Neil Young leaves "Obama" out of "Looking For a Leader"

[Atman]

I got back from Philly/Delaware late yesterday afternoon after seeing CSNY open their Freedom of Speech 2006 tour Thursday night. Awesome show! 35 songs, 3 hours (but only one encore, the those bums! :sarcasm: ) But what was most incredible is these old men cans still sing! Beautiful harmonies still, except for one disastrous version of "Helplessly Hoping." The song title actually reflected the audience's anticipation as Stills attempted to hit the high notes! But otherwise, Neil kicked ass and almost offered a sub-set of a concert with his new Living With War stuff. CSNY didn't shy away from the anti-war theme, though, and much of their set list consisted of their old anti-war chestnuts like "Ohio," "Chicago" and of course, "For What's It's Worth," which made a great sing-along for the full house. It was all done against an ever-changing back drop of peace signs, war graphics, Bush pics, lyrics and occasional video...like a tear-inducing acapella number whose name I don't know, performed in front of a constantly-changing mosaic of every soldier killed in Iraq, as a counter clicked off the number off fallen -- and stopped at the current body count with the last note of the song. It was chilling, and I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Along with all the anti-war kiosks and tables set up out front, this event was as close to a Nixon-era flashback I've had without any chemical enhancement. Glad I wore my red, white and blue tie-dyed shirt! LOL!

Unfortunately for me and a few thousand other concert goers, the drive in sucked big-time and we missed the first couple of songs, but the rest of the show was great. My wife and I attended with fellow DUer Timbuk3, who also put us up for the night and served us some awesome late-night ribs (which we would have eaten before the show had we not spent four hours on the Geo Washington Bridge in NY).

Anyway, there are already reveiws at the CSNY web site, but I just wanted to point out one thing which I found kind of telling...when Neil sang "Looking For A Leader," the line about "...maybe it's Obama" was conspicuously absent from the "maybe it's a black man..." verse. Hehehehe.

Already cast off into the scrap heap of democratic turn-coats, eh Obama. Enjoy your short ride.

Congrats to the four geezers! They are still as tight and talented as ever, and this show proved they are still relevent!

[kentuck]

1. Hmmmm...

I thought he said it might be "time for a black man after all" in the song?? Who would he have been talking about?

[Atman]

2. He DOES say it in the song...

And he still sang "maybe it's a black man" at the show. When he sang "...maybe it's Colin Powell," I boo'd loudly, then waited to boo again for Obama...but he left out that whole line.

[blue sky at night]

3. four hours on the GW?

wow, is that normal? I used to hang around a lot over in Ft. Lee and Englewood for work, would drive over to Manhattan once in a while, but never saw anything like that.

[KoKo]

4. Thanks for the report on this.....interesting.

I wonder if all of us haven't given up on looking for a "black man." I think those who still care about civil rights and are in power stop with John Conyers, Cynthia McKinney and some others in the Black Congressional Caucus. The others like Powell and Thomas and the rest are too busy following their own stars and have forgotten any roots. Obama has a much different heritage. As does Powell whose family didn't grow up as slaves. It's Clarence Thomas who should be held accountable.

We just would be lucky to find anyone who believed in the "promise" of America to be a different kind of nation. It seems we are heading backward in history rather than forward to enlightenment.

[durrrty libby]

5. Thanks for the review

Ever since you mentioned going, I looked forward to reading about it. Was there a full house?

[Atman]

7. Yes, it was packed.

Lots of people looking for tix on the walk in, too. The Philly Tweeter Center provided an awesome, if not ironic, backdrop. Standing on the lawn (we had shed seats, but I had to mingle with the riff-raff, too!) the Ben Franklin Bridge loomed just off to your left, all lit up in red, white and blue which reflected in the water below. Docked immediately behind the venue -- I mean, right there next the stadium -- is a giant battleship. The moon was nearly full and the sky was clear. Security didn't seem to be hassling anybody for enjoying themselves, wink wink nudge nudge. It was just awesome all around.

[bbernardini]

6. The a cappella tune was "Find The Cost Of Freedom." nt

[Atman]

8. Thanks! Were you there?

What did you think of the show?

[bbernardini]

10. Yep.

I thought it was spectacular. There were some pretty stupid people on the lawn who I'm fairly certain had no idea what CSNY were trying to say with some of the songs.

[Atman]

11. We sat behind a family with, like, five kids.

The demographic for this show was hysterical. The couple in front of us was all khaki'd up in their best Talbots and Eddie Bauer weekend casuals, with a bunch of kids in tow. The kids looked to be aged about 10 to late teens. That's why I had to visit the lawn a few times, actually. ;)

The kids got all bitchy during the early folksy-accoustic sets, and they left for awhile, but came back whenever Young jammed, and towards the end when everything was more up-tempo. Dad must have dropped nearly a grand on tickets alone that night!

[bbernardini]

9. I missed a good portion of the first set!

My wife and her family took the ferry over, but I had to join them later. I made it from my appointment to Camden in record time, but it took almost as long to get to the parking area. My wife let me listen to the show through the wonder of cellular technology, though. :)

[snappyturtle]

12. HEY THANKS!

We're going next weekend to hear them at the XCEL Center in the Twin Cities......I pulled up the sets they played in Camden and that was exciting enough but now with your account, I don't know how I can stand it---waiting, that is. I've bookmarked this post and will report when we get back. We're four hours north of the cities so our trip in is a pain too.