Neil Young has performed a new song, and has played a classic for the first time in close to forty years – check out footage of the songs below.
Last weekend (April 26), Young took to the Light Up The Blues charity show at the Greek Theater on Saturday. To kick off the set, Young opened with a brand new track, seemingly titled ‘Let’s Roll Again’, a politically charged tune that sees him take jabs at Elon Musk‘s Tesla company.
He sings: “Build something special, that people need / Build us a safe way for us to live / Build us something that won’t kill our kids / Build us something that runs real clean / Come on America, let’s get in the race / China’s way ahead, they’re making clean cars“.
In between other verses, he rips through a harmonica solo – watch footage of the song below. He also sings: “If you’re a fascist, get a Tesla / If you’re a democrat, taste your freedom“.
Later on in the set – which also included ‘Big Box’ – Young performed a song he last played live in 1989: ‘Ordinary People’. Check out footage of the 18-minute classic below.
Elsewhere during his set, Neil Young was joined onstage by his former Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmate Stephen Stills. To close out the performance, the two played 1978’s ‘Human Highway’ and Young’s regular set closer ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’.
Later in the night, Young returned the favour during Stills’ set, joining in on a version of Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’, the classic 1966 single on which they both originally played.
Other artists to play at the Light Up The Blues event were Billy Idol, Cat Power, Nathaniel Rateliff, Rufus Wainwright and Linda Perry.
Young has been politically active in recent weeks, playing at a Fighting Oligarchy rally organised by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Los Angeles earlier this month. He was joined by Joan Baez and Maggie Rogers for versions of ‘Rainbow Of Colours’ and ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’.
Young is set to return to the UK and Europe this summer as part of his ‘Love Earth’ world tour with the Chrome Hearts. This includes a bill-topping set at Glastonbury Festival in late June, and a headline slot at BST Hyde Park the following month. In August, he’s due to return to the US for a run of North American tour dates.
However, the Canadian has questioned if he’ll be able to re-enter the United States when the European tour wraps, due to his many criticisms of President. This comes after the Trump administration has deported and detained several immigrants over their political views, including pro-Palestine activists, as well as those backing Ukraine over Russia.
Young wrote on his blog: “If you say anything bad about Trump or his administration, you may be barred from re-entering USA. If you are Canadian, if you are a dual citizen like me, who knows? We’ll all find that out together.”