Watching CSNY-Deja Vu, 2008 movie documentary about Crosby, Stills, Nash and Youngs controversial tour excoriating the Bush administration for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the incendiary Lets Impeach the President. Just the courage shown while these guys were on tour makes one remember that our government is NOT always right. The saying in the 1970s was America, right or wrong, or America, Love It or Leave It--and these sayings were popular even AFTER 4 dissenters were shot down at Kent State, and 2 more at Jackson State. As Americans, we have the RIGHT, more than that, the responsibility to question our leaders, to demand accountability of them--whether they be right wing or left wing, Democrat or Republican. The point made throughout this movie is that when CSNY began the tour, they had detractors and critics, but that by the time 2006 ended and 2007 began, the crowds (which NEVER decreased in size, by the way) were in agreement with the views being expressed. What is forgotten: CSNY were not the FIRST protesters-that distinction belongs to Dylan, Baez, Ochs, Seeger, and the rest of the first wave of folk-singers, BUT, when the Chicago riots happened, Nash wrote Chicago (We Can Change the World); before that, when there was a riot in L.A. at a music venue and police were called out in force, Stills wrote For What Its Worth; when Kent State occurred, Young wrote Ohio and Stills backed that with Find the Cost of Freedom. These guys sang ATOP the Berlin Wall when it came down, supporting that freedom; when Jay Leno and the Tonight Show returned after 9/11, his first musical guests were Crosby, Stills and Nash. And finally, when W. Bush/Cheneys wars drained our economy, resulted in maimed young men and women whod been sent back for 2-3-4 tours in these wars, Neil Young, that prickly, determined, unshakeable human being, spoke and wrote out against them. Why does that make them heroes? Because they could have sat back on their laurels--CSNY, in whatever formation, has never done that.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 12:06:07 +0000
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