Some Neil Young Hatin' On This Blog

I love Neil Young.

I loved him when he was for Reagan, loved him when he was for the war in Iraq, and I love him now that he's written a protest record that is pissing some people off.

Some of those people are choosing to post their Neil Young hatin' on my blog, in the comments section of my I Love Neil Young post.  You'll have to scroll down to the last two comments to see the hate but you'll pass a lot of Neil Young loving along the way.

It is really sad that people who have gotten so much joy out of Neil's music for "over 20 years" as one of them says would choose to start hating the man because he had the courage to say and sing what so many of us are thinking.

As Jackson says in his post on the same topic:

certainly they weren't listening too closely for the past 20 years

I am listening to On The Beach as I write this to erase that hate out of my brain.

Comments

[steve]

i neither love neil young nor hate him. with no disrespect, i just don't care about him enough to spare one drop of my precious bodily fluids one way or the other. but gee willikers, every day that goes by i think i am in a tiny and shrinking minority of people who frankly don't care what celebrities and pop stars say and think and do (beyond either appreciating or not appreciating their art as art.)

just because neil young, or bruce springsteen, or bob hope, has access to the media, and egos as big and bright as klieg lights, does not mean their opinion is pertinent. if you're looking for serious thinking on foreign policy -- or even shallow but informed thinking -- there are a huge number of brilliant thinkers of every possible stripe, readily available on the web and everywhere (and not dull or esoteric academics). here's two:

http://www.hitchensweb.com
http://www.victorhansen.com

sigh. i know, its a done deal that we take our celebrities and pop stars seriously in our culture. but is public opinion on things like war and peace and religious freedom versus jihad really going to be dictated by electric guitar and ipod rather than scholarship and focus? are we not at all worried that, yes, even a celebrity as passionate and intelligent as neil young, is essentially the modern equivelent of marie antionette, slinging caustic sludge that sounds deep but actually signifies nothing -- and risks creating utter alienation in the masses?

[Arnie McKinnis]

Blog Bashing has become a national pastime. I still go under the old saying "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". But the Blogosphere is full of people (at least I hope they're people) willing to swing the club and bash our blogs.

[Scott in Vienna]

it's funny how people who see everything through political lenses tend to have dramatically shifting opinions.

For example, my father-in-law was dead-set against Clinton's military action in the former Yugoslavia as that was his party line. Then, when it was time to beat the drums for Iraq, he cited that as a good example of when miliatry force -- even unilaterally -- is often necessary.

So a Bush-loving dude who ripped a few bong hits listening to "Heart of Gold" and bought "Let's Roll" on iTunes...

[jackson]

I completely disagree with Steve at the same time as completely agreeing with him.

I don't care what Neil Young says, but I do care what he sings. It's called art, and is supposed to have some sort of relationship with society - at least that's what they taught me at college.

[peter]

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[Del Wilkins]

As a listener to Neil Young for more than 30 years, from his hits to his most obscure tunage, I know that no matter what Neil sings about, he always has had the interests of the common man in his heart and mind. I too was singin' "Let's Roll" when I thought about catching Osama and blowin his ass to smithereens. I however felt that the attack on Iraq was unwarranted from the beginning. I am no one, but a common man. The common man has so few real hero's these days. Neil has spoke in volume about real injustices for years, so why should this injustice be any different. I am glad to say that Neil is a real modern day hero. KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD