Neil Young Tweets: "It’s ON THE STREET" - The Saga of "The Southern Man Story" Rages On

"It’s ON THE STREET"
via NeilYoungNYA | Twitter

Neil Young has tweeted out the message "It’s ON THE STREET".

It’s ON THE STREET pic.twitter.com/TXc2qwWK78

— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) June 5, 2020

The tweet by Neil Young is in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the global movement against the brutality of the police state.

16th St., NW - Washington, D.C.

Last week, Neil Young streamed a 2019 solo acoustic version of ‘SOUTHERN MAN’ on Neil Young Archives as a timely reminder of a long running observation back from 1970. "It’s not just ‘Southern Man’ now. It’s everywhere across the USA. It’s time for real change, new laws, new rules for policing," Neil writes on the NYA post.

‘SOUTHERN MAN’ by Neil Young
State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN - January 29, 2019 (3M/POLAR VORTEX TOUR)
via Neil Young Archives

Also, Neil Young has written a Viewpoint: Hope on Neil Young Archives saying that: "My black brothers and sisters have suffered long enough."

Viewpoint: Hope by Neil Young
via Neil Young Archives

Over the weekend, we posted on The Story of Neil Young's "Southern Man". The post covers the song's background and context along with a transcript of the "Southern Man Rap" from bootlegs of a Neil Young concert on May 16, 1974 at The Bottom Line, New York City.

For us here at TW, the whole entire issue of "Civil War 2.0" has been a continuous and lifelong issue and the core of our blogging for 25 years now as long time readers can attest.

"Ronnie and Neil"
We do hope that you will remember that a Southern Man needs Neil Young around anyhow. Now, more than ever. OK?!

We've often been asked why exactly do we devote so much attention to this whole "Ronnie and Neil" business?

On the one hand, it seems blatantly obvious when you look at the musical arc and the huge cultural impact of songs like "Alabama", "Southern Man", Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama", and Drive-By Truckers' "Ronnie and Neil" and their interconnectedness.


Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama"
MCA Records 45RPM Single
We have written at length about the interconnectedness "Four Dead in Alabama" and the "Four Dead in Ohio".


The Four Dead in Alabama + The Four Dead in Ohio
The "feud myth" between Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young was brilliantly captured by the Drive-By Truckers 2002 album "Southern Rock Opera" song "Ronnie and Neil", as we've again discussed at length over the years.


Southern Rock Opera
Drive-by Truckers
Also, see Northern Man, Southern Man and The Un-Civil Wars of Donald Trump & Neil Young and Southern Man and Northern Man: Ronnie and Neil, The Un-Civil Wars & Rebels with Causes.


Street Survivors (original album cover)
Ronnie Van Zant wearing a Neil Young "Tonight's the Night" album cover t-shirt
So for us, as The #BigShift rolls along, our life's work is coming into crystal clear focus front and center. (Not withstanding the punches that came fast and hard lying on our back in the schoolyard") While gratifying that folks may just pay attention this time and learn something, our hopes have been raised before only to be dashed by the "ignorance is bliss" crowd.

Filming "Journey Through The Past"
Columbus, GA - October 1972
photo by Joel Bernstein
via Neil Young Archives

Hey, Hey, My, My, this is the story of Donnie, Ronnie and Neil.

"Don't forget what your good book said "
U.S. President Donald Trump @ St Johns Church
Washington, DC - June 2, 2020

Northern Man and Southern Man?
Donald Trump & Neil Young - 2014

Donnie, Ronnie & Neil + Merry: Southern Man and The Un-Civil Wars of Donald Trump & Neil Young or Rebels with Causes w/ Northern Man
See https://t.co/kWVSBe9ZK9
☮️♥️@NeilYoungNYA @dhlovelife @drivebytruckers pic.twitter.com/WsoYYWPTVX

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) June 4, 2020

And, so why exactly might a southern black woman cover a white Canadian man's ode to racism in the Confederate south again, now anyhow?

"Does your conscience bother you?
Tell the truth."
Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant

Daughters of the Confederacy Statue Removed
Old Town, Alexandria, VA - June 2, 2020
"Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes."
~~ George Santayana
or...
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
~~ George Orwell, 1984
or...
"Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future."
~~ George Orwell, 1984

Keep Calm, No Fear, Shut It Down, and Keep on Rockin'!

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