Sympathy for Neil Young
Driving to Lowe’s today. “Rockin’ in the Free World” by Neil Young came on the radio, triggering a wave of pity for the elderly rocker.
Let me explain why.
If there’s every been a rocker who symbolized “free spirit,” it was Neil Young. From Buffalo Springfield (whose “For What It’s Worth” was my favorite ‘protest’ song of the 60s and became a Tea Party favorite in 2010) to one of the most prolific solo careers in rock music history. Neil Young’s credits include 17 solo albums and two memberships in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
And he always portrayed himself as the ultimate rebel and anti-war absolutist. He got his early breaks as part of the anti-Vietnam War music movement, and his 2006 album “Living With War,” which was written, recorded, and released in one month in opposition to the second war with Iraq. One song’s title was “Let’s Impeach the President.” (Neil Young was not an American citizen at the time, by the way.)
Young is also a naturalist and environmentalist. He was never a fan of big corporations, and his recent work has been almost exclusively environmentalist panic. Young is, of course, virulently pro-abortion. He fights for the rights of small family farmers, the downtrodden, and the homeless.
He is also amazingly talented and committed to his art and work. It’s difficult not to respect a guy who, basically, turned down his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction with a letter to the board stating, among other things, that the Hall of Fame “has nothing to do with the spirit of Rock and Roll. It has everything to do with making money.” Young likely wrote the letter from his 2,000 acre California ranch, which he later gave to his ex-wife in a divorce, uncontested.
One verse from “Rockin’ in the Free World” struck me.
We got a thousand points of light For the homeless man We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand We've got department stores and toilet paper Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer Got a man of the people says keep hope alive Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive
Written in February 1989 in one day after his scheduled concert tour of the Soviet Union was cancelled, the song was an attack on George H.W. Bush who had been in office only a month. Young’s entire life in one verse:
The poor, downtrodden, and homeless
Anti-war
Environmentalism
It was that verse that depressed me.
Neil Young is almost 80 years old and he built his life around music to inspire a fight for three things: the common man over the corporate fat cats, the peaceful loving people over the war merchants, and nature over profits.
But he wasn’t allowed to die with such dedication.
No. Young’s masters have turned him into shill for war and big pharma. Young famously quit Spotify because the platform refused to cancel Joe Rogan after Rogan railed against the poison Pfizer vax. (Young returned to Spotify two years later. Turns out, Spotify can produce a lot of money for celebrities who rejected an awarded that was all about making money.) Young’s paymasters made him do it—there’s no way the man who wrote a song to protest Starbuck’s selling genetically modified food would, of his own volition, demand every human on earth become a genetically modified organism.
Young also rails against Donald Trump even though Trump is an anti-war champion who brings troops home and eschews military intervention in other people’s fights. Trump was against the Gulf Wars, just like Young. Certainly, if Neil Young was free to support whomever he wished, he would support the only president in generations who did not start a war. The only explanation I can think of is: Neil Young is not free to do what he wishes or support politicians he likes.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to be forced to endorse ideas repugnant to one’s values just to make a living.
Let us say a prayer that this rock legend’s oppressors will free him to be Neil Young once again.
