Neil Young Takes Musical Aim at Bush

In his new album on the Iraq war, Young joins a growing chorus of Americans calling for the impeachment of wartime Bush, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, April18 .

The two smash hits are "Let's Impeach the President," which features Bush's voice overlaid above a100 -voice choir singing "Flip flop," and "Lookin' for a Leader."

Young has become increasingly critical of Republican administrations.

His 1989 song "Rockin' in the Free World" implicitly criticized President Bush the father.

In "Greendale," a film he directed to accompany his 2003 album of the same name, Young sings lyrics critical of the Patriot Act, a bill rushed through Congress after the9 / 11attacks and assailed by critics for infringing on civil rights.

"We'll be watching you/ No matter what you do," he sings against images of former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Never Again

"I know he watches the news," Elliot Roberts, Young's longtime manager, told the Times when asked what had inspired the famed singer.

The US military deaths in Iraq have risen sharply in April with at least48 American fatalities until April18 , according to a count of military death announcements.

The average monthly US military death toll in has been65 .

According to Pentagon,2 , 378Americans have lost their lives in the Iraq war while 17 , 549have sustained wounds in action.

Roberts believes the sentiments of Young's10 -song album, "Living With War," would resonate broadly.

The rocker's website displays a scrolling sample of lyrics from the album: "And when the dawn breaks I see my fellow man/And on the flat-screen we kill and we're killed again/And when the night falls, I pray for peace."

The album's title track says "I raise my hand in peace/I never bow to the laws of the thought police/I take a holy vow ... to never kill again/In the big hotels ... in the mosques and the doors of the old museum ... I take a holy vow ... to never kill again."

Blockbusters

The Times said albums fraying the Bush administration have proved blockbusters and sold briskly as leading record companies and radio stations appear to have developed a degree of comfort with bluntly political material.

It cited the latest album of the band Pearl Jam and its ditty "World Wide Suicide," which accuses Bush of taking soldiers' sacrifices for granted.

The song logged three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard modern-rock airplay chart.

Green Day's 2004 album "American Idiot" which includes lyrics like "Sieg Heil to the president gasman," has sold more than5 .4 million copies so far.

Others singers who took musical aim at Bush's Iraq war include Steve Earle, Willie Nelson and the Rolling Stones.

Several Hollywood stars like Dustin Hoffman and Martin Sheen and directors like Oscar-awarded Michel Moore have also spoken out against the Iraq invasion.

Moore's Cannes-awarded Fahrenheit9 / 11slammed Bush for thrusting America into war propagating misinformation and exploiting public fear in the aftermath of the9 / 11attacks.

In 2003 , the director used his Oscar winning speech to launch a diatribe on Bush, saying that "fictitious election" results in "fictitious presidents."

Books attacking policies of Bush, which imposed a theocracy, risked US bankruptcy and fanned flames of anti-Americanism, are also flooding US bookstores.

A recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup survey found that Bush's rating has fallen back to 32 percent over the Iraq limbo.

Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq and has become an anti-war icon, unveiled in November an anti-war monument in the US leader's Texas hometown..

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