Music

Neil Young tells Donald Trump to please stop rockin' in the free world

by Jeremy Mersereau

Canada’s highest profile Monsanto hater (who’s out of their teens, anyway) and national treasure, Neil Young, has objected to the use of “Rockin’ In the Free World” by Donald Trump in the billionaire’s… sigh… campaign announcement. But Neil! A conservative billionaire whose businesses fail left and right becoming President would be the perfect first step in restoring the American Dream, wouldn’t it? Plus, he owns the Miss Universe pageant! Hmmm, apparently Neil disagrees:

“Donald Trump was not authorized to use ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ in his presidential candidacy announcement,”  said Young’s manager in a statement. “Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.”

Seems pretty airtight. I mean, if someone you don’t like uses your song publicly, that must be illegal, right? That just makes sense! However, a Trump campaign spokesperson responded: “Through a license agreement with ASCAP, Mr. Trump’s campaign paid for and obtained the legal right to use Neil Young’s recording of ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ at today’s event. Nevertheless, we won’t be using it again — there are plenty of songs to choose from. Despite Neil’s differing political views, Mr. Trump likes Neil very much.”

On a scale of one to 10 irony points, this is about a six, in terms of artists attempting to stop Republican candidates to from appropriating their songs in campaigns. Nothing can ever beat the perfect 10 of Ronald Reagan using Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The USA”, a song about the working class despairing over the direction their country is headed.