In a Neil Young Archives post "MY LETTER TO YOU: Folks, Clearing up some things", Neil admits that he was "misinformed too!"
Apparently, the source of the misinformation was The Guardian, which "made a rare mistake" in their article stating: "Menace to public health: 270 doctors criticize Spotify over Joe Rogan's podcast". The mistake involves the word "doctors" which is incorrect and should have been "medical professionals".
To quickly recap, last month, Neil Young published a letter on his website Monday afternoon demanding that SPOTIFY remove all of his music due to Joe Rogan's "vaccine disinformation". And shortly thereafter -- all hell broke loose here on this blog and elsewhere. (See here, here and here) The magnitude of all of this was so great that even Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunited -- although only on paper -- in their opposition to SPOTIFY. Last week, Neil Young wrote to SPOTIFY employees: "Get out of that place before it eats up your soul." In addition, Neil wrote that he would be moving his funds from top U.S. banks (specifically, Chase, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo) because they continue to fund the fossil fuel industry.
In his Viewpoint "I SAY" editorial last week, Neil Young urged:
"In our communication age, disinformation is the problem. Ditch the misinformers.
Back to today's MY LETTER TO YOU from Neil (above):
The publishing share Hipgnosis has in my copyrights is in the Hipgnosis Songs Fund that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange.
The Blackstone investment went into a separate Hipgnosis Private Fund and none of that money was used for the Hipgnosis Songs Fund. Pfizer has not invested in Hipgnosis but a past Pfizer CEO is a senior adviser for Blackstone, see link below.
So much for big Pharma!
So much for PHARM aid!
Clever but wrong.
be well,
love earth
ny
So, in our quest of transparency, truth, justice and The American Way, we say that we also -- like Neil - were "misinformed too!" So thank you for clearly stating that there is no conflict of interest on this subject, Mr Young.
In this week's Letters To Editor on Neil Young Archives, another batch of letters mostly supporting Neil and his stand on Spotify, Joe Rogan and vaccines. But also pushback on Neil's position, as well. And no word on the significant story along the Canada-U.S. border and the Trucker's Convoy?
That’s the only way we can all be free
(Have to shut the whole system down)
Start again and build it for eternity
***When I look at the future I see hope for you and me***
(Have to shut the whole system down)
Working, working for eternity, working now, working now
Have to shut the whole system down, working now"
- The COVID Years: Neil Young Asks Spotify to Remove Music Over Vaccine Disinformation, Then Retracts Letter
- Joni Mitchell Joins Neil Young In Removing Her Music from Spotify
- Comments of the Moment: Neil Young's "The COVID Years", Joe Rogan, Spotify and Vaccine Disinformation
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Reunite ... In Opposition to SPOTIFY
- Neil Young to SPOTIFY Employees: "Get out of that place before it eats up your soul."
The must have pulled that from LTE, and quickly. Now the only new items there are a flyer for A Day Without Immigrants (2/14/22) and an out-of-place fan letter about from Summer Songs posted over a month ago. Glad you are here, Thrasher, to screenshot all the good stuff for us! It’s good to see Neil owning up to his error (carried over from The Guardian, no less), even if he had to get a little snarky.
ReplyDeleteNot sure about the truckers story; I just figured they were holding off on the Canerican video until they finished mastering the extended version. We need those eleven seconds back!
I love that now there's a column by Thomas Friedman on NYA - can't make this stuff up...Friedman lol...wrong about everything every time all the time...
ReplyDeleteLet's Go Brandon!!!!!
How's Trudeau doing, Neil? Squashed enough liberty for ya, eh? No?
You can listen to what you like but it is hard for me to imagine the mental gymnastics and level of denial you have to go through Jonathan, to be both a Trump-lover and a fan of Neil Young at the same time. Those two things really don’t go together. I’m not talking about never-Trump normal republicans, but about MAGA-monsters who spew the stupid Brandon slogan that Jonathan thought he was being cute by inserting his not his post.
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ReplyDeleteI see headlines asking why Canadian cops have been so restrained in dealing with the truckers... if this protest were in the US, I wouldn't be surprised if there had been fatalities by now. And excuses from certain parties as to why that's not a crime.
ReplyDeleteRemember how the previous admin treated protestors--unless they were on the "right" side? Hypocrisy is deafening.
As always...
"Don't forget love."
How exactly did the last administration deal with protesters? I do remember seeing many businesses and buildings burned to the ground during the "mostly peaceful" George Floyd protests in the summer of 2020. Were those MAGA folks lighting the matches?
DeleteAnd what exactly did the Trump administration do to those people? I remember Seattle actually letting the protesters set up their own "city", which of course fell apart as they started to shoot one another, but I guess that was Trump's doing?
Let's hear some specific examples of all of the fatalities that were caused by the horrible treatment of protesters by the Trump administration.
@ Brother Jonathan - please try not to antagonize Brother Alan here.
ReplyDelete@ Brother Alan & Dionys - try not to rise to the bait here. Not that we can't handle spirited debate, but we are still LWW.
@ Brother M.R. Ian - exactly, #DFL
Hi, I'm from Germany. One question: In the First Admendment there is a cherished value, which protects "Freedom to clear published information in public media"(here: 3 cleared articles in Times-Contrarian on NYA up to now)? Or is it in a NEW Amendment? How is it called? The "Special Neil Young Amendment"?
ReplyDeleteAs always... "Don't forget to laugh!"
That I re-tracted my comment above does not mean I changed my mind about this context. It says I can afford being responsible. Thanks, Thrasher, for your message.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful day here out on the Plains. Way above freezing, thinking of Spring. Trans playing in my office.
ReplyDeleteThat's maybe what we call a false spring hereabouts? It used to be a first sign that winter's power is broken. In regular winters (before the climate change) that happened around this time, mostly in combination with a strong Chinook type of wind coming from the Mediterranean falling frome above (the Alps). In that case you prepared yourself for some hefty disappointment, because three days later winds would turn, bringing in snow from the northwest and winter returned. However, this year is way too warm, no lasting snow cover.
ReplyDeleteOh, and the garbled message above never is from Germany. We do make mistakes, but not this kind, or I haven't studied linguistics.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way winter is over- in fact, next week highs from 15-25, lows in single digits. The year my mother passed away, 2014, March was incredibly brutal. Never let up.
ReplyDeletewhat the hell is that message about?
ReplyDelete@ GordonHobs - to clarify, we think the word you're looking for is "retracted" not "cleared".
ReplyDeleteno worries. much better than our German for sure. So thanks for dropping comment.
regarding retractions, you mention 3?
we know the 1st was the SPOTIFY post a few weeks back. And now this one. So what was the 2nd retraction?
@ Brothers Abner & Dionys - thanks for weather reports! :)
and back to the music. say, did you hear about the new TRANS mix versions???
http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2022/02/neil-youngs-trans-album-being-restored.html
Several times now there were messages that followed comments from my end with claims that they are from German readers / commenters. Apparently there are people trying to create the impression of a wider international and also German audience, siding with positions of the incoherent kind. Typically they contain grammar or vocabulary mistakes that a German would not make (here: "cherished"). Also nice: the fake typo in "admendment". A German keyboard makes that typo fairly unusual.
ReplyDelete@Dionys: Take my advice, don't listen to me
ReplyDelete@Dionys: Wir können uns ja z.B. über die deutsche Romantik im Licht von Heinrich Heine "Deutschland ein Wintermärchen" unterhalten, darin der schöne Satz "Herab auf Euer romantisches Haupt / Des Himmels modernste Blitze!". Google Translator: For example, we can talk about German Romanticism in the light of Heinrich Heine's "Germany, a Winter's Tale", which includes the beautiful sentence "Down on your romantic head / Heaven's most modern lightning!"
ReplyDelete@GordonHobs
ReplyDeleteThat's infact a very fitting quotation and I bow my head, but not to Gordon's most modern lightning, rather to your elegant way of introducing Heinrich Heine, the sarcastic commenter with respect to his romantic contemporaries.
My observation still is true. This time I have been wrong obviously, and I apologize. With all these incoherent crusaders here, one does get suspicious. And that's maybe even the larger damage, beyond potential differences
Dies ist in der Tat ein äußerst passendes Zitat, also beuge ich mein Haupt, nicht ob der allermodernsten Blitze geschleudert von Gordon, doch eher vor dieser Ihrer eleganten Einführung des (anti-)romantischen Spötters Heinrich Heine.
Meine Beobachtung hält dennoch. Dieses Mal habe ich mich offenkundig geirrt und entschuldige mich. Mit all diesen inkohärent auftretenden Eiferern, wird man (allzu) misstrauisch. Und das ist vielleicht der größte Schaden, jenseits möglicher Meinungsverschiedenheiten.
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ReplyDeleteI can't help, sometimes I have to laugh at Neil a lot. For example (Google Translator of) https://www.rollingstone.de/rolling-stone-helden-neil-young-der-unfassbare-2045597/: "Young used to like nuclear power and Ronald Reagan". As a student in Göttingen (left wing, involved in environmental protection) and reader of "Sounds" and "Spex" I witnessed this first hand and yet I bought his records Reactor & Trans at the time and still love them to this day (and apart from 2-3 songs, Barn is garbage for me, even if I find his current political and ecological statements okay)
ReplyDeleteThere have been lengthy explanations by Neil Young (supported by Elliot Roberts) what this Reagan thing was about. Neil Young declared he was attracted by the communitarian aspect of some of Reagan's politics. He definitely was not aware what Europeans were thinking about Reagan at the time (Huge Peace Movement against the NATO double track strategy). Still today many conservative Americans appear to believe that it was Reagan who somehow brought down the Berlin Wall.
ReplyDeleteThe nuke business: Ever watched Human Highway? The Three Mile Island Incident happened in 1979 and in many respects served even to strenghten the position that this technology can be controlled. Tchernobyl happened much later.
And I am sure glad, that my own thoughts back in the early 80's nowhere went on record.
As to "Barn" I beg to differ. There's expression beyond catchy riffs and lyrics. I understand both, the Reagan lapse of reason and today's music as a continuum, a never-ending tour, with different speeds, vehicles, companions etc.
Come on man, I only can laugh (irritated) when I read something like the following (how stoned do you have to be). In an interview by Richard Cook, New Musical Express 1982-10-09:
ReplyDeleteOne thing Neil Young hasn't looked into is the support of the No Nukes movement. When a lot of those 'contemporaries' of his have bolstered appearances with a bunch of benefits, Young has stayed adamantly clear of agitprop. He likes nuclear power.
"We don't have it down, and we don't know what to do with the waste. But how are we going to get to other planets? We need nuclear power to discover what's out there and discover another power source. A coal burning rocket won't get there. I'd like to go to another planet. I'd go now if I could!"
In my perception the reality that you are responsible for a severely handicapped child ist not something that befalls you as a single event like a catastrophy, but it is an agonizing process over years with many disappointments and emotional hardships that demands and absorbs one's full attention.
ReplyDeleteSo if there is a gap or an imbalance in Neil Young's political awareness in those early 80's, as seen from the European point of view, it most definitely doesn't have anything to do with recreational drug use. I see "Trans" as an effort at trying to break-out and also as a techno-romantic attempt to find a solution to communicate with a non-oral child. Neil Young himself said something to this effect, when asked about the lukewarm response to "Trans" at the time of its release. Later on, Neil Young in cooperation with Lionel, developed RC-technology that was designed to create "cause and effect"- situations as a basic means to communicate with his son Ben.
And frankly, the 1982 Munich show with the Trans-Band left this then 17 year-old teenager behind in a state of bewilderment. What did I know back then? That information was not to be found in NME, Sounds and Melody Maker.
I don't understand: What should his statements (at that time) about nuclear power have to do with the vocoder voice experiments to communicate with his handicapped child?
ReplyDeleteBut I freely admit that his statements at that time were more ingenious ("Genius" in the sense of Herder, Goethe and the "Sturm-und-Drang") than they are today.
ReplyDeleteAt that time and before Neil Young believed or desperately hoped that redemption was to be found in technology. Your NME quote "But how are we going to get to other planets? We need nuclear power to discover what's out there and discover another power source. A coal burning rocket won't get there. I'd like to go to another planet. I'd go now if I could!" shows this vein of thinking and so does ATGR, I see even Pono or LincVolt as part of this techno-romanticism (Technikgläubigkeit).
ReplyDeleteAlso: since the late 1980's I have been involved with organizations in Europe and North America who emphasize the fact that the whole nuclear chain is murderous from the beginning. One would believe the damage created by uranium mining (and alos bomb testing) on indigenous lands and done to indigenous peoples since the late 40's should be enough of an argument to stop this industry. But talk to certain Greens from France or environmentally interested people in North America. Still today it's as if they have a blind spot with regards to that. So a rock star concerned with his handicapped child, believing in technical solutions that totally absorb him, does not make for good judgement on the nuclear business.
And who, in Europe, would have given a damn what Neil Young said, when it came to one of the most bitter political conflicts in West Germany of that era? There were a lot more people dead wrong about this issue, that were more important to me.
ReplyDeleteMy wife was a proud citizen of the Freie Republik Wendland and I went to Wackersdorf. We did not need Neil Young's genius for that.
By the way (you mentioned your wife): I can't laugh about everything Neil says/writes, e.g. I've never found it funny to refer to Emmylou Harris and Nicolette Larson as "The Saddlebags"
ReplyDeleteBut in general it's easy for us to be fans of Neil Young compared to e.g. fans of Van Morrison (whose music I really like) :)
ReplyDeleteDoesn't today's (Neil) slogan "Listen to Science" also have something to do with techno-romanticism (and can't this also become a boomerang)? For example, I wouldn't be surprised if science (= the majority of scientists) will propagate stratospheric geoengineering in the not too distant future (instead of today's majority opinion to reduce CO2 emissions).
ReplyDeletecorrection: Neil called Linda Ronstadt and Nicolette Larson "The Saddlebags"
ReplyDeleteThere have been occasions when Neil Young thought things to be funny that weren't, such as the cowboy boot on his piano and the story behind it. We are not writing about a saint. Oh, a song by the title of "Bite the Bullet" today would be "me tooed". It is pretty difficult to discern between hyper morals and societal progress.
ReplyDelete