Recommendations of the Editorial team
Neil Young opened the new year with a sharp reckoning with Donald Trump. In a new opinion piece on his official website, the Neil Young Archives, the musician attacked the president head-on.
“Wake up, people!” writes Young. “Today the United States is a disaster. Donald Trump is destroying America, piece by piece, with his staff of wannabes, people with no experience or talent, hidden alcoholic wife-beaters, inexperienced leaders who only know how to lie to pander to Trump’s duplicity and keep their undeserved positions in his incompetent administration – a Congress full of Republicans who behave like unprincipled idiots.”
And further: “He has divided us. How could we elect these creeps who have no decency, no values, no conscience and no way to save the USA?”
Response to deadly ICE operation
The comment came days after a protester was shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, sparking protests across the country. “We must take Trump at his word,” Young wrote. “Make America Great Again. It won’t be easy as long as he tries to turn our cities into battlefields to cancel elections under martial law and escape all responsibility… Something has to change this. We know what to do. Rise up. Peacefully, by the millions. Too many innocent people are dying.”
Finally, Young addresses sharp words directly to the immigration authorities. “It’s ICE cold here in America,” he wrote. “There was no ICE before Trump. No soldiers on the streets before Trump. Every move he makes is designed to create instability so he can stay in power… He doesn’t know anything about love. He doesn’t know who you are. Use your love for life, your love for each other, your love for the children – yours and ours. Peacefully. Now.” (Note: It is not literally true that ICE did not exist before Trump. The agency existed, but did not engage in this type of aggressive operation against migrants.)
No new chapter in the conflict
It’s not the first time Neil Young has attacked Donald Trump – even though the president is a self-proclaimed fan of his music. “There’s something very special about him,” Trump told Rolling Stone in 2008 after being spotted at several Young concerts. “His voice is perfect and uncanny. He’s 63 and I don’t think it’s changed. It’s more important than his playing, because there are many great musicians – but only a voice like that. Whatever that damn ‘something’ is, he’s got it.”
Last summer, Young released the song “Big Crime,” which was directly directed against Trump. “Don’t need no fascist rules / Don’t want no fascist schools / Don’t want soldiers on our streets / There’s big crime in DC at the White House,” he sings. The protest song was recently covered by Yo La Tengo.
Archive work and tour plans
In his new letter, Young also mentions that he is working on the fourth volume of his Neil Young Archive box sets. He also unearthed a new version of the Blue Notes epic “Ordinary People” as well as a concert by Crazy Horse, which he describes as “just rare songs that the Horse have never played before… our first live show since the death of our lifelong producer David Briggs.”
Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s first concert after Briggs’ death in November 1995 took place on March 13, 1996 at the Old Princeton Landing in Princeton-By-The-Sea, California. It was the start of a club tour under the name The Echoes. The focus was on songs from “Zuma,” and the set also included the first live performance of “Stupid Girl.” However, it is unclear whether Young is referring to this exact concert.
Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts start a European tour in Manchester on June 19th. However, Young recently told a fan that at least some appearances are planned. “There will be a few dates,” he wrote. “Not many.”