>It's no coincidence that Let's
>Roll is such a weak effort artistically.

I think Let's Roll is less "artistically weak" than much of S&G, for
instance, including and especially the god-awful title cut, which he's
brought back again and again over the years. LR has a great groove (even if
borrowed), and I thought it was cool to write a song from the point of view
of a person on that plane--like almost everyone at that time, I was
wondering what it must have been like to be there, faced with the decision
of doing what you can to take down the hijackers.

I was happy and proud to see my man Neil respond viscerally to such a
gut-wrenching experience. For me, LR and his achingly gorgeous "Imagine"
together constitute a jumbled emotional reaction to 9/11 not unlike my
own--a mix of intense sadness, anger, questioning, resolve. (And now, with
parts of Greendale and his advocacy of Farenheit 9/11, the added element of
disgust.)

I thought it was cool the way he sent LR out to radio stations with little
fanfare and none of the usual music-biz promotional machinery. It's too bad
that everyone chose to read knee-jerk patriotism into it, but I suppose that
was inevitable given the knee-jerk patriotism that had engulfed our nation
at that time--some of it rightly so. Ultimately, though, I don't reckon Neil
Young gives a crap about how LR was interpreted nor about whether his music
is perceived as artistically weak--and that's what makes him so damn cool.

To paraphrase another great iconoclastic American artist, Walt Whitman: Does
he contradict himself? Very well, he contradicts himself, for he is large,
he contains multitudes.

Nic
only passing through you

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