Recommendations of the editorial team
“Take America Back” – with this call Neil Young opened his first appearance of the year on Saturday evening (April 12th) “Fighting Oligarchy” rally by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Los Angeles. Together with Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers, he provided 36,000 people in Gloria Molina Grand Park for one of the politically loudest and musically most intense moments of the evening.
Shortly after a combative speech by the Union President April Verrett, Young entered the stage – as usual with his smashed Gibson Les Paul “Old Black”. He made the iconic chords of “Rockin ‘in the Free World” several times before entering the rarely played but perfectly suitable “Rainbow of Colors” from his 2019 album “Colorado”:
There is a rainbow of colors in the old USA.
Nobody will wash these colors.
But I can tell you that:
We, the people, are strong.
And we know that our brothers and sisters are united in the song.
After that, Young tuned “Rockin ‘in the Free World”-in an unusual solo-e guitar version, in which he replaced the usual guitar solo with an impressive cheek passage. In the middle of the song, Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers came on stage to get in the mood for the chorus. They shouted loudly between the verses: “Power to the people!” And “Take America Back!”, Which made the crowd cheered.
The last verse – “We got a thousand points of light / for the homeless man” – who once criticized George HW Bush’s politics, no longer played the trio. So the focus was clearly on the present. “Thank you, people,” said Young at the end of the set. “Thank you for being here. And thank you for being somewhere next weekend – and the weekend afterwards until we have regulated this. People just come again and again.”
The appearances of Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers
Joan Baez had already played a short set in the afternoon, accompanied by guitarist Greg Leisz. The program included “Imagine” (John Lennon), “Don’t Think Twice, it’s all right” (Bob Dylan) and “There but for Fortune” (Phil ochs). Maggie Rogers played songs such as “Alaska”, “Light on” and “Different Kind of World”.
The evening was politically charged and musically top -class – other acts were Jeff Rosenstock, Indigo de Souza, Dirty Projectors, The Red Pears and the Raise Gospel Choir.
On April 26, Neil Young performed at the “Light Up The Blues” beefiz concert in the Greek Theater LA with Stephen Stills, Billy Idol, Cat Power and Linda Perry. On June 18, his world tour with his new band The Chrome Hearts in Sweden begins, for which three live appointments have also been announced.
A planned show in Ukraine was canceled because of security concerns: “We had a good event location, near a shelter, but the changing location on site was too much,” wrote Young. “I couldn’t bring my crew and the instruments there with a clear conscience. I apologize to everyone. Ukraine is a great country with a good leader. Slava Ukraini.” Young also expressed concerns about his possible return to the USA: “If you say something bad about Trump or his government, you could be prevented from entering the USA as a Canadian,” he wrote to his fans on April 1st. “If you have double citizenship like me – who knows? We’ll find out together.”