In the music video for "Rockin'", the performance footage is intercut with scenes of Neil as a homeless person pushing a shopping cart through city streets. As a homeless person, Neil encounters numerous pitiful situations but manages to inject some humor. For example, at one point as he pushes his worldly possessions along a sidewalk, he encounters an elderly woman who he gives money.
Among the many bands performing "Rockin' In The Free World" are Pearl Jam who have covered the song over 100 times in concert, often as final encores.
Again, during the second war with Iraq, Young featured the song "Rockin' In The Free World" prominently during encores for the 2003 Greendale tour. The lyrics to the song were altered in the Greendale concerts to: "Boys are dying everyday because we didn't have a plan". The additional lyrics were censored for the Farm Aid 2003 broadcast on PBS on Thanksgiving Day.
In the post 9/11 world, the lyrics take on a sinister new meaning:
'There's a lot of people sayin' we'd be better off dead.
Don't feel like Satan but I am to them.'
It is very hard to listen to these words today and think about what they mean to people of various religious beliefs. How could Neil have possibly known the prophetic power which these lyrics hold today?
The song "Rocking in The Free World" continues to be a standard encore for Neil Young's concerts and most likely will continue as long as there is a need to rock in the free — or more or less free — world.
More on Neil Young's album Freedom, analysis of the song "Rockin in The Free World"'s meaning and lyrics.
Article comments
1 - mike
Excellent piece! Young's written a lot of crap, but on this one song he redeemed himself forever. Michael Moore's use of it as the close of f911 is a master stroke.
2 - Eric Olsen
excellent job Thrasher, thanks and welcome!
3 - Thrasher
Eric,
Thanks! It just seemed that on this July 4th weekend, it seemed like a good day to reflect on the meaning of freedom. And Neil's "Freedom" - even though released in '89 -- seems more relevant than ever. Sad but true.
Thrasher
4 - Al Barger
It's interesting that you took Young's reference to Jesse Jackson as a criticism. I'd always took it for just more cheesy liberal sucking up - but your way of interpreting it makes at least as much sense.
5 - Sue B
I had no idea so many layers could be applied to this song. You don't seem to have added more than the song can support. Looks like college theses could be about Neil lyrics.
6 - Expecting2fly
Great analysis, Thrasher. I think your interpretations of this important song from Neil Young's catalog was spot on. The version in MM's movie is somewhat re-edited, but it is indeed amazing how well the themes transfer to the 21st century and to the movie Fahrenheit 9/11.
Expecting2fly
7 - CJ
"a courageous patriot"....Young is a Canadian, so perhaps an outsiders view of what is wrong with American society