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Elsewhere in the set, Pearl Jam took
a minute to remember the tragedy of 9/11 on what was the 21st
anniversary of the event. Vedder relayed the story of a man named Mike,
who leaves New York every year on the date because of the trauma of the
event. However, this year he “thought it would be a good idea to be here
tonight with you”.
Vedder did express that he felt 9/11 had led to greater unity in the
United States, saying: “There was a time we supported each other. That’s
the part we cannot forget. Let those lessons be remembered as our
solidarity to come together and keep this country straight.”
“This is the 37th time this band has played in New York City. I think
we’ve only played Seattle 50. Here’s the thing – I don’t remember half
of those fucking Seattle shows. I just don’t. But I feel like we
remember ever Manhattan show,”Vedder said
later.
“This potentially has the chance to be the most memorable of
them all. We are quite honoured to be spending this important date with
you.”
Just recently, we highlighted the upcoming Neil Young w/ Pearl Jam Mirror
Ball Live album recorded in 1995 at the indoor Simmonscourt Arena,
Dublin, Ireland.
Here's a short sample of "Throw Your Hatred Down"
video (see @ ~16:00).
Thrasher's Wheat Radio 2.0 Vodcast/Podcast - Episode #6 | Hosted by WBKM.org
Neil Young andPearl Jam
Simmonscourt Arena,
Dublin, Ireland
photo via David Fallon
Pearl Jam and Neil Young have been collaborating since at least 1992 when Pearl Jam and Neil played separately at the Bob Dylan tribute ("BobFest") at Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 16. It is believed that this is when Neil and Eddie Vedder first met and possibly Neil invited Pearl Jam to play at the Bridge School Benefit concert. on 11/1/92.
A few weeks later Pearl Jam would play the Bridge School concert and mark the beginning of a long and productive relationship. Since their initial meeting, Pearl Jam's music has been heavily influenced by Neil Young as demonstrated by their numerous covers of Young songs. For example, Pearl Jam has covered "Rockin In The Free World" over 100 times, often as final encores, according to the Pearl Jam fan site Lukin.
A year later, Neil would join Pearl Jam onstage at the MTV Music Awards on 9/2/93 to play an incendiary Rockin in The Free World. Critics would call the onstage interplay the highlight of an otherwise lackluster affair. The attention gained from "BobFest" and playing with Pearl Jam would introduce Neil to a new generation of admirers.
It is likely that during this period that Young invited Eddie Vedder to induct him into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame the following year.
For Neil's induction speech, Eddie Vedder said (from Five Horizons):
"He's taught us a lot as a band about dignity and commitment and playing in the moment and when I hear, you know, the speeches and inducting Janis Joplin and Frank Zappa, I get, uh, I'm just really glad he's still here. And I'm gonna (audience applauds; Eddie rolls his eyes, smiles and clutches his hand to his heart)... yeah!!
And I think I'm gonna have to say that I don't know if there's been another artist that has been inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame to commemorate a career that is still as vital as he is today. Some of his best songs were on his last record."
Neil went on to rescue a PJ show in San Francisco at the Polo Field on June 24, 1995 when Eddie fell sick after 3 songs.
The only recording Neil and Pearl Jam did together was the Mirror Ball and Merkin Ball albums. (The recording sessions and tour are covered in detail below. To play and listen to a MP3 sample from Neil Young Mirror Ball and Pearl Jam's Merkin Ball.)
Eddie Vedder & Lukas Nelson + Promise Of The Real Cover Neil Young's "Throw Your Hatred Down": OHANA FESTIVAL (Sept 29, 2019)
Eddie Vedder joined Lukas Nelson + Promise Of The Real to cover Neil Young's "Throw Your Hatred Down" at the fourth annual Ohana Festival, at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, California on Sept 29, 2019.
Neil Young's “Rockin’ In The Free World” closed out the festival with most acts joining including The Strokes, Red Hot Chili Peppers and others.
Eddie Vedder & Lukas Nelson + Promise Of The Real
Ohana Festival 2019
Dave Marsh: But one of the clearest and most direct statements on the record is the next thing we're going to hear which is Throw You Hatred Down, which I understand was originally called Throw Your Weapons down.
Neil Young: Yeah, I sometimes mess around with titles for a while and i couldn't figure out which one to use, so I thought I'd just wait until I sang it and see which one I sang first. Because when you're playing, some words work better than others and it's never done and until it's over, you know, it's never finished. And even then, it's not finished because I keep changing it after that anyway.
Dave Marsh: Yeah, well, Throw Your Hatred Down talks about people being divided by their dreams and I think that goes back to the kind of 60s versus 90s versus 70s and 80s or the 60s and the 90s versus the 70s, you know, connecting up to the 70s and 80s sensibility. Am I right about that?
Neil Young: Well, I was thinking about the kids in the schoolyard who are fighting - like just the different ways to go and they're started right there. Just how ... where does it start ... where do we start the conflict? You know, where does it begin? It must begin at birth or something, because conflict is always there. It seems part of our nature, as sad as it sounds. I mean it must just be there ... and I just, you know ... was drifting around in my head trying ... I just had all these images of this ... conflict and people planning ways to overcome evil and evil planning ways to encroach on good.
"Meanwhile in the underworld
The weaknesses are seen
By peasants and presidents
Who plan the counter-scheme
Children in the schoolyard
Finish choosing teams
Divided by their dreams
While a TV screams
UPDATE: Neil says on NYA that the Neil Young with Pearl Jam concert in Dublin, August 1995 with "Throw Your Hatred Down", has been located. The plan is to screen in Hearse Theater at a future date.
9-11, "Imagine", + 18 Years Later: Lennon, Young and Why Heroes Are Still So Hard To Find
It was -- without a shred of doubt whatsoever -- Neil Young's finest hour ... ever. On September 21, 2001, just days after the 9-11 terror attack on the United States, Neil Young performed John Lennon's "Imagine" on the worldwide broadcast musical benefit telethon "America: A Tribute to Heroes". Simulcast live from London, New York and Los Angeles on the four major TV networks, international networks and globally streaming via the Internet, the program was seen by an estimated 89 million viewers and netted roughly $230 million in donations.
For many, Young's performance was emotionally wrenching and heart felt. Surrounded by burning candles, performing on a grand piano and accompanied by a small orchestra of violins, Young's rendition of Lennon's "Imagine" spoke to many of us who were suffering from the terrible tragedies in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Notably, Young changed the lyrics from "imagine no possessions, to "I wonder if *I* can". (thanks Marilyn) Those in the studio that night, reported that Young appeared to be on the verge of tears upon completing the song. Pulse Magazine wrote that Young's performance of "Imagine" on the Benefit telecast was "one of those moments you never forget."
One Neil Young fan put it this way: "It's such a heartfelt moment, so universal. It doesn't pander, just touches on a deep, timeless level. I love the facial expressions, and subtle emphasis that Neil gives during the last verse and refrain." (Thanks Greg "AFOY") From an interview (Pulse Magazine, April 2002) with Neil Young in which he was asked about "Imagine" and the night of "A Tribute to Heroes":
Neil Young: Well, first of all, I guess it was the night before that we first practiced it. So we ran through it about 10 times, until finally it started to gel and we knew what we were doing. We used the original charts from the original record, and did everything we could to do justice to the original version--we weren't trying to do anything other than that.
Just trying to make it like John Lennon, basically. It was just such a great song for the moment. Pegi, my wife, got an email from a friend of hers after the 11th with the words to "Imagine" on it. And it was at the same time as I was trying to figure out what to play, because we only had two-and-a-half, three days' notice to do the show. And that seemed to be a good sign to me. So we went ahead and got the lyrics, the ones I couldn't remember, and I just learned it, practiced it, and when we did it that night everything just came together. And obviously, those are the nuts and bolts, but the real emotional part ... Well, it's just so obvious why it was the way it was.
That's one of the things about being a musician or a singer or a songwriter--when these things come up, it's a chance to do your job, to do what you do and have it really be what it's supposed to be.
"Long Road" - Eddie Vedder w/ Neil Young & Mike McCready
Neil Young then made a second performance on the live broadcast a short time laterr in the next segment.
Eddie Vedder and Neil Young
Eddie Vedder with Neil Young and Mike McCready perform "Long Road" on the worldwide broadcast musical benefit telethon "America: A Tribute to Heroes". Young's next response to 9-11 came as he was writing "Let's Roll" for the Are You Passionate? (title references Jimi Hendrix's 1967 album "Are You Experienced?") album. The song tells the story of a passenger's (Todd Beamer) heroics on a hijacked Flight 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers stormed the cockpit. Young reportedly made a donation to the Todd M. Beamer Foundation. From an interview (Pulse Magazine, April 2002) with Neil Young in which he was asked about the song "Let's Roll":
Neil Young: Obviously, watching the whole thing unfold on television, I'm doing what everybody else is doing. Then I heard the wife of one of the passengers --Lisa Beamer--talking about the phone call that her husband made to the operator, and the operator relaying that he said "Let's roll." And she was talking about how he always used to say that with the kids when they'd go out and do something, that it's what he said a lot when he had a job to do.
And it's just so poignant, and there's no more of a legendary, heroic act than what those people did.
With no promise of martyrdom, no promise of any reward anywhere for this, other than just knowing that you did the right thing. And not even having a chance to think about it or plan it or do anything--just a gut reaction that was heroic and ultimately cost them all their lives. What more can you say? It was just so obvious that somebody had to write something or do something. I think it's a legendary story that's gonna go down through the ages--it'll never be forgotten. So I was very surprised that I didn't hear any songs. And I'm thinking, "I can hear this song in my head, nobody else has written it when I thought everybody was gonna write it." So I just wrote it. I couldn't stop it anymore.
The events of 9-11 continued to haunt Young through the following decade. With 2003's Greendale , Neil sounds the alarm that something had gone terribly wrong on a number of fronts. 2006's Living With War was a direct confrontation of the need for a call to action. And, 2009's Fork in the Road -- the 3rd installment of the post 9/11 trilogy -- reveals Neil coming to grips with the fact that first you recognize a problem, then you call out the need to address it, and finally you do something about it. You can make a difference if you try really hard, if you will...
It's a perfect message for all the world and all peoples. It is pro-spiritualism...beyond religious confinements. Freedom = love, truth and beauty. A vision of an ultimate utopian idea of where we should be striving for.
I remember watching this live then and it blew me away-the fact that Neil wanted to contribute by performing and instead of using the platform to play one of his own compositions he played Imagine- perhaps the MOST appropriate of songs for the occasion, at a time when we were being inundated with little American flag stickers and cries of bloodshed in the name of patriotism. Not to open a can of worms but in the weeks and months following 9-11 it seemed even the most staunch of Doves became blood thirsty Hawks (myself included). We were pissed man- and with good reason. This was a terrible tragedy for the people, but I believe our sorrow, anger and confusion was taken advantage of (my opinion). Imagine receiving radio air-play did not go along with the required post-911 mindset, but I think this performance was a simple gesture reminding us to not lose sight of that idyllic promised land that is always within reach- if we want it.
And speaking of finding the REAL truth, the question is whether folks can handle the truth? We know we can handle the wheat, wherever it takes us. Because as the saying goes, if you don't love the truth, then you can't love anything. In conclusion, we leave you with the words Neil Young fan Greg "AFOY": "Call me a "dreamer", but I have faith that the truth of this song will come to pass, not through the efforts of any wolf in sheep's clothing secular or non-secular world organization, but by the earth itself, by Life protecting Itself, and by Creation being true to It's eternal promise. Another conversation, I know, but that's my faith. In the meantime, songs and performances like this, and the fact that "I'm not the only one", help to sustain me." Thanks Greg "AFOY". It all gives new meaning to "open up the tired eyes..."
9-11, "Imagine", + 17 Years On: Lennon, Young and Why Heros Are Still So Hard To Find
It was -- without a shred of doubt whatsoever -- Neil Young's finest hour... ever.
On September 21, 2001, just days after the 9-11 terror attack on the United States, Neil Young performed John Lennon's "Imagine" on the worldwide broadcast musical benefit telethon "America: A Tribute to Heroes". Simulcast live from London, New York and Los Angeles on the four major TV networks, international networks and globally streaming via the Internet, the program was seen by an estimated 89 million viewers and netted roughly $230 million in donations.
For many, Young's performance was emotionally wrenching and heart felt. Surrounded by burning candles, performing on a grand piano and accompanied by a small orchestra of violins, Young's rendition of Lennon's "Imagine" spoke to many of us who were suffering from the terrible tragedies in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Notably, Young changed the lyrics from "imagine no possessions, to "I wonder if *I* can". (thanks Marilyn) Those in the studio that night, reported that Young appeared to be on the verge of tears upon completing the song. Pulse Magazine wrote that Young's performance of "Imagine" on the Benefit telecast was "one of those moments you never forget." One Neil Young fan put it this way: "It's such a heartfelt moment, so universal. It doesn't pander, just touches on a deep, timeless level. I love the facial expressions, and subtle emphasis that Neil gives during the last verse and refrain." (Thanks Greg "AFOY") From an interview (Pulse Magazine, April 2002) with Neil Young in which he was asked about "Imagine" and the night of "A Tribute to Heroes":
Neil Young: Well, first of all, I guess it was the night before that we first practiced it. So we ran through it about 10 times, until finally it started to gel and we knew what we were doing. We used the original charts from the original record, and did everything we could to do justice to the original version--we weren't trying to do anything other than that.
Just trying to make it like John Lennon, basically. It was just such a great song for the moment. Pegi, my wife, got an email from a friend of hers after the 11th with the words to "Imagine" on it. And it was at the same time as I was trying to figure out what to play, because we only had two-and-a-half, three days' notice to do the show. And that seemed to be a good sign to me. So we went ahead and got the lyrics, the ones I couldn't remember, and I just learned it, practiced it, and when we did it that night everything just came together. And obviously, those are the nuts and bolts, but the real emotional part ... Well, it's just so obvious why it was the way it was.
That's one of the things about being a musician or a singer or a songwriter--when these things come up, it's a chance to do your job, to do what you do and have it really be what it's supposed to be.
Eddie Vedder with Neil Young and Mike McCready perform "Long Road" on the worldwide broadcast musical benefit telethon "America: A Tribute to Heroes". Young's next response to 9-11 came as he was writing "Let's Roll" for the Are You Passionate? (title references Jimi Hendrix's 1967 album "Are You Experienced?") album. The song tells the story of a passenger's (Todd Beamer) heroics on a hijacked Flight 93 (which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers stormed the cockpit. Young reportedly made a donation to the Todd M. Beamer Foundation. From an interview (Pulse Magazine, April 2002) with Neil Young in which he was asked about the song "Let's Roll":
Neil Young: Obviously, watching the whole thing unfold on television, I'm doing what everybody else is doing. Then I heard the wife of one of the passengers --Lisa Beamer--talking about the phone call that her husband made to the operator, and the operator relaying that he said "Let's roll." And she was talking about how he always used to say that with the kids when they'd go out and do something, that it's what he said a lot when he had a job to do.
And it's just so poignant, and there's no more of a legendary, heroic act than what those people did.
With no promise of martyrdom, no promise of any reward anywhere for this, other than just knowing that you did the right thing. And not even having a chance to think about it or plan it or do anything--just a gut reaction that was heroic and ultimately cost them all their lives. What more can you say? It was just so obvious that somebody had to write something or do something. I think it's a legendary story that's gonna go down through the ages--it'll never be forgotten. So I was very surprised that I didn't hear any songs. And I'm thinking, "I can hear this song in my head, nobody else has written it when I thought everybody was gonna write it." So I just wrote it. I couldn't stop it anymore.
The events of 9-11 continued to haunt Young through the following decade. With 2003's Greendale , Neil sounds the alarm that something had gone terribly wrong on a number of fronts. 2006's Living With War was a direct confrontation of the need for a call to action. And, 2009's Fork in the Road -- the 3rd installment of the post 9/11 trilogy -- reveals Neil coming to grips with the fact that first you recognize a problem, then you call out the need to address it, and finally you do something about it. You can make a difference if you try really hard, if you will...
It's a perfect message for all the world and all peoples. It is pro-spiritualism...beyond religious confinements. Freedom = love, truth and beauty. A vision of an ultimate utopian idea of where we should be striving for.
I remember watching this live then and it blew me away-the fact that Neil wanted to contribute by performing and instead of using the platform to play one of his own compositions he played Imagine- perhaps the MOST appropriate of songs for the occasion, at a time when we were being inundated with little American flag stickers and cries of bloodshed in the name of patriotism. Not to open a can of worms but in the weeks and months following 9-11 it seemed even the most staunch of Doves became blood thirsty Hawks (myself included). We were pissed man- and with good reason. This was a terrible tragedy for the people, but I believe our sorrow, anger and confusion was taken advantage of (my opinion). Imagine receiving radio air-play did not go along with the required post-911 mindset, but I think this performance was a simple gesture reminding us to not lose sight of that idyllic promised land that is always within reach- if we want it.
In conclusion, we leave you with the words Neil Young fan Greg "AFOY": "Call me a "dreamer", but I have faith that the truth of this song will come to pass, not through the efforts of any wolf in sheep's clothing secular or non-secular world organization, but by the earth itself, by Life protecting Itself, and by Creation being true to It's eternal promise. Another conversation, I know, but that's my faith. In the meantime, songs and performances like this, and the fact that "I'm not the only one", help to sustain me."
Thanks Greg "AFOY". It all gives new meaning to "open up the tired eyes..."
The Photo of the Moment is Eddie Vedder & Neil Young at 2014 Bridge School Benefit Concerts performing "Throw Your Hatred Down" with Pearl Jam.
Also, podcast for this weekend's Thrasher's Wheat Radio on WBKM.org is now ready for download here. Neil Young tunes, conversation and some exclusive news for listeners.
and Pearl Jam's 
>> Pre-Order on Amazon.com << 
Human Highway
Concert Review of the Moment
This Land is My Land
FREEDOM In A New Year
*Thanks Neil!*
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.thrasherswheat.org/gifs/free-speech.gif)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Neil Young
Pardon My Heart
"We're The Ones 
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