Lynyrd Skynyrd probably had the best response to
carpetbagging Neil Young years ago when they said Southern Man doesn't need him
around
The reactions by Spotify to Young's ultimatum last week
shows what was true years ago is still true today.
Neil Young's call for censorship comes at a time when the
political left, of which he is a part, is also screaming about censorship but
bias Tennessee School Board of a holocaust book
The problem is that many of the same people who are
promoting censorship on Spotify are speaking against the Tennessee School Board
but have stayed silent when it came to censorship of Dr Seuss and even George
Orwell in Mark Twain in the last few years
Neil Young has always been something of a political wannabe,
someone who is late for the bandwagon, but he jumps out and anyway. This is
true of his early work such as Southern Man and Alabama where he is trying to
be Bob Dylan only 10 years too late.
His classic Four dead in Ohio showed that he knew nothing of
the dynamics of Kent State but needed to make his voice heard to the anti-war
movement after he had been silent for almost a decade on that issue as well
The fact that Joni Mitchell came out on Neil Young side and
calling for censorship is no such a big surprise since she and Neil Young have
been bed bugs in the same Laurel Canyon jet set that included Tommy Smothers,
Peter Fonda and a host of Hollywood snobs back in the 60s
It's Hanoi Jane all over again only Neil Young comes from
Canada, making social judgments about stuff he is inadequate to fully understand
and just seems to want to be the hip kid on the block.
Maybe Neil Young's simply jealous of Bruce Springsteen who
seems to have been able to sell his soul to the capitalistic devil and still
maintain his cache as a working-class, blue-collar rebel
Neil Young has never been working class and as a
carpetbagger from Canada has injected his pop philosophy on a situation far
more complex than he understands, a kind of musical version of the 1619 Project
based on cliches, stereotypes and a kind of reverse racism in order to be part
of the cool crowd
The worst part of those who defend his call for action on
Spotify is their selective use of censorship demanding that another person be
censored while objecting to the censorship of a book in a school.
While Neil Young and his bed mate Joni Mitchell are not
calling for censorship of others, many of their supporters are and so we have
this hypocritical double standard movement that has the Neil Young into some
kind of folk hero instead of a political opportunist.
The ultimate question, of course, is how valuable Neil Young
is to contemporary society that he could throw down the gauntlet or even the
more talented Joni Mitchell. Do these people really matter? Do we really need
them around, pontificating about the world, when in fact they spent most of
their lives living as part of the Laurel Canyon social elite, snorting coke and
playing the role of gods of the music industry while elsewhere real protest
went on, some – like Neil Young – coming out with a song now and then to
validate their sense of self-importance. Even Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock
(performed by Young and his equally deluded pals) was an illusive tribute to a
life style none of them every experience, except at a distance.
Most of the reaction by young people is laced ageism not
racism, suggesting that old fogies like these or to be content with having had
their day in the sun and should shut up about it and let other people make
decisions about what order appear on Spotify.
Since Neil Young's stand, several other people I have also
decided they were going to jump on this bandwagon, mostly non-notable musicians,
looking for free publicity, doing their bit for this moral crusade, that includes
self-righteous indignant self-centered people like Neil Young
The needle and the damage done
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