REACTION: Neil Young Rehearsing "Forever Young" Backstage @ BobFest
"My Back Pages" - BobFest - 1992
Bob Dylan and Tom Petty & Neil Young
(Click photo to enlarge)
Last week, we featured a post of what we thought was rare footage of Neil Young rehearsing backstage at BobFest in 1992.
Well, leave it to the RUSTie Grains (Neil know it alls) to let us know, oh no, Neil Young rehearsing "Forever Young" isn't rare. It's right there on the Bluray anniversary edition, Track #9 of outtakes. Well, excuse us?! We hadn't seen the clip before (or maybe Lord forgive, forgot) and enjoyed quite a bit.
Enjoyed almost as much as the surprising deluge of comments this unleashed here on TW.
Bob Dylan and Neil Young during finale "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, October 16, 1992
NOTE: Johnny Cash and June Carter on vocal backup among others
Before getting to TW comments, some background for the non- RUSTie Grains.
Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary tribute was held in Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, on October 16, 1992. Neil said from the stage: "Thanks Bob for BobFest!". This was another star-studded concert featuring numerous legends including Neil Young. Young performed Dylan's songs "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and "All Along the Watchtower". Many who witnessed the performance feel that Young's rendition of "All Along the Watchtower" was incendiary.
Sinéad O'Connor
Saturday Night Live (SNL) - October 3, 1992
As more background, per Wikipedia:
On October 3, 1992, the Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor appeared as the musical guest on the American live television sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). While performing a rendition of Bob Marley's 1976 song "War", she staged a protest against the Catholic Church. O'Connor held a photograph of Pope John Paul II in front of the camera, ripped it up, said "fight the real enemy", and threw the pieces of the photograph onto the floor.
And here's what some folks forget/don't realize. Immediately after Sinead was booed offstage, Neil walks on and burns down the house.
Dark to light in a heartbeat.
Regarding comments here on TW, read them for yourself. We can't even begin to try to summarize.
Freedom of expression? Where have we heard this? As some of us approach 250 years of something like freedom, we do wonder. And ponder. And carry on.
Labels: bob dylan, neil young
by thrasher@PermaLink: 6/16/2026 12:17:00 PM
22 comments
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22 Comments:
“Let’s Make Music Great Again, Don”!
Anyone else experiencing difficulty accessing the Archives T-C site? I just get the spinning adapter no matter what device or browser I'm using. The app itself still streams music.
Nevermind. It's back. A glitch in the matrix.
Sinead perhaps demonstrated how context is everything. The concert was a celebration which does not happily fit with protest, at least not so abruptly. Maybe she needed a prelude of sorts but she cannot create this by herself. Of course what she did is a matter of free speech, I don't see how anyone denies this. What is painful and wrong is the way she was treated after the failed protest.
What kind of struck me as being awkward somehow is that in 1992 and later on the Polish pope had become a darling of the world-wide public. Well, his adamant opposition against socialist rule and his frequent travelling might be two of the reasons why. The funny thing is that many of the greatest papal admirers (not only in Germany) have a protestant background. When visiting in Munich John Paul II. was greeted by more than 300 000 people, a third of them being Lutheran. I understand that New York City does have somewhat of a Catholic identity (descendants of the Irish, Italian, and Polish and Hispanic immigrant waves) but still only 33% identify as Catholics. If the MSG audience in 1992 resembled a respresentative cross section then a large percentage of non-Catholics were part of the mindlessness.
While my godfather played a key-role in preparing for the papal visit in Augsburg in 1987, my dad had a few tense debates with a cardinal who later became known as Benedict XVI. So I am partial to all this papal affairs.
Happy Father’s Day to all, enjoy your day! 😎
I could never bring myself to take the christian story seriously and I tried hard for many years. The idea that some one person is a conduit to God is the definition of fanaticism (Kant). The evils that we see have no boundaries, no religion, creed. What seems correct to me is that the United States does not take child welfare seriously. Instead of helping poor kids in this state, they cut their benefits and free lunch programs.
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Tell people there is an invisible man in the sky who created the universe and the vast majority will believe you.
Tell them the paint is wet and they have to touch it to be sure.
- George Carlin
Have you ever seen a bobcat just sitting by the trail . It's usually the face of her ripping the photo . I don't like you do not approach.
Couldn’t agree more strongly. I would add however the Bobcat belongs on the trail. We, humans, are encroaching on the Bobcat’s space.
Sinead had no business being on that stage, staging her protest. Again it’s how one chooses to spend those 15 minutes. I also believe the Catholic population in and around NYC in 1992 was higher than previous statements would lead one to believe. City of immigrants. St. Patricks cathedral right down the street. Also, for those that do not live within the 5 boroughs (especially @ that time) NYC schools weren’t the greatest and ALOT of families chose to send kiddos to Catholic schools. I was raised Lutheran, but have drifted afar from organized religion. Believe what you like. Carry it with you. Treat all life with respect & dignity. /rant
Did George Carlin say anything about the beauty of the color of this wet paint? Rationalism and empiricism do not have all the answers. They do not explain why there are bobcats in the first place and not something else...
A curious child would be enough to render these all too simplistic world explanations meaningless.
Free speech only when you deem it appropriate then?
I read it differently: at a celebration a protest message is inappropriate. But then it was the MSG audience who sent the first of these messages to the celebration stage. O'Connor's recitation of Bob Marley's "War" was a reaction to the crowd, not something that O'Connor had planned to stage. So O'Connor and Herbsworld might not be that far apart, if the situation at the MSG is addressed. The SNL incident is a different story.
Free speech is rarely free. There is a cost associated with everything. Not for me to decide. As adults, choices lead to consequences.
I am a child. Thankfully also still curious. Two aspects of a life lived that fade with the dimming light. For most.
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I agree with your first 2 sentences.
But that's not what you said is it?
"Sinead had no business being on that stage, staging her protest."
Again. My initial comment was not intended to imply free speech. More so “Situational Awareness” & reading the room. Personally, I didn’t care for her. And THATS what I meant by she shouldn’t have even been on the stage. An opinion. Mine. That most of the crowd @ MSG held that night, post SNL.
How about we quit beatin’ this crazy dead horse.
Oh its quite clear you didn't care for her. I don't think I did particularly at the time either, but the more I have learned about her story, her upbringing and rise and fall the more I have understood and grown to like her. Some of her music is pretty good too in my opinion, and, bringing it back to Neil she even has a live concert video called The Year Of The Horse. Willie Nelson recorded Don't Give Up with her after Bob fest. For some people some things are more important than fame and fortune, and I think that is to be encouraged and not just arbitrarily dismissed.
I like George Carlin and his ridicule of religion but it is only a short laugh. The real religions are deep, dark, and difficult.
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