70 Comments

OK, but the guy did put out an album called Trans in 1982 — checkmate, Lib!

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https://youtu.be/mbmkek5j6Vs

Beautifully Shot. Directed by Daryl Hannah

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

A lovely rumination on Neil Young and his work, Roy.

Being anti-art and anti-science are really as old a tradition on the Right as being racist, sexist, and homophobic. But Neil Young and Joni Mitchell specifically chose not to share a platform with Rogan because he spreads the kind of disinformation that is killing people during a global pandemic, not because he’s a racist, sexist, homophobic troll.

However, you’d never know that from listening to the most prominent rightwing banshees: it’s all a big undifferentiated ball of Liberal Tyranny as far as they’re concerned. Of course, it’s important to remember all the loudest voices on the Right wailing about how Young did a cancel culture on Rogan -- just because Rogan gives people who eat horse paste a huge platform to spout their nonsense -- are undoubtedly vaccinated and boosted themselves.

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Neil has been a part of my mental & emotional furniture so long it's hard to imagine my taste, attitudes, or world without him. I learned to sing high so I could hit the notes in "Cowgirl in the Sand," punk & alt came into my heart with pre-paid fare because of "Rust Never Sleeps." Even when he proved to be an asshole curmudgeon ("You don't want some f-slur touching your potatoes") or just kinda unlistenably earnest (that Monsanto album).

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

A couple of things to be perfectly clear (I know): There's a bunch of the conservative base pardon the expression not sufficiently sophisticated to have much of an awareness of culture outside that which promotes white cultural supremacy and the true heroes of the Civil War. But sure, it's a cliche yet not terribly incorrect that conservatives by definition cannot create.

And as the Maestro noted, the unhinged right's opposition to the free market working properly never fails to crack me up. One of Young's sins here that Roy doesn't mention is that he's exercising his own agency in regard to owning the music he created to tell Spotify to fuck off. Which, by the way and circling back to the free market thing, did not lose $2B. Its stock valuation dropped that much. Partially because its service isn't all that loved so ambivalent customers were triggered into dropping the service. I know; surely Spotify has some sort of right or entitlement where customers are never allowed to drop the service.

And for the record: Although he came around some years later, Young endorsed Reagan in 84, FWIW.

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Also, the science they don’t like is fake. The thing is, science and history aren’t a matter of taste like music and painting. Basic category error. Even in matters of taste, you don’t have to be close-minded. Which “Wrecking Ball” is better, Neil’s or Miley’s? Why not both?

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

But did you really expect any better from Armond White?

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Seems to me conservatives have hated Neil Young since "Southern Man," "Alabama," and "Four Dead in Ohio." Spotify is just the latest thing to get their hate-on rigid again.

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

I can't quite remember what it was that I knew

Man, is that true.

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Having fun with the Roganites who think "So this guy is a bullshit artist" labels are unfair but also argue that he's an entertainer when confronted with bad acts by people he's influenced. They have no idea how much they sound like tobacco company execs.

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

[ Snort ! ] ".........a Folkways Records project to preserve the demotic music of some isolated community (Laurel Canyon?)."

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Jan 31, 2022·edited Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Guess I'm more interested in cars than music, but Neil's electric Lincoln Continental has an on-board generator that's a single-rotor Wankel engine powered by a mixture of gasoline and hydrogen, the hydrogen is generated by electrolysis, using power from the battery, which is charged by the generator. The whole rig, just slightly more complicated than the James Webb Space Telescope, cost $500,000 to build and gets a reported 65 mpg on the highway.

I can't decide if poor Neil is being ripped off by some automotive charlatan or if Neil Young's mechanic should be CEO of General Motors.

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You have to hand it to RW provocateurs--when they say "horsepaste cures COVID" or "Kid Rock is better than Neil Young," they get a double bang for their buck. The tribal morons to the right believe it and praise them; the libs to the left are amazed and disgusted and owned. It would interesting to see what would happen if every reasonable liberal reacted to the Rogans, JD Vances, Marjorie Taylor Greenes, etc. of the world with a universal pat on the head that you'd give a child. "That is so cute. YES, good job!" As opposed to refuting arguing, pointing out x, y, and z, etc.

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Nice commentary on what makes Neil tick. As a pretentious musician, it took me a long time to get what he was doing, though i believed at the time (and still do) that the Cinnamon Girl solo is one of the greats, though it was lazy of him to repeat the 2nd verse (even though it's one of his best).

I think you can't overestimate the importance of comfort to people, physical, emotional, spiritual, etc. What i get from conservative rants is how uncomfortable things make them, rather than whether it's good or bad. Like the problem with Critical Race Theory isn't that it's wrong, or simplistic, or misguided, or a dozen other critiques. No, it makes them Uncomfortable. That's just giving the game away right there.

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Jan 31, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

Lays and Jellymen, Kid Rock at the Kennedy Center Honors for Led Zeppelin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Y4vR-Ji7Q

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Feb 1, 2022·edited Feb 1, 2022Liked by Roy Edroso

I've been a big fan of Neil's since the Buffalo Springfield days, and I thought it was hilarious when Martin Mull did a promo for KSAN, at the time the free-form rock station in San Francisco back in the early to mid '70s, that went something like: "Welcome to KSAN and the next hour of no Neil Young music. Best of luck in the storm door business, Neil." See, I could find that funny and still enjoy the man's music, something that right-wingers don't ever get. But I digress...

Everything I've heard about Spotify leads me to believe they rip off their lesser-know artists, so it's great that Young gave them the Rogan-or-me ultimatum (because fuck Joe Rogan), but I wish he had used his platform to say something about the young up and comers who can't make any money doing their thing, given the fact that these behemoth companies can decide how much they want to pay and who it is they want to promote.

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