extensively with the Greendale material throughout 2003 and 2004--first with a solo, acoustic version in Europe, then with a full-cast stage show in North America, Japan, and Australia. While audience reaction was sometimes mixed (drunken requests for "Southern Man" being an aesthetic impediment at most Young performances), the live stage version of Greendale was for many critics the most satisfying incarnation of the material, and bootlegs of the shows have been widely traded. The second half of each concert consisted of high-decibel renditions of Young classics such as "Hey Hey, My My," "Cinnamon Girl," "Powderfinger," and "Rockin in the Free World," as well as rarities such as "The Losing End," "The Old Country Waltz," and "Danger Bird."
Young spent the latter portion of 2004 giving a series of intimate acoustic concerts in various cities with his wife, Pegi, who is a trained vocalist. Reports out of the Young camp in early 2005 had him booking time in a Northern California recording studio to work on material that is a closely held secret.
In 2002,
Q magazine named Neil Young in their list of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".
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