Neil Young - Rockin' In The Free World
You absolutely can't have a Canada Day week of classic Canadian rock artists without Neil Young. By far the greatest rocker to ever hail from the Great White North, Young has trailblazed for over 40 years putting out hit songs, albums, and epic tours. And unlike the other 3 bands I highlighted earlier this week (Sam Roberts Band, The Tragically Hip, and 54-40), Neil Young is adored across the globe. His unique voice and guitar picking has allowed him to remain a true artist that always has the abilities to surprise listeners. Young Started out in Buffalo Springfield with fellow guitarist Stephen Stills, helping create hits such as "For What It's Worth" and "Mr. Soul". Realizing they had just too much creative energy for one band they parted ways, opening the door for Young to make some of his most beloved albums such as "After The Gold Rush" and "Harvest". He then began playing with the incredible backing band Crazy Horse, putting together some epic hard rock albums that many consider to be the beginnings of grunge music. Young has since then continued to put out great albums of a wide variety, culminating in this years Americana, his first album back with Crazy Horse in almost a decade. He is also a philanthropist and big part of teh Bridge School benefit concerts and Farm Aid.
"Rockin' In The Free World" is my favourite Neil Young song. I love everything about it from the guitar riff to his somewhat simple yet so meaningful lyrics to the fact that it just rocks hard and pumps me up! For some reason I wasn't able to embed the video for this song but the link will take you to it and it's a good quality version.
I had the pleasure of seeing Neil live with my dad in 2008 and he was fucking amazing. I've never seen a guy so old rock so fucking hard. From the opening note he went hard, pausing only slightly for a set of solo acoustic numbers that included "Heart Of Gold", "The Needle And The Damage Done", and "Old Man". Holy shit talk about epic hits time! He closed the set with "Rockin' In The Free World" (an extra rockin' version of course) and then came back out to play "A Day In The Life". He absolutely killed it on the Beatles classic and ended it (you know, that insane build up at the end) by destorying his guitar! Unfuckingreal! Here's the banger he opened with, a rare track called "Love And Only Love". True Young fans will watch this one:
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