Superannuated hyper-woke musician Neil Young, who is estimated to have a fortune of about 200 million dollars, is angry with musicians and promoters who are trying to make a living. Old Neil, who is legendary for jumping on every Leftist bandwagon that happens by, is terrified of the spread of Covid, and he is leading by example. In a statement published on his Neil Young Archives website Monday, Neil wrote: “Recently I pulled out of Farm Aid for fear that unprotected children may become infected with Covid by folks who went to the show, caught the virus, had no symptoms and returned home to hug their kids or someone else’s kids.” Yeah, can’t have normal human interaction. Can’t have music. All right. But not all of us have $200 million to get us by.
The virus that has Neil Young wanting to ban hugs and shut down the world has a 99% survival rate for most age groups, although it falls to 92% for the age group of most of the people who would want to attend a Neil Young concert in the first place. But Neil Young is terrified, and has found the root cause of the fact that far too many people are actually living their lives instead of cowering with fear in their living rooms, watching reruns of Friends, and ordering from UberEats. “I felt that we didn’t know what we were up against and we were endangering others, unprotected innocent children in particular,” he claims. “I know of tours that are out there and have to stop where they are and isolate in motels because one person among them tested positive. I ask myself, why are they out there?”
The answer chafes at the old multimillionaire’s socialist heart: “Money and business. These two need each other. This has been the American way for years and years. Now it has turned on the country in a new way.”
Of course. Some people are out there trying to make a living. Why don’t they just sit back and live on their royalties for a while, like selfless Neil? He is full of praise for those who have fallen into line: “Garth Brooks and others like him have been responsible and pulled back from doing more shows. That’s a good example.” However, some people persist in trying to feed their families: “But it will take the big promoters and managers/ agents to make the difference. If it’s all about money, I think they should protect the people who are their livelihood.”
Young thinks it’s all the fault of those top-hatted capitalists he runs into every time he plays Monopoly: “The big promoters, if they had the awareness, could stop these shows. Without that, everyone just keeps going like everything is OK. It’s not. Live Nation, AEG and the other big promoters could shut this down if they could just forget about making money for a while….. They control much of the entertainment business. They hold the power to stop shows where thousands congregate and spread. It’s money that keeps it going. Money that motivates the spreading. The big promoters are responsible for super spreaders.”
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This is a guy who once made an album called Freedom, but that was a long time ago. Now he sees people being altogether too free: “Folks see concerts advertised and think it must be OK to go and mingle. It’s not. These are super-spreader events, irresponsible Freedom Fests. We need Freedom to be safe. Not a bad example.”
Yes, Neil, way too much irresponsible exercise of freedom out there. I suppose you’ll applaud if your authoritarian Leftist friends ever get the opportunity to clamp down on dissent and eradicate freedom in all the ways they want to. In the meantime, at least two aging rockers are still standing for the spirit of freedom and rebellion from stultifying authority that rock and roll began with: Eric Clapton and Van Morrison. Last year Morrison recorded three songs denouncing the pandemic hysteria; one of them, As I Walked Out, began this way:
As I walked out all the streets were empty
The government said everyone should stay home
And they spread fear and loathing and no hope for the future
Not many did question this very strange move
Clapton and Morrison collaborated on another pro-freedom track, and Clapton, who suffered severe complications after receiving the vaccine, is refusing to perform at any venue where the vaccine is required.
Like Neil Young, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison have a lot of money. But they aren’t so narcissistic as to think that everyone has the luxury to “forget about making money for a while,” and they aren’t willing to give up their freedom to an all-encroaching, authoritarian woke nanny state. As a younger, freer Neil Young might have said, long may they run.
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