Let’s hear it for Neil Young..
Posted by Mitch on 7th June 2015
Neil Young is one of those people that seems to have a huge diehard fan base. I’m not one of them, despite thinking ‘Like A Hurricane’ is an all time classic.
But whatever you think of Neil Young musically, what’s undeniable has been (and is) his unflinching ability to stick two fingers up to …well, to pretty much anyone he decides to stick two fingers up to, as it happens.
And as it happens, in his most recent project he’s sticking it to Monsanto and Starbucks.
Whilst he has his causes, be they the plight of small farmers, kids with learning difficulties or just western civilisation in general, he’s also been very good at not backing down to a music industry that’s helped provide his living for the past how ever many decades – as Geffen Records can attest to, having tried to sue him for making records that “didn’t sound like Neil Young”.
There aren’t many people in any industry who are prepared to be as outspoken as he is and I think he should be cherished if only for his sheer (and often justified) belligerence.
OK, it might be argued that Neil Young has earned enough ‘fuck you money’ to not really give a shit (and recording a whole album attacking a giant US corporation might qualify as having a lot of this type of money), but I suspect this probably hasn’t always been the case.
So, say what you like about Neil Young, and dick jokes aside, he is a man whose balls should probably be admired.
‘Fuck You Money’ is an interesting topic that I’ll be exploring more fully in another blog one day, once I’ve saved-up.