Neil Young posted a simple message on his Facebook page:
“Love between two people is a human thing.”
His post follows a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement. The Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday, June 26 that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.
“No longer may this liberty be denied,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the historic decision. “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”
This is a far cry from when Young made this statement:
Neil Young blamed homosexuals for AIDS: In an interview with Melody Maker in 1985, Neil Young backed Reagan’s gun control policies and said of AIDS, “You go to a supermarket and you see a faggot behind the fuckin’ cash register, you don’t want him to handle your potatoes.” Needless to say, Young almost certainly regrets that horrific statement and quickly moved away from right-wing politics. He wrote the furious anti-George H.W. Bush screed “Rockin’ in the Free World” in 1989 and was one of George W. Bush’s most vocal critics in the 2000s.
Neil Young’s new album, “The Monsanto Years,” aims to shine a light on the chemical company’s manipulation of our food supply, but the songs are so awful that no one is likely to listen.
A new music review of Neil Young’s new album “The Monsanto Years’ that appeared Friday, June 26 in the New York Daily News says the songs leave on wondering why he didn’t choose a quicker, clearer and simpler way to get his message across. Hadn’t he thought of writing an op-ed?
The new album, the author writes, sinks decent riffs and an earnest message in unlistenably didactic lyrics.
Quoting the article: “The band supporting Young has some appeal. The 69-year-old star worked with musicians decades his junior: Lukas and Micah Nelson, the guitar-playing sons of Willie Nelson. They brought in some of their young friends from their band Promise of the Real.
“Even so, no melody or chord progression can survive lyrics like “When the people of Vermont voted to label food with GMO/so they could find out what was in it/Monsanto and Starbucks sued the state of Vermont to overturn the people’s will.”
Presidential candidate, controversial businessman Donald Trump, fired back at Neil Young with a series of tweets, called Young out as a hypocrite.
When Trump played Young’s “Keep on Rockin’ In the Free World.” twice during his presidential announcement rally, Young reacted with this statement:
“Donald Trump was not authorized to use ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’ in his presidential candidacy announcement,” a statement from Young’s manager read. “Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.”
Not one to take a licking sitting down, Trump called out Young for coming to him a few months back, all smiles, looking for some money to back his PONO endeavor.
See tweets below:
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
.@Neilyoung A few months ago Neil Young came to my office looking for $$ on an audio deal & called me last week to go to his concert. Wow!
When Donald Trump’s presidential campaign kicked off in front of a crowd of partially paid supporters to Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” (and while riding down on an escalator, no less), it did not go over well.
Young said in a statement that Trump was not authorized to use ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ in his presidential candidacy announcement.” The statement added that, “NeilYoung, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.”
Trump’s camp claimed they paid both ASCAP and BMI for rights to the song, but would cease from using it out of respect to Young. The singer, meanwhile, out of respect to his own political beliefs, has turned around and given Trump’s opponent Sanders permission to use “Rockin’ in the Free World”.
Sanders, the Democratic candidate from Vermont, walked out to the track at a rally in Denver attended by an over-flow audience of 4,500 people. Folks were reportedly standing in the atrium and lacrosse fields outside the auditorium to hear Sanders speak; as far as we know, none of them were paid to be there.
Watch footage of Sanders’ “Rockin’ in the Free World”-aided entrance below (scroll to the 5:00 mark).
We’ve heard enough about it for months now. The album will be officially released June 30.
Moon writes:
“Having written some of the rock era’s most tender odes to love and devotion, Young, now 69, might well be a little conflicted. He understands how love can be an escape; he appreciates the notion of the love song as a salve for the soul. But he’s a chronicler of his times, and there’s so much going on in the world, from the erosion of basic freedoms to the erosion of the soil, and he feels a responsibility to sound the alarm. The title line is repeated often, in unwaveringly consonant ’60s-Coke-commercial vocal harmonies — a contrast to the acidic voice Young uses to inventory the many unpleasant realities that have riled him up.”
He calls the song: “People Want To Hear About Love” the most artful moment on The Monsanto Years, Young’s 36th studio album as a solo artist. “Taut” is his word for it, and Young is describes as “Snarly.”
“Here, we have a series of taut and stone-simple Neil Young songs that fit together under a catchall concept (about companies wielding extraordinary influence over many aspects of our quality of life), each powered by its own supply of righteous fury. Enjoyment of it probably depends less on whether you agree with Young’s positions than on how much tolerance you have for a mantra, repeated frequently, using the three syllables that make up the trade name Monsanto. It also helps to like your harangues set to three-chord rock and expressed through triadic melodies. This is not subtle, Harvest Moon Neil, brooding at the piano. This is ornery, snarly Neil. Give him a megaphone and a transcript of these lyrics, put him on a street corner and watch what happens.”
“\"I chopped down the palm tree
And it landed on his back.\" ” by -- Neil Young, Last Trip to Tulsa
Neil Young on Tour
Sugar Mountain setlists
Tom Hambleton provides BNB with setlists, thankfully. His website is the most comprehensive searchable archives on the Internets about anything Neil Young related setlists. Goto Sugar Mountain.
Neil Young posted a simple message on his Facebook page:
memphish on 
Albert Stromann on 
liza on 
Baz on 
