Drummer reacts to "Rockin' In The Free World" by Neil Young (Acoustic & Electric)

[@clifton8929]

There's one more kid that will never go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool. Damn, Neil can spit the lyrics. Great song.

[@JohnLedger-g4i]

Second version shows Neil in all his glory and why he Crazy Horse were the godfathers of grunge

[@cletushouse906]

As some else said, he did this on Saturday Night Live and absolutely blew the place apart.

[@garyscharf9232]

Preach it Lee. Your wiser beyond your years, and able to see behind all the crap they throw our way. Many aren't able to see how straight up evil the leaders of this world are. My wife grew up with a father who was part of the evil behind the scenes, taken to their meetings where she and her sister were abused. We tried to pursue justice years later, only to face treats. They think their getting away with it, but judgement is coming. There's plenty of other similar stories out there, but most can't stomach the truth; remaining hopeful that some politician will fix things. Not realizing they're there to divide us and get us arguing with each other over masks, the border, etc. Meanwhile our country races on towards it's own moral and financial destruction. Fortunately many like us are waking up. Thanks for caring and sharing!

[@JohnLedger-g4i]

Definitely with Pearl Jam live in Toronto. I’ve never seen Neil having so much fun. PJ showed what a privilege it was to be on the same stage as god

[@nickface55]

Greatest thing I've ever seen on tv was the two of them playing this on the MTV awards show. Just days after that I saw all of them play at the Gorge in Washington state. It was an amazing concert, Blind Melon opened then came Pearl Jam and of course Neil and Crazy Horse finished us off.

[@genegarrett3372]

even more effective on stage seeing Neil dance around with his guitar strumming those riffs and the volume turned up LOUD!

[@stephenkittle6586]

Neil is AWESOME !!😍😁🐐🎸🔥

[@stephenstrudwick8095]

On the "Rust Never Sleeps" album, Neil similarly does a predominantly acoustic and a predominantly electic version of "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)".

[@andymccracken4046]

This one rocks !!

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

KEEP ON ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD!!!❤😎👍🏼

[@corawheeler9355]

Such a great song! Bravo the research. And VOTE to change things.

[@kweile4339]

Brain juices flowing! Love it. Keep on thinking in a free world.

[@gregfagan199]

Neil is great acoustically and with Crazy Horse. But seeing him with Crazy Horse is beyond special. It's an incredible experience!

[@sharondavid-melly1498]

Thanks, Lee🤗. Hope this song remains relevant 💕🇺🇸.

[@bombasticbushkin1124]

So he did this on Saturday Night Live. The rehearsal was taped and became an iconic piece of the Neil Young universe. It's been called the best performance ever on the show. IT IS THE SHIT!! Look it up on KZbin. I saw this in concert back in the day at Merriweather Post.

[@spooley]

It's amazing, if it isn't copyright blocked would definitely be worth a visit in a future video. The kinder, gentler machine gun hand line is fucking genius!

[@Lexwell_Lavers]

Yup. And the whole Freedom albums is great!

[@fattypneumonia]

seconded, the snl live version is FIRE, pls check it out

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Nope too much hype

[@Jonni1027]

You mentioned Linda Ronstadt was on 2 of the songs from this album (i how you listen to them!) and Neil Young said in his memoir that she was his favorite harmony singer that he’s ever worked with…he thought of her as a little sister❤

[@shneizah]

the Godfather of Grunge.

[@IvorPresents]

Fortunate enough to see him live at an outdoor venue touring with Crazy Horse. in 2003. They performed the Greendale album and then did a full rock set encore.. Closed with. Hurricane . Memorable concert.

[@bobd7855]

I saw this tour too. Was it 21 years ago??

[@michaeldowson6988]

There's a stiff entrance fee to the Free World. Perfection, paradise - all unrealizable fantasy. Entropy Rules!

[@AirDOGGe]

The 1990s were a big decade for Neil. He came up with so much stuff. His Prairie Wind tour was incredible. So far I have seen Chad Cromwell perform with Neil & friends (Neil Young Heart Of Gold video 2005), Mark Knopfler & friends (A Night In London 2004) and Peter Frampton (Live From Detroit 1999). Check them all out to see some incredible stuff!

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

"MR. SOUL" IS A GOOD OLDIE FROM YOUNG AND BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD.👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[@patrickcadge-moore6916]

Secretary of State Blinken performed this with a band in Ukraine a few days ago. The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one

[@sharondavid-melly1498]

Bravo! Sec Blinkin💕

[@sharondavid-melly1498]

VOTING BLUE 💙🇺🇸💯

[@alrivers2297]

​@@sharondavid-melly1498 Absolutely!

[@alrivers2297]

​@@sharondavid-melly1498 Absolutely!

[@stevedahlberg8680]

Wow! I really want to see that!

[@russallert]

I bought the Freedom album in the fall of 1989, soon after it was released. The Cold War was in its dying days (although we didn't fully know it yet), and we were still living with the idea of the Free World (US and its allies, including Canada where I live) vs. the Communist World (Russia/Soviet Union and its allies). So that line "Keep on rockin' in the free world" had that connotation to it. Not long after the album and song came out, the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union started down the road to oblivion, and the Eastern Bloc dumped Communism. For me, Rockin' In The Free World is the soundtrack to those events in the fall of '89.

[@nancymjohnson]

Great choice!!

[@dalemcmillan7231]

Excellent. Both acoustic and electric versions. ❤ That's MY opinion. Ok with everybody? OK.

[@louise_rose]

"Crime in the City" is a superb song from the same album, a set that marked a definite return to form for Neil after some patchy years.

[@TheBobherriot]

Neil's "Unplugged" album is excellent.

[@tomross6652]

There is a great video on KZbin of Neil doing this with Pearl Jam backing him up

[@louise_rose]

Neil Young is a genius, an icon and a man of real integrity. The grandfather of Grunge, even down to the way he looked on stage in the 1970s and early 80s. :) The chorus line of the song is ironic, something many people don't get: he picked the line precisely because it seemed so cheesy to him when it flipped up as a chance remark by a guy in his band while they were watching angry protest in Iran on the TV (at least that's how Neil himself retells it). I mean, the verses are about misery, crime and despair in the big cities of the USA, and people abandoned by the elite classes and the political top brass. Neil has often called poiticians out when they were using it as a cheery anthem. I felt very divided watching Blinken singing it in that bar in Kyiv a few days back...I hope Neil will comment on it in public.

[@L33Reacts]

We are everywhere we shouldn't be and no where we should be. Everything is upside down. Everything feels wrong. There is something wrong with us right now. It's almost like a foreign government who hates Everything the west stands for is running our country. I haven't heard our debt to China brought up in years I wonder what happened.... lol

[@louise_rose]

@@L33Reacts Yup, I get called "Russian b***ch" and stuff all the time for even questioning the wisdom of these ongoing wars and the motives behind them. Which is kinda funny since I actually come from a country /(Sweden) that's a neighbour of Russia. 😃 Some people really need to calm down...

[@jimr3882]

Note to all: Putin invaded The Ukraine, he kills political rivals with impunity. In no way would he tolerate this song being played in Russia.

[@trevalarose8155]

There is also a version with Pearl Jam joining him.

[@bobschenkel7921]

Neil Young is the master of whatever Guitar he picks up, acoustic or electric. And yes, he IS "The Godfather of Grunge". There is a live version from a concert he did in England a few years ago, with a "Rockin' In The Free World" which is unending, well about 15 minutes at least. Seen Neil four times, each concert completely different, including he backing bands.

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Way better with his electric.. Never understood requesters only wanting his acoustic when his best stuff was rock.. Why does no request channel do Ragged Glory

[@rikurodriguesneto6043]

I don't know if you read but I really recommend the Shakey biography.. it was written by a massive Neil Young fan who followed them on tour. :)

[@jamespaivapaiva4460]

Commented. Commited. And crazy! Peace & Love

[@Lexwell_Lavers]

Neil Young's live album Weld (1991) is one the best live albums there is, I'd put it up there with MC5's live album Kick Out The Jams. Do the whole Weld album, every track will blow your mind.

[@Hartlor_Tayley]

Great riffage

[@goonbelly5841]

Live and let live. Be a lot less fuss and bother if more folks took it to heart.

[@markdecker6190]

following the golden rule wouldn't hurt either.

[@sharondavid-melly1498]

All countries are flawed. What l love are the people who died for democracy so that they and we can complain. We are our country💕 Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦🇺🇸 who are fighting for their freedoms and ours.

[@Safe-Cracker]

Go look at the version where he plays it with Pearl Jam at the mtv awards... an amazing performance. Eddie Vedder once said that the name Pearl Jam comes from seeing Neil play live and it was feeling like a jam... You said it... It's raw... to me it's perfectly imperfect

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Nope way overrated by top 40 Wimp boys that have shitty taste but just want to be seen

[@irmaoksanen6830]

"Godfather of grunge"

[@stevedahlberg8680]

"Sorry, everybody but Ringo" lol lol lol lol #DrummerBias 😆

[@envirogeekyyc]

Smiled at your comment about grunge chords, after all, Neil is the “godfather of grunge”. Can’t count the number of times I have seen other bands rock out to this tune. As an indication of Neil’s respect/impact in the world of music - one of the most memorable jams I saw for Rockin… David Francey (Canadian folk singer), Oysterband (England) and The Waifs (Australia) all cooking on this together at the Edmonton Folk Festival.

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Too many wimp boys repeat that knowing nothing but wanting to be thought cool

[@huskytully3887]

Neil is a good friend of NILS LOFGREN ... 😀

[@louise_rose]

a great musician and bandmate - who practically shares my last name... 🎶🎵 😃

[@konradv7]

This is a song that’s definitely better electric.

[@ccollins2890]

Right? It's such an anthem, the acoustic just doesn't wring the emotion out of it like the electric.

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Yup too many wimps only like acoustic of any Neil Young cause they only listen to top 40 garbage. Which are shot and played every 15 mins...too many requesters don't listen to the good stuff

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

​@ccollins2890 exactly but really pisses me off when these wimps little boys never listen to longer versions and ONLY want his acoustic....guess cause they feel safe with only TOP 40 Overplayed crap...They pick Harvest Moon over Down By The River

[@stevedahlberg8680]

Listening to your words at the end, mostly agreed but some of it I view a little differently, but, at any rate, I bet you would really enjoy reading George Washington's farewell speech at Mount Vernon. It will blow your mind. Tyranny was a word that got used very powerfully in that speech at least a couple times. A funny aside, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Liam Lynch but he is from the 2000s, produced the cool concert video Jesus Is Magic for Sarah Silverman, got featured by Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters at one point during some live performances, etc. But this was one of his early ones that went viral and it's still a favorite of mine today. And it relates to the topic of this song quite a bit. "This Is MY United States of Whatever". m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/iprbcp2Dephqapo&pp=ygU9bXkgdW5pdGVkIHN0YXRlcyBvZiB3aGF0ZXZlciBsaWFtIGx5bmNoIG9mZmljaWFsIG11c2ljIHZpZGVvIA%3D%3D

[@JAMESMOORE-gq4vv]

with Pearl Jam video.

[@cynthiaschultheis1660]

NEIL YOUNG HAS DONE "COUNTRY" SONGS. CHECK OUT CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG ALBUM "DEJA VU" WHOLE ALBUM IS EXCELLENT!!!❤❤❤❤👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🎸🎸🎸🎹🎹🎶🎤🎵❤❤

[@bobsongs2023]

Some digs at George Bush Sr.'s 1000 points of light.

[@realityfuze42]

Another great live version of this was Neil and Pearl Jam at the 93 mtv awards - part of what cemented the "godfather of grunge" reputation kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYLPhYOOq7Snpacsi=0FVfdWUUq-tX3D7f

[@Linda-y9h]

Democracy vs autocracy. That's it. ✌️

[@AceAnnie1-7]

Great song. Look out for the version with Pearl Jam at the MTV awards too!

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Nope need Ragged Glory ..too many wimps near hear Neal's greatest stuff

[@alrivers2297]

🤘😛🤘

[@wanderer0617]

There's a great live version with Neil Young playing this song with Pearl Jam. Awesome. Thanks so much for reacting to Neil Young ❤

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Nope Pearl Jam okay but way over rated...need electric version only

[@wanderer0617]

@@DENVEROUTDOORMAN It is an electric version.

[@stevedahlberg8680]

Loving this so much and what a great idea to do the acoustic one and then the heavy hitter that most people are familiar with. 1,000 points of light. I don't know if you know about that or not. But at the time a lot of the nation was reeling under kind of a chaotic presidency of George Bush Sr. One of the things that I think he got from his predecessor Ronald Reagan, was a new plan which was basically almost zealous and it's anti-drug approach, while undermining the very things that would help addicts. They named it A Thousand Points of Light, because that truly was the dawn of a new era, where politicians could get away with saying exactly the opposite of what they meant, and not giving a shit. But everything they did was based on market research for sure. I can still hear his voice saying that phrase on an internationally televised broadcast at one point.

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Nope stop with the wimpy shit

[@JohnLedger-g4i]

Lee. I would disagree that Neil doesn’t really write poetry. Poetry doesn’t have to be rhyming - it is often all about sentiment and the writers view.

[@shemanic1]

A Rock Anthem. I have heard some great solo versions of Neil's song.

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Nope gonna be his electric

[@Tarkus7]

Suggestion for next Neil Young, "Southern Man" from the '4 Way Street' album. It's CSN&Y but features Neil. Excellent song, studio version fidelity (as is all of '4 Way Street').

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

He s done it...but yes it's great...too many wimps never hear the long stuff...Need Carry On from 4 Way street

[@stephenstrudwick8095]

We fight for democracy, but let's be honest, the whole World is most likely run by those with big money and power (which often go hand-in-hand). Most of the time, the money is rightfully earned. Who am I to say what someone should do with their money? Who am I to force someone to give up their hard earned cash? There's the dilemma, and why people on both sides of the arguement get really upset. There is real poverty and homelessness in the US. Do rich, honest, people have to use their money solve all this? Don't get me wrong, it would be wonderful if rich people would step in and do this. But if you think it's morally correct for them to help, then I'm afraid that arguement will keep falling on deaf ears. I don't have an answer that will satisy everyone, and I agree it's so frustrating to think this way. All I know is that we are allowed and able to "think" in the US. This is most definitely is not the case in many other countries. Thinking and having both sides of the political spectrum thinking and talking civally together should be encouraged more and more. And for goodness sake, can we just put a lid on the "fake news" propaganda and outright lies that, while definitely making politics more entertaining, often grinds progress to a halt. Sorry for the rant. I do see "both sides of the argument", which these days leads to feelings of helplessness. I have no desire to start a political storm of comments here, which maybe why Lee will remove this one. No worries. 😊

[@theeloquentbaby]

Good 80s Neil Young that I’ve never heard before. I prefer the powered second version…It’s neat to hear both versions.

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Of course you haven't !!!! Top 40 garbage Rock trash never play the good stuff but only the short wimpy "safe songs"

[@paulwhite7972]

Find the live version from the Weld video. At this point Neil was pissed off about the Iraq war and you can hear it in every note he plays on the whole video not just this song. Intense doesn't come close to describing it. You'll see why they call him 'the godfather of grunge'

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Nope 4 way street Album Carry On or Long Time Gone

[@ptolemyauletesxii8642]

Everyone but George, not Ringo.

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Stop

[@WillLlamas]

Again, love acoustic Neil but the o.g. version should be 1st. On almost everything.

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Nope WIMP BOYS NEED TO GROW A SET!!!! His electric way better...wimpy wimpy wimpy

[@thescrewfly]

Liked for the track, unliked for you almost choosing one version and re-liked for playing both. The electric version has an extra verse too. With regard to Neil's slightly rubber-bandy view of US politics, don't forget he's from Canadia!

[@L33Reacts]

Damn thats a like Rollercoaster right there my friend. Glad you enjoyed! 🙃

[@DENVEROUTDOORMAN]

Electric much better

[@pete3883]

Kids luv his Commie cap ? best music ?