"Speak out, you got to speak out against/The madness, you got to speak your mind,/If you dare."
Almost 40 years have passed since David Crosby first sang those lines in "Long Time Gone," written after the Robert F. Kennedy assassination. Alas, they still resonate in this era of "swift boating," as Crosby changed "the madness" to "this madness" during Crosby Stills, Nash and Young's three-hour concert at UMB Bank Pavilion on Thursday night.
Fighting wars may be a young man's game, but this veteran band has taken up the protest banner - again - and it is Neil Young's recent "Living With War" CD that makes CSNY's Freedom of Speech 2006 tour more than a nostalgia trip by some well-heeled and well-meaning old hippies.