Podunkian Music Club February 9, 2008

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young--Ohio

Tonight on the Music Club we take note of a press conference from Germany, where Neil Young found that the perhaps the images are fading in his rear view mirror.



Back in the day as the kids might say, music could change society. A song, an artist; the power of the words, the driving force of the music could do more to motivate a movement than any speechifying politician could ever hope.

Long before corporate rock and sanitized radio, the music of protest and social awareness could sway attitudes and mobilize thousands and thousands to a cause.

That day is gone it seems, at least according to Neil Young, who should know a thing or two about making the music the message.

Young has taken his documentary "CSNY Deja Vu," to the Berlin Film Festival, but offers no illusions that today’s audiences are receptive to a message of change through their minstrels.

The movie was taken from the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young Freedom of Speech tour of 2006, a traveling minstrel show that featured only songs of social awareness and with a pivotal message against war.

The tour took place in an era where the Dixie Chicks were shouted down for their political beliefs and for all intents and purposes run out of country radio, providing for a chill over the music industry where free expression of thought sometimes seems to run counter to the record labels thoughts of artist development.

No longer it seems is controversy always a popular thing with industry execs, or perhaps the audience has changed in its outlook, no longer willing to take up a cause or share in their anger, instead as the Dixie chicks once put it, the attitude is more and more “Just shut up and sing”.

Gone for him and perhaps for us, are the days, when a simple song could change the world, express our outrage and demand that the powers of the day take heed. If true, it’s a setback for us all, as music demands the listener to pay attention, to absorb the creativity and take home a message.

Young during his opening remarks in Berlin senses this change "I think that the time when music could change the world is past,", instead he points to science and spirituality as perhaps the best hope for wrongs to be righted and awareness to be maintained.

A rational thought, but surely even the most dedicated scientist or spiritualist would say that the power of a song would make for a remarkable rallying point…

Artist--Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Recording--4 Way Street