Tuesday, January 14, 2014

"Keep on talkin’ in the free world" by Warren Kinsella



Neil Young press conference 7 ways
Press conference against the Athabasca tar sands at Massey Hall in Toronto, Sunday, January 12, 2014. Craig Robertson/QMI Agency
By OTTAWA — So a rock star popped up in Toronto on the weekend and pronounced on politics. People noticed.
Some got upset, some were happy.
Happens all the time. This time, it was Neil Young, who was raised in Winnipeg but hasn’t lived in Canada for half a century. Other times, it’s been movie stars or TV stars or other kinds of celebrities — Pamela Anderson on the seal hunt, Robert Redford on the oilsands, Ted Nugent on guns, and so on.
Doesn’t just happen in Canada, either. Last week, one of the biggest stories in the world was about the North Korea visit of former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman, who is stupid, saying stupid stuff. He later apologized for his stupidity.
As a musician — I’ve been playing in punk bands, badly, for decades — I have never really understood why anyone could be persuaded to listen to anything we say. We’re musicians, we play music. (Again, in my case, badly. But I remain proud I could take a beer bottle full in the chest and not miss a beat.) Why does anyone care what movie stars and rock stars have to say about politics? Well, for starters, because stars get more attention than mere politicians do. They’re better looking than politicians are and they’re way more interesting...Keep reading....
Neil Young is a crabby old coot.

"If Neil Young actually walked his talk, we'd see" By Les MacPherson, The Starphoenix Read here.

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