Neil Young is railing against Donald Trump. This is nothing new, as Young had never been shy in his scathing criticism of Trump and his presidency.
Young recently wrote a long letter expressing his disgust at Trump, and Rolling Stone magazine recently published an article on it which included a decent amount of the letter.
Here is some of the main parts of Young's letter:
“You are a disgrace to my country,” Young writes in a long, scathing open letter to Trump on his Neil Young Archives website. “Your mindless destruction of our shared natural resources, our environment, and our relationships with friends around the world is unforgivable.… Our first black president was a better man than you are.”
He’s particularly irked by Trump’s usage of his song “Rockin’ in the Free World” at his rallies. Young has asked him to stop this practice numerous times while acknowledging he has no legal recourse to force him. “[It] is not a song you can trot out at one of your rallies,” he writes. “Perhaps you could have been a bass player and played in a rock & roll band. That way you could have been onstage at a rally every night in front of your fans, if you were any good, and you might be …”
“Every time ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ or one of my songs is played at your rallies,” he continues, “I hope you hear my voice. Remember it is the voice of a tax-paying U.S. citizen who does not support you. Me.”
Young was not entirely negative. True, he trashes Trump and how Trump uses Neil Young's songs during his ridiculous political rallies. But Young also seemed to clearly endorse Bernie Sanders and his policies:
Near the end of the letter, Young comes very close to endorsing Bernie Sanders. “One of your opponents has the answers I like,” he writes. “He is aiming at preserving our children’s future directly. He is not popular with the Democratic establishment because, unlike all the other candidates, he is not pandering to the industries accelerating Earth’s Climate Crisis, the end of the world as we know it. He is truly fighting for the USA. His initials are BS. Not his policies.”
Strangely, there are some links between Young and Trump. Trump does not merely play Young songs at his rallies, but apparently is quite a fan of Neil Young, and has seen him numerous times in concert, and sat next to some people who you would not typically imagine him being pals with:
Somewhat ironically, Trump is a big fan of Young’s music. In 2008, Rolling Stone phoned up Trump after noticing him at three of Young’s concerts over the past couple of years. At one of them, a CSNY show at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, he sat next to Patti Smith and Salman Rushdie, and stayed for the entire show.
“He’s got something very special,” Trump told us. “I’ve listened to his music for years and I’ve seen him before that, but I went to the concert where they were honoring Bob Dylan years ago at Madison Square Garden [Bob Fest 10/16/92], and Neil got up and totally brought the house down. There was nobody close. He’s performed for me at my casinos over the years, and he just brings it down. I’ve met him on occasions and he’s a terrific guy.”
Still, maybe there are limits to how big of a fan Trump is. When asked if he could name a single song or album that was his favorite, Trump could not come up with a specific answer. It was reminiscent of his non-answer when asked what was his favorite part of the Bible, and he basically just claimed "all of it," which many people felt was almost tantamount to admitting that he was not familiar enough with the Bible to actually claim any specific passages as his favorite. Here is his answer when pressed to give his favorite material from Young:
When asked to name a single favorite Young song or album, however, Trump was completely stumped. “It’s sort of all favorite,” he said. “I like the older stuff better, which is typical with a lot of artists — hence the famous Ricky Nelson song ‘Garden Party.’ I like all his songs, you know, ‘Rock & Roll’ — just great stuff.… Whatever the hell ‘it’ is, he’s got it.”
Bizarre, no?
Not sure if either Patti Smith or Salman Rushdie were there with Trump specifically, or they just happened to be seated near him. Otherwise, those are some strange bedfellows, even if they are fans of the music of Neil Young.
Young was presumably joking when mentioning that Trump might be in a band or a musician. My guess is that Trump is no musician, because if he was, he would probably only give credit to himself for being a great musician, and these would probably be over the top claims of being the greatest musician, or even artist, that this planet has seen, much like his friend and supporter Kanye West is known to have done in the past. But talking about how great Young is and using his music at his rallies - obviously without Young's permission, much less blessing - indicates that Trump is a fan of Neil Young's music, or at least was before Young's criticisms of him and his presidency.
Neil Young Pens Open Letter to Donald Trump: ‘You Are a Disgrace to My Country’ Now an American citizen, Young rails against the president by Andy Greene, February 19, 2020:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/neil-young-letter-trump-954835/?fbclid=IwAR2cY4nAF7jEnbAqFQMvMWidtnX8qsVBU8RfI3atNcntMl-XNXxfGrpj6Jc
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