In what this site has described as Donald Trump’s worst speech as president, one that the New York Times termed “Dark and Divisive,” Trump ended his speech at a rather bizarre low note, speaking almost quietly with no energy.

But the moment Trump spoke his last words, the speakers BLASTED Neil Young’s “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” at an almost embarrassingly high volume.

It infuriated Neil Young, a dual citizen, Canadian-American who grew up near Winnepeg, which would make him a bit of a soul-mate South Dakotan and Sioux First Nations. Neil let Trump have it even before the event, as news of the soundcheck went viral.

I stand in solidarity with the Lakota Sioux & this is NOT ok with me https://t.co/iPVcFplOHa

— Neil Young Archives (@NeilYoungNYA) July 4, 2020

Young has already let Trump know he shouldn’t be playing his music, from an article back in February in Rolling Stone:

“You are a disgrace to my country,” Young writes in a long, scathing open letter to Trump on his Neil Young Archives website. “Your mindless destruction of our shared natural resources, our environment, and our relationships with friends around the world is unforgivable.… Our first black president was a better man than you are.”

He’s particularly irked by Trump’s usage of his song “Rockin’ in the Free World” at his rallies. Young has asked him to stop this practice numerous times while acknowledging he has no legal recourse to force him. “[It] is not a song you can trot out at one of your rallies,” he writes. 

“Every time ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ or one of my songs is played at your rallies,” he continues, “I hope you hear my voice. Remember it is the voice of a tax-paying U.S. citizen who does not support you. Me.”

Trump is a big Neil Young fan, but as is so fcking typical Trump, during an interview in 2008, Trump wasn’t able to name a single song – moron:

When asked to name a single favorite Young song or album, however, Trump was completely stumped. “It’s sort of all favorite,” he said.

“It is all sort of favorite.” That’s your president back in 2008 when he was supposed to have had a mind.

Ironically, Trump picked a song that reverberates with protesters in the United States and around the world, not so much the people at Trump’s rally … if anyone bothered to pay attention, which they don’t. I mean, come on:

There’s colors on the street
Red, white and blue
People shufflin’ their feet
People sleepin’ in their shoes
But there’s a warnin’ sign
on the road ahead
There’s a lot of people sayin’
we’d be better off dead
Don’t feel like Satan,
but I am to them
So I try to forget it,
any way I can.

Keep on rocking in the free world? Donald Trump couldn’t even tell you the names of his favorite songs, never mind the meaning of them. So it goes to figure, if he’s going to continue to use the music over and above Young’s protests, it may as well be the counter-message in that one.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom