Well…with what has happened over the past couple of days, you just gotta love Neil Young…not sure if you have heard of this in the news but some idiot low level comedian, Joe Rogan, was given a huge contract with the music service Spotify for his podcast where he spouts right wing talking points all day and has been one of the biggest anti vax assholes out there…almost every one of his shows has these quack doctors on it pushing Ivermectin and all of the other bullshit “cures” for covid along with every lie about the vaccines…and yesterday, Neil Young had had enough…and told spotify that it was Rogan or him…they couldn’t have both on their service and told them he would pull his music if they let Rogan keep spewing his lies…so of course, the right wing assholes who own Spotify chose to keep Rogan since they paid him 100 million dollars for his podcast and they probably believe the crap he spouts….so, Neil, being a person who keeps his word, pulled his entire catalog from Spotify and moved it to Apple music along with many other artists including Barry Manilow if you can believe it…and so many people have been trying to cancel their Spotify subscriptions that the site went down…or that’s what Spotify says…I’ll bet they shut the cancel function down to keep people from being able to cancel their subscriptions, hoping that the whole thing will blow over without too much damage….one thing I can’t understand is why they stay with Rogan…since they allowed him to be a right wing asshole on their service, their stock price has taken a beating with losing almost 25% of it’s value…and if they think this is going to blow over, they just need to look at Twitter where every third post there is in support of Neil and of cancelling their subscriptions…so, keep it up Spotify…ride Rogan right down the tubes to your end…can’t wait to see it…geez…
Tag Archives: Neil Young
Just saw the best damn thing…
Well…okay, you know I’m a big music geek and love Neil Young and Led Zeppelin, and what I just saw surprised the hell out of me….when I was reading one of my news sites, I came across a video of Neil and Zeppelin doing a live version of “When the levee breaks” and it even had Robert Plant playing guitar…and it was just so cool to see these guys having so much fun and Neil being Neil…now, this is something I would pay big bucks to see…in the same article it alluded to a collaboration between Donald Fagen and David Crosby….now I need to go look for that…
Neil Young show for free Tuesday night…
Well…just read a bit of good news a minute ago…Neil Young is going to put on a free livestream of his concert from Detroit Tuesday night…it a solo show and I think it will probably be something like the one he did a few months back from his little hometown in Canada….that was a great concert and I am going to be watching this one, too…I’ve seen Neil almost a dozen times now and have never come away disappointed…and, to be able to see him sitting on my couch with a cocktail is pretty darn cool…have even figured out how to connect the computer to my big screen…even cooler…
Neil Young….
Well….no, nothing has happened to Neil….let’s get that out of the way right off the bat….I just watched an hour long interview with Neil done by Dan Rather and, even after being a fan for over 40 years, I learned a bunch of new stuff that I didn’t know before. First….he had polio when he was a kid and still can’t really control the left side of his body as well as his right…and that flashed into my head the explanation for how he plays guitar…the choppy, kind of crude way that he plays is a result of that disease….but the rest of the interview was a portrait of someone who is at peace with his life and yet wants it to continue…similar to how I’ve started to feel over the past few years…I wonder if that happens to everyone or if it’s a result of the introspection that I have felt and done, and what Neil has done? Whatever it is…it was a riveting and good natured hour…one of the pieces of insight that I took away was when Dan asked Neil if he was angry all the time given that many of his songs protest things going on in the world…and Neil said no…his answer was that he loves people and this country and that love drives him to comment and try to make the place better…and the funny part was Neil asking Dan if he thought he looked and acted angry and Dan had to admit he didn’t…pretty cool stuff for a Tuesday morning as I sit here and wait for the furnace guys to show up….
A little music stuff…
Well…didn’t get to putting the clothes away but I did read something that I find to be really funny…during old Donald’s announcement yesterday, one of the reporters mentioned that he came on stage to “Rockin in the Free World” by Neil Young….and that was too funny because I knew what was coming next…and, sure enough, Neil Young sends a ‘cease and desist” letter to the idiot Trump who thinks (like most repubs) that he can take what he wants without paying for it….and the kicker of the thing is that Neil is a supporter of Bernie Sanders as I am…
One last thing that I have been thinking about lately that has me confused…what the hell does a DJ do that would make them famous? They play other peoples music in an order that is different than anyone else? I think that is called a playlist and I have made a bunch of those in my day….just don’t understand why that would make you famous…I know I’m not….weird…
Some thoughts….
Well…politics are looking like they are going to get going again in a little while but this one is not about politics…it is just thoughts…saw a great special honoring Neil Young last night where they had assorted artists come on to do his songs…one of the best was Ben Harper…yeah, I don’t know who he is either, with three backup singers doing “Ohio”….wonderful voice and he got what the song was about..it seems that a bunch of them didn’t get the meaning of the rest of the songs and interpreted them strangely…one of the weirdest was Josh Groban doing “Harvest moon” where he overpowered that quiet little love song….no nuance to it at all…you didn’t feel the song like you do when Neil sings it….but, it was a nice diversion in a boring night…and one cool part was the CSN came on to do a song for Neil, too…pretty neat…in fact, I’m watching them right now on AXS tv….
Oddities….
Well…have been trying to recover today but I think I can’t recover from this bug until it gets really, really worse..it looks like that’s the path I’m on for the weekend so that is a bunch of crap…there have been some odd things going on…at least odd to me…have been getting Neil Young’s twitter feed lately and he is really going after the tar sands crap that is fouling large swaths of Canada…I know he is from there and I shouldn’t be surprised that he is socially responsible…but it is nice to see that even at this late date, he is still trying to make a difference….and it has been such a good weekend for those of us who think Chris Christie is a lying bully…the latest is that his thug aides withheld Sandy aid to Hoboken just because the mayor there wouldn’t give contracts to one of Christie’s cronies….and this time, the mayor has evidence of it all…I can smell indictment all over this last bit of news….and it couldn’t happen to a bigger thug…as I said in an earlier post..”bye, bye, Christie”….should do one more for this one but I can’t think of another right now…so, I think I’ll make the next idea the catch up post for the weekend…
Neil Young’s “Le Noise”
Well…picked up a copy of Neil Young’s new cd a couple of days ago and have been listening to it almost constantly since….I like it quite a bit but if you’re a casual fan or a Neil novice, I’d listen to a few tracks online before I’d buy it. Again, Neil defies convention with the way the album was recorded…most of us are used to artists recording solo with acoustic guitars, but Neil does something different here; using an electric guitar and no other instrument or players. It does start to grow on you after a while and the electric guitar gives Neil and the producer a broader sound palette to work with, and they use it to make a full sound that is somewhat unusual at times.
But one thing that has not changed is that Neil can still write; songs of failure, loss, love, and anger are all part of the world he creates and it makes me really happy that us old guys still have it…or he still has it…I’ve been looking for it and would love to have it at some point….
Just a few words about Neil….
Well…was just reading a review of Neil Young’s new album (yeah, I still call them albums) “Le Noise” in the Trib and it made me think about how long he’s been a favorite of mine…..it’s over 40 years now, and I can still remember hearing him for the first time when he was with Buffalo Springfield when I was around 16. I know it’s kind of cliche, but his music has been one of the few that I would consider the soundtrack that has been in the background of my life since I can remember. One of the things that I have always marveled at is his ability to get at the heart of America; even though he is a Canadian…maybe that’s why he has that unique viewpoint to his songs that deal with the injustice that is part of the US.
When I think about it, I can’t believe the same person wrote “Rocking in the Free World” and the wonderful little love song “Harvest Moon” that both give me chills when I hear them but then throws in songs about the strangest of topics that he takes just as seriously….like “Inca Queen” and “Welfare Mothers”. I guess what I’m trying to say is there needs to be a Neil Young in the world to help us see the absurdity, injustice, beauty, and love that is part of it….
I know this isn’t the one I promised but if you’ve read any of these, you know how important music is to me….