Neil Young against the industry: Live “This Note’s for You” is back
Pointing the finger against the links of the musical industry with the great corporations, Neil Young He reported a live song after almost thirty years. It happened last night, August 17, when the tour of the Canadian singer -songwriter with his new band, i Chrome Heartsstopped in Toronto and surprised the audience with a live rarity.
For the first time after almost thirty years Young, who in recent months has also returned to concert in Europe, has in fact performed the song “This note’s for you“, based on the 1988 album of the same name. The artist decided to resurrect the song during the moment of the encore of his concert at the Budweiser Stage in Toronto, thus returning to criticize the ties of music with large companies. The song was not proposed live since 1997.
Originally, “this note’s for you” came out in a period in which The music industry looked more and more on the commercial sideand referred directly to one Budweiser advertising campaign of the time entitled “This Bud’s for You”. Even the video of the piece wanted to be a parody of “corporate music”, and the claims of advertising, taking up a series of Michelob commercials that had contemporary rock artists as Eric Clapton, the Genesis and Steve Winwood as protagonists. In addition, they also appeared in the movie Parodic advertising inserts With imitators of – among others – Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson. The song and the related video clip were initially banned from MTV Following legal threats from Jackson’s lawyers, although the Canadian music channel Muchmusic transmitted him immediately. The manager of Neil Young, Elliot Roberts, even came to write an open letter to the issuer declaring: “You refuse to transmit ‘this note’s for you’ because you are afraid of offending your sponsors. So what does the ‘m’ in MTV mean: music or money (money)? Long live rock and roll “. Mtv then revalued the decision when” This Note’s for You ” it became a success And he even ended up rewarding the video as “Best Video of the Year“At 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.
Sidement openly is an integral part of the identity of Neil Youngwhose strength lies precisely in its attitude to take a position. The artist has made contestation and consistency a constant of his career, always focused on commitment against power and market logics. Already with songs such as “Rockin ‘in the free world” – which in more recent times prohibited Trump – or “Southern Man” had denounced political and social contradictions, while a couple of years ago he had withdrawn his music as Spotify to protest against the spread of news on the crownavirus on vaccines, according to his false and tendentious, through the podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience “. A few days ago, even Young distanced himself from Meta and Facebook, announced that he wants to abandon the popular platform due to the “inconceivable” use of “chatbot with children”. A consistency that makes the live return of “This Note’s for You” even more significant.
The inclusion of the song in the lineup of the most recent Young show is part of the vein of rediscovery of little -known pieces or in recent years absent from the livethat the singer -songwriter is carrying out on his current tour with the Chrome Hearts, with which – among other things – he also played from headliners to Glastonbury in June.
