`Deja vu`, the Neil Young film documenting the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 2006 Freedom of Speech tour is essential viewing.
To understand this move, lets pretend there is a prequel. That story would be about the worst president in US history, a disgrace to the global politics and people of the planet. He is a man without domestic economics policies and succeeded to the oval office without even having the largest number of votes. This man, incapable of leading a nation, starts a war on a lie with a country that has done nothing to his.This man is responsible for the deaths of 4127 US soldiers since his War On Terror began. 30,464 US soldiers have been wounded because of his lie.
This man is responsible for the deaths of 1,251,944 Iraqis but maybe we should forgive him because his marketing statement ‘War On Terror’ is pure advertising industry genius.
There are positives. He has given Rupert Murdoch the chance to make even more billions by broadcasting war like it's a football match. And he has given vile puppets like O’Reilly and Hannity the chance to make themselves celebrities. Lets face it, it this was a plot for the 60s Batman TV show, O’Reilly and Hannity would be called Biff and Ka-Pow up against Bush as The Riddler and Murdoch as The Joker.
So, lets now introduce four 60+ aging hippies named David Crosby, Steven Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young and get to ‘D??jà vu’, a documentary of their 2006 tour. (Hang on a sec. Two of these weren’t even born the USA. Quick, someone call O’Reilly and Hannity, sorry I mean Biff and Ka-Pow).
Thank God for CSNY because there is no one in the current music world with the guts to stand up and say what needs to be said.
‘D??jà vu’ follows CSNY on their trek across the US. The movie shows a divided audience, those for, those against. I personally witnessed the show in Irvine, California. I was amazed that so many people could go to a CSNY show and NOT expect it to be political. To them I say, sorry guys, even that nice Graham ballad ‘Teach Your Children’ had a message and his 1970’s hit ‘Military Madness’ was a little bit more than a pop song, don't you think. (Wow, Tony Orlando really did destroy their brains back then).
The centerpiece for the movie, and as I recall and can confirm from the Irvine show, was Neil’s provocative song ‘Let’s Impeach The President’. I can still hear the couple sitting behind me at the show, shocked, saying “I can’t believe he is singing that about our President”. Sorry lady, turn off Fox, google the world.
People walked out of the Irvine show when CSNY sang that song. Neil commented on it in the movie when talking about being booed in Atlanta. “It was no worse than Irvine,” he says in the movie.
However, CSNY are not the stars of ‘D??jà vu’. Lt. Ken Ballad is a star of the movie. He was one of Bush’s casualties. His mother tells of not only the pain of losing her son, but the lengths that the US government is prepared to go to hide the truth. She breaks down at a show when the impact of the number of deaths confronts her.
Another true star of the movie is Josh Hisle, an Iraq veteran who gets to jam with Neil Young in a hotel room during the tour. “Thanks for jamming with me,” he tells Young after the song. Young is moved. He is the one who is honored.
‘D??jà vu’ was previewed in Australia at the Melbourne Film Festival last week. It is screening in cinemas in the US currently. See this movie ... please. An American election is impending. America cannot afford to make the same mistake again.
