REACTION: Neil Young's New Song & Video "Lets Roll Again"
The polarizing reaction to Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts new song and video "Lets Roll Again" has ranged from robust cheers and applause to condemnation and accusations.
Not since 2006's album Living With War has a Neil Young album had so much controversy before its actual release.
The primary controversy around "Lets Roll Again" -- set to the tune of Woody Guthrie’s iconic “This Land Is Your Land” -- swirls around the lyrics:
‘If you’re a fascist, then get a Tesla/If it’s electric/
It doesn’t matter/If you’re a Democrat, then taste your freedom/Get whatever you want, and taste your freedom.’
The video accompanies the verse with a ‘Heil Tesla’ image depicting Tesla's Elon Musk’s mistaken "Nazi-style salute", which, btw, was really just him touching his heart and waving to crowd in a gesture of love.
Elon Musk
(Video Frame via Official Video)
"Heil Tesla"
(Video Frame via Official Video)
Neil Young's Tesla/Musk outrage has not always been the case. Neil Young famously converted a Ford Lincoln Continental into "LincVolt", an electric car. The project began in approximately 2008.
SEPTEMBER 25, 2010
Back in 2016, Neil Young was critical of German car manufacturers in an interview with Associated Press. (thanks Rusted Moon!)
So. Times change, feelings change.Neil Young: "There's nothing revolutionary about building an electric car with all the air pollution on our planet.But car manufacturers keep building the same cars over and over again—and they even advertise how advanced they are. The same old story over and over again. It's disappointing to see so little innovation. And then Tesla comes along and leaves everyone behind. Especially the German car manufacturers. They acted like it was a joke, like Tesla was a joke. But suddenly Tesla has overtaken them on the road.And they're not even advertising. Tesla is just good; they've created something good.I didn't make it ["LincVolt"] to sell it to anyone. I just wanted to say, 'Look, this thing exists, it's great.' I've put 55,000 miles on it now.I drive it all the time; I love it."
More on Neil Young's LincVolt: Re-powering the American Dream.
Neil Young & Marc Benioff
by Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts
(Video Frame via Official Video)
Labels: album, chrome hearts, neil young, Official Music Video, song, tracklist, video
by thrasher@PermaLink: 5/05/2025 02:53:00 PM
31 comments
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31 Comments:
I’m reminded of Trans Am, an overlooked song from SWA. The lyrics deal directly with “global manufacturing”, and it is global at this point. American companies, and investors, need to look for opportunities in order to participate in the international marketplace.
If the free market is really efficient, opportunities should keep appearing. What’s more, if you’re against regulation or intervention on principle, I can’t see the point in complaining about market conditions. Hell, the USA was not created by people being risk averse. The truth is, most people are okay with regulation, provided they see something in it for them personally.
Thrasher, I respectfully suggest you do not so blithely declare that Elon Musk's hand gesture was a benign expression of love. Consider his embrace of Germany's far-right AfB party, his praise for numerous dictatorial leaders including Hungary's anti-democratic and anti-LGBT president Viktor Orban, as well as El Salvador's Bukele, including providing him with a tour of a Tesla factory; a man who has publicly stated that, "The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy", a point of view manifestly in evidence through Musk's DOGE firings; a man who told the New York Times, "I disagree with the idea of unions." Whether Musk is a bonafide Nazi sympathizer and white supremacist I cannot state definitively, but neither do I think you know enough to declaratively maintain that his hand gesture was not a salute and a signal to far right constituencies.
I would just like to thank my father in law, one of the smartest guys I know, for providing me with the inspirational words on my Tesla Takedown & Hands OFF protest signage.
He told me Elon Musk will be leaving DOGE after his 130 day “term” is up. I said “Really”? “He’s been punching a clock? Do you trust T Rump to file accurate time sheets? How do you know it hasn’t been one day a week and will continue for up to 130 weeks?”, I asked.
His answer: “Well, Mr. Musk is very intelligent. He’s going to Mars you know”!
I was so pleased to be informed of this I could barely contain my enthusiasm. “When? Please, timestamp that for me”. And my protest sign was born:
Mars. NEEDS. Musk.
Thanks, Bob. Thanks fer having Bobfest! 😎
@ Renaldo - thank you for the comment.
We realize now that we did not clarify.
Elon Musk clarified that his gesture was not meant to evoke Nazi symbolism during an appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, released on February 28, 2025. He stated, “It was obviously meant in the most positive spirit possible."
If you follow link above, NBC News in an article titled "Elon Musk takes familiar fraud, waste claims to Joe Rogan with DOGE discussion," published on February 28, 2025. Additionally, the podcast episode itself, "Joe Rogan Experience #2281 - Elon Musk," is available on YouTube, published on February 28, 2025, at: https://www.youtube.com.
This comment has been removed by the author.
well, shit! ol' thrash is a rogan lovin', elon apologizin', DOGE appreciatin', MAGA man!
that checks out.
Let’s just say I would be leery of taking Musk’s word uncritically, about The Salute or anything else. If it was a faux pas, most of us couldn’t afford that level of social unawareness without major consequences. Ignorance is generally not an excuse.
@ windsaloft - not necessarily.
We're actually truth lovin and disinfo hatin.
It doesn't help your case to recklessly make false claims. It actually hurts the cause, does self inflicted damage and is just plain evil.
@thrasher, Labeling people as “evil” is itself unhelpful to most causes. It tends to promote divisiveness. However, if I were to look for evildoers in the world, I wouldn’t start with people who have said unkind things on blog posts. This is a good example of how civility can break down rapidly in conversations.
No Meta, wrong.
How should one refer to knowingly spreading false information (lying) that is harmful and divisive.
Martin Luther King Jr. stated, "To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it."
BTW, even the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), defended Musk, calling it an "awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm" and not a Nazi salute.
Seriously. You really think Neil believes that Elon threw a Nazi salute at apresendential inauguration? No one there at time thought so.
There's more to the picture than meets the eye.
We are trying to establish truth here and have a pretty good track record.
I think the Salute has been a distraction, and deflection, from serious problems. Since none of us know the truth for certain. I don’t think it’s fair to presume anyone here is knowingly spreading falsehoods. If we’re not going to render judgment on Musk for whatever he did, neither am I going to condemn an internet stranger.
I initially assumed your objection was to the other writer’s tone, not necessarily their view of Musk. You’ve always been clear about the uncensored exchange of views on this site, so I wouldn’t expect a differing opinion to be a flashpoint in itself, nor for Musk (of all people) to qualify for exemption from the general ethos of discernment.
One of the problems with all this "Nazi" and "fascist" labelling is that people on both sides of the debate for lack of better terms use them rather ahistorically. Once these designations are applied people fall for anything that seems to support their respective concept. A hand gesture filmed from a certain angle suddenly becomes a Nazi salute. I rather suggest to look at what the non-elect terminator did, instead of interpreting his gestures. What he did and presumably still does is evil, ask children in places like South Sudan or - easier to access - US public servants.
To repeat Mark Twain "History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes" makes for a good startig point to re-think political language. Living in a country that not only is the origin of Nazism but also of the theoretical foundation of socialism (Karl Marx, anyone?) I always resented the very primitive, even vulgar application of these terms to any phenomenon on the respective other side of the political aisle. (Maybe that's a German idiosyncrasy. We tend to insist on the uniqueness of the monstrous Nazi-regime. Even when debating these categories we want to "excel" as being the decendants of the worst evil-doers of them all, while all the others maybe do not have a problem to subsume the regimes of Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot and their ilk under the same header)
Free university education or affordable health insurance for everyone is not "socialism", the birth of an authoritarian #47-style regime is not "fascist", both are political phenomena hitherto unknown or in the case of the former totally misunderstood by most Americans with their smattering of political knowledge and the consequence of very effective brainwash by re-iteration. To do without this kind of handy labelling does not make comparisons obsolete, but above all it does not make an oligarch and his stupid juvenile sycophants less dangerous (Compare this to young guards of any revolutionary regime, see China, Iran for instance, yet they are not all the same). However hurling defamation and slander at the other side might make you feel good for a moment of letting off steam, it does not help the political debate to swing the "nazi club" (German metaphor for the use of these labels). Being convinced that these neo-authoritarian developments are not to be harnessed by ostentatious language with too large a load of historical dead weight, I wish for new vocabulary expressing the evil and the damage done. Maybe call the US-version muskarchy or trumpoship?
Picking up that inappropriate language in a song evokes the foreseeable reaction. It can be found here on thrasherswheat : Somebody rightfully claiming that the terms "fascism" and "nazi" are used out of their historical context, others appear to be defending the political ox while they don't, and yet others who try and distract from the true issues by falsely introducing the EV-history of both Neil Young and the DOGE terminator ionto the debate. (Marxist theory made a difference between main and side contradiction, the latter disqualifying you in political debate, related modern designation: whataboutism)
Note aside: It occurs to me that "doge" was the title of the reigning Venetian and Genoan oligarchs in medieval times. Confusion, obfuscation and smoke screen tactics where ever you look. Better look at their bloody hands moving at their deadly conjuring tricks.
Trumpotism with it's connotations of despotism (executive order orgy) and nepotism (cashing in on through family and harem bros) is more appropriate.
on occasion, we say this is a vital thread.
Whether the Neil news itself or the ensuing conversations, this is what keeps us & TW going.
Here is another such vital thread.
Sometimes we speak directly to Neil via this blog. But mostly to our fellow fans.
In this case, this post is mainly aimed at Neil himself.
As in, when you allow clear distortions to be inserted in your work, like with this video, you dilute your message. You lower your self to your opponents level.
Neil - you're way better than this to allow your name to be highjacked for a clear political agenda. Someone inserted that "Heil Tesla" image in your video.
Did they show you the full clip from multiple angles? Did you hear Elon's exact words as he touched his heart and made the gesture?
Because if you did, you would understand that this whole saga has been manufactured.
This is like with the Rogan-COVID episode where after the fact, you admit you never heard of the guy, never listened to the program and just followed somebody's advice to remove your music from Spotify. And again, when you reversed course. Unfortunately, you reversed course only on Spotify but not the primary issue of involuntary, forced jabs itself.
DisCERNment man, c'mon. or -- as Meta puts it - "Ignorance is generally not an excuse."
And to our fellow fans, yes freedom of speech here is vital and supported.
And yes, where there is true freedom of speech, there is unpleasantness. Obscene words. Lies and hate.
While we try and ask folks to keep it clean, we do have a community standard of posting/moderating where clearly false info. will be called out. Notice we don't just simply delete comments we don't support.
We provide our own X style Community Note to help establish the truth. And we have been doing all of this with great success for decades. At no charge, for free. Our choice, our task, our burden, our cross to bear.
And we have an active community --thankfully -- which is relatively self correcting. Hey, we all make mistakes. But that is not what this is about.
This is knowingly & deliberately spreading false info to further an agenda. This is a core human flaw that is as evil as the dawn of time. And we will call out this evil in the advancement of peace & love.
no fear
I’m a little flabbergasted at having to say this, but music videos don’t always show literal truth. They use editing to make point. I really couldn’t care less about Elon Musk, who has chosen to wield his absurd level of influence to impose his will on all of us, being clowned on in what amounts to a work of satire.
If we’re now requiring music videos to be reliable as documentary evidence, media literacy is beyond sunk.
Thrasher, you obviously don’t have to explain why you feel the need to go at it this hard for Musk, but if you don’t care to clarify any further on why you’re so outraged on behalf
of the planet’s most powerful men, I feel we are done here. Long may you run.
@ Meta - yes, we're flabbergasted as well having to explain this, especially to you.
Really?
Ask yourself, where did the music video get the images?
Is your defense of evil satire as well?
To conclude, another reader leaves in a huff because there's a difference of opinion. This blog would've have lasted a day if we weren't open to contrarian thinking. Look at Neil and his Times Contrarian, afterall.
Not exactly tolerant of diversity of opinion. Seems a bit narrow minded for someone who projects such high intellectual and philosophical opinions.
We might suggest mere trolling but you've here way too long for that. Afraid of truth maybe?
Fear is a real mind killer.
Lastly, thanks for being here and all of your contributions. Seems almost silly at this point to make a stand over some billionaire that you care less about. You will be missed. All the best.
And our offer to buy beers (for both detractors and supporters) this summer still stands. Look for us in the parking lots or the rail.
I am protesting again Saturday 5/10 at the local Tesla showroom. You can too! Full Nazi salute or not, Empathy is the weakness for western civilization, according to Musk. I enjoy watching him lose money. My heart goes out to all the Tesla car owners. I would never damage a vehicle but I am happy that we who protest are happier together, in community. It cheers you up, I swear. Tesla’s product is now inferior to Chinese cars & far more expensive.
Donald Trump had a Tesla event on the White House lawn and bought one. So they did sell one car, if he even paid(!).
Trump is not yet a literal Nazi but he aspires to be. Sending US citizens to El Salvador prison or to Libya with no due process. This is inhumane.
Musk is a prick & he takes food out of starving kids’ mouths. He has no empathy. He has harmed the retirement of countless US older folks. Him and his buddy Trump.
We won’t stop until Tesla goes broke and then we will move on to Space X. We will kick him out of government. These protests are not going away.
Trump has betrayed all of his followers whether they realize it or not. He is a pedophike rapist in fact and I detest him. That is an appropriate stance towards a criminal with his rap sheet.
Richie, you voted for Trump, and you have blood on your hands. You helped weaken the nation immensely, & you show a disregard for victims of racism.
Trump is sawing off the branch we are standing on. His popularity is tanking, we are in recession. He said he would lower prices! What a bunch of suckers his voters are.
I think Elon intended to make his “heart goes out to ya” sieg Heil gesture look like it did. If someone can take an image from any angle that makes it look like…. it was easy enough to define for the majority of the western world. And his flirtation with Nazism has resulted in a catastrophic loss of value for his car company.
I am roasting marshmallows as it burns. I am ok with Neil Young going all in against Musk & Trump. I do think his lyric is unfair to Tesla owners who are well intentioned people in general. But they can buy a sticker pretty cheaply that will protest their cars: “Anti Elon Tesla Club”.
I have no empathy for Musk or Trump. Trump is a huge fan of Nazis & Nazism, “Good people on both sides” after Nazi thug kills woman protesting in North Carolina with his car.
Many Red states have made laws that you can kill a person with your car legally if they are protesting in the street.
Anyone defending Trump or Musk is on thin ice. It’s melting fast! You better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone. The Times They Are A’Changin’
Trump will tell his Army to fire on protesters. What will we say then? 4 dead in Ohio, remember? That shit is about to be magnified. Our rights are under attack. Protest while you still can!
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
I think it is worth noting that the song was recorded in October last year, well before Musk's 'gesture', so presumably the "if yer a fascist, then get a Tesla" line in the lyrics was prompted by other matters.
The video was presumably made more recently.
So I think it's wrong to focus on the real intention of the 'gesture', which none of us can know for sure, but it is OK to look at the big picture and for each of us to draw our own conclusions about Musk from the available facts. For me, there is plenty of evidence that he is not one of the good guys...
Above should read Trump is a pedophile.
And the Tesla bumper sticker reference was intended to PROTECT the cars, but converting one’s Tesla into a rolling protest machine is $5 away with your “Anti Elon Tesla Club” sticker. Yes, you can protest your own vehicle too, but more likely you will grow the Anti Elon Musk Club.
If the US Government can trash all of the common people, by not giving them Health Care For All, I don’t see how it an issue for all of us to trash Tesla the corporation.
And the United Healthcare CEO who was gunned down? I don’t support murder, but the ensuing support for Luigi has been huge. People, common people, have so far donated over a million dollars to his legal defense. The general public largely supported what he did to a CEO who raised the bar with 90% rejection of coverage rate. I am not saying Luigi did good. I am saying the US is a powder keg that could go off. The people are apparently mad as Hell that our taxes only go for paying Corporations and killing brown people in GAZA. That and gold for the Idiot King. What a vile piece of human garbage we have running this country.
If you support him, you will perhaps one day come to see the error of your ways. The rest of us are not waiting around. We have an Oligarchy to bring down.
That’s right, we can bring freedom, human rights, and justice even to the USA. Lady Liberty, we fight on for you. Without you, we have nothing.
Neil Young is all in, so am I.
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
….giving Trump GOLD… I meant to say golf, but gold fits better maybe. Trump, the Grifter Crypto Barron.
Trump’s military parade will not go as planned. People have the Power! Against Oligarchy we fight. They got the guns but we got the numbers.
Thank you Thrasher for providing this free speech opportunity on your blog, still the greatest place to be in the internet, even when we disagree & bicker.
Have a great day! Brother Alan
Good morning all—
In the interests of communicating in a reasonable way, I’d rather not “leave in a huff.” I’m glad, in one sense, that the gesture depicted still raises strong responses. No one likes to be called evil. In this case, I’m very concerned about any art or free expression being described as evil. Especially where political figures are involved.
The only way I can see this as anything other than protected speech is to argue that it’s defamation against Musk. It would be difficult to argue that anyone else is materially affected by it.
I wouldn’t want to establish any precedent that showing a politician in an unflattering or highly critical light is somehow beyond the pale. It seems an odd and precarious place to draw the line—unless you have vested interests.
It should go without saying that a rock video is not a news source. A reasonable person would not take it as such. What’s more, when someone chooses to enter politics or public life, they are making themselves open to critical commentary.
The right to say things that may annoy and discomfit leaders is an essential part of democracy. Public leadership comes with more responsibility and less privacy than most people get. The right to criticize takes precedence. And if you don’t want blowback, don’t do *anything* that looks remotely *like* a fascist hand gesture in a setting where you know you’ll be internationally televised.
To be clear, one could hypothetically argue the video clip is in bad taste or poor judgment, not constructive… any number of words that fall short of “evil”. Critique the art any number of ways. I’d be willing to have that conversation—although, again, unless one had a vested interest, I struggle to see that as a battle worth fighting. I’m much more interested in defending an artist’s right to do things you (or I) don’t like.
@ The Metamorphic Rocker : I would like you to consider sticking with us here at Thrashers Wheat. We are living in uncertain times right now, and many people are feeling the stressful effects.
Tempers rise and fall during times like these, and I feel that it’s important to understand how we all fall victim to emotional stress.
Your input here is extremely valuable, and as a collection of music fans we have few places where we can safely commiserate about how music and politics are connected.
Hopefully you will continue to engage with us here with your insightful thoughts and knowledge. I for one would miss your voice of wisdom.
Peace 🙏
@Dan, Many thanks—I appreciate your input a as well. The basic criteria for doing something are: 1) Is it good for my wellbeing? 2) Can I make a positive difference here?
Realistically, I’m not certain these blog comments are going to have much impact in the long run. Part of the anxiety of online conversation is the feeling of continually talking into the void.
It seemed to me that thrasher responded as though they felt personally attacked by NY’s use of the Musk salute clip. That doesn’t make much sense, unless I’m missing some piece(s) of information. I understand taking exception to the previous commenter’s nasty tone, but “evil”? That is a huge escalation. The kind that makes it harder to view this site as a healthy place for conversation.
I am hopeful that the contributions from Dan, dion, and Ron will keep proving me wrong.
@Meta: I hope so too. There are some great people here who would miss your perspective. My guess is that Thrasher is one of them 🙏
@ Metamorphic Rocker : please don’t go. I have enjoyed your long term commentary. We would miss you.
Elon has personally caused this PR crisis / boycott. Whether his salute was textbook or not, Elon has tanked his own brand. Did he really think we would just roll over as he cancels all the federal investigations into Tesla. Buying judicial elections or trying to, failing anyway due to his awful persona. He took a chainsaw (with DOGE ) to NOAA! What could be more stupid. Elon deserves what he is getting. He is not a good person.
Elon Musk has Trump’s eat with “unfair treatment of white landowners in South Africa.” Does this sound fine? I think not. Elon deserves every bit of trouble falling on him.
Your Brother Alan in Seattle
# Meta
The answer to criterium # 2 is yes, no doubt from my end. Criterium #1 is more difficult. I am going through difficult times (taking care of a case of old age dementia in my family, in addition to a very demanding full-time job) and this blog with all its merits and problematic features is keeping my mind sharp, even if I have to put up with some nonsense here as well.
A couple of weeks ago I made some effort to explain why "freedom of speech" being considered an absolute value ("paramount" was the word) is a problem when debating a cannibal who wants to eat you.
This time I easily could put in another effort regarding "truth" being considered a similar absolutum.
Being educated by Jesuits to some extent, I am just not puritan enough to accept these protestant positions. Hannah Arendt once said something about this problem in "Truth and Politics", I believe.
So I kindly ask you to imagine yourself a Sisyphus aspiring to be a happy human being (Albert Camus) and wait - because sooner or later it all get's real (Neil Young).
For all the others: forgive me bringing up all these difficult names. These people taught me a few things that need to be applied in real life every once in a while.
@Dionys : My heart goes out to you dealing with dementia. My late wife and I cared for her father with dementia for years, and it is a heartbreaking undertaking for the caregivers.
Ultimately it’s a labor of love, but at a cost of self to some degree.
Know that your comments here are deeply appreciated, and you have both inspired and challenged me in the most positive ways. Thanks for being here.
Peace 🙏
Thanks folks. Everyone here is valued and cherished.
As long as we continue to communicate, we're confident that we'll all get to where we're going on our own personal journeys.
When Alice came to a fork in the road, the Cheshire Cat said (roughly paraphrased), “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” (George Harrison, among others, later said something similar.)
Two lessons come to mind here: a) It’s good to know when to enter the fray and when to step back, take a breath, and regain perspective; b) when tempers flare, it doesn’t have to mean the conversation is at a dead end. Life experience being what it is, there’s sometimes a pull to avoid conflict out of self-preservation. But if I’m going to be opinionated, it’s only fair to accept responses
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