Neil Young News: Comment of the Moment: Greendale, Greta, Sun Green, Julia Butterfly & Neil Young

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Comment of the Moment: Greendale, Greta, Sun Green, Julia Butterfly & Neil Young

"Be a goddess in the planet wars"
Greta, Sun Green, Julia Butterfly & Neil Young's "Greendale"

A fair amount of discussion on our recent posting on Greta and "Greendale".

Here is the Comment of the Moment on "Greta Thunberg and Neil Young's Prophetic Greendale: Sun Green + Julia Butterfly" by Dan S.:

Greta is following her own specific path. It is hers alone to walk.

Activists have been around forever, and it is those who actually make a difference who are most remembered after they’re gone. Even when they fail. The fact that Greta is even being mentioned here is evidence that she is making a difference, and I for one want to celebrate that with her. Perhaps getting anointed by Time Magazine as “person of the year” wasn’t all that helpful to her cause, but it did get everyone’s attention. I’m sure she could care less, frankly.

She’s calling out to fellow young people to get up and start speaking out to fight for their future. It’s about time young people start to wake up and let their voices be heard. She’s kicking her generation into gear; certainly someone had to. Technology has numbed us into an isolating fog, and if Greta can wake them up, then perhaps we can all make a difference. Who knows. Maybe the young people can become the catalyst to make the big difference in the world again.

Hearse Theatre just played a live Ohio yesterday, and it reminded me of when music was a call to arms for people to wake up and take on the world. To stand up and say “enough”!!! If Greta can do that, then God’s speed to her and her friends.

She’s fearless with her condemnation of the world governments lack of leadership and address the potential solutions that frankly are painfully obvious to this old man. Neil Young has made it clear that he understands where this young woman is coming from and although she probably isn’t concerned about what Neil Young thinks, it does illustrate her impact up to now. Not to forget how our man in the White House reacted, saying: “she has anger issues” which is something he knows intimately. Once again, she got his attention.

Greendale came out a while ago, and at the time it was not completely embraced by all of Neil’s fans, yet many of us were thrilled with this remarkable album. Here we are in 2020 and it now seems more relevant what Greendale was, and is today. With Greta, Sun Green (the fictional character) has materialized in the flesh. She’s not sitting in a tree or chained to a statue, but she is making a difference. Right now.

So keep on rocking in the free world Greta, for as long as it is free. Good luck fighting the good fight for your future, and ours. I’m with you.

Peace.

Thank you Dan -- as always -- for your well measured and thoughtful comment.

Obviously, this is a difficult subject based on our past experience as well as reaction to the recent posting. We appreciate everyone taking a breath before hitting the keyboards. Certainly time seems to have mellowed everyone since Greendale's original release back in 2003. When we put the post together recently, it was somewhat shocking to re-read comments and their level of hostility to the album. It was almost disproportionate in its backlash, relative to it's relatively mild message, especially when compared to Living With War, which really took the Neil hostility to whole new level.