Mother Nature Gets Respect at Neil Young Concert
Sunday, November 11th, 2007I went to Neil Young’s concert at the Fox in Detroit last night. Excellent! First part was unplugged and second part jammin. The first song of the encore was “Cinnamon Girl.” I’ve seen him before and he is always the same, consistent, sounds as tight as the album but better. What’s this got to do with the environment? Neil Young’s latest efforts are geared toward the environment and the war of course all relative to the Bush administration.
The unplugged first part of the show where the man picks up just about any instrument and does one of his many songs did the famous “After the Gold Rush.” Well the verse that says: “See Mother Nature on the run in the 1970’s” was changed to end with “in the 21st century.” That little bit had the crowd cheering from the start. People are aware a change is coming as Young would say it and this crowd appreciated Young’s environmental mode. I made note to pass the moment on. It was a good evening and a very good show. That little cheer from the crowd right off the bat upped my optimism a degree.
When we exited the show and headed up the side street two huge buses were lined up there. One looked like a stainless steel house. Ah, Neil Young’s road digs. The man is setting an example. The buses run on bio-diesel from soybean and/or vegetable oil with 75% less emissions. Other musicians are following suit. Bonnie Raitt tours likewise. Of course Willie Nelson has been touring in buses fueled with vegetable oil for quite awhile. “Jane’s Addiction” even fuels its generators with the stuff.
We must be getting old because we didn’t hang around to get a glimpse of him coming out to get into his rolling house, but enjoyed the night anyway. After stopping near our house to catch a local band at a local bar, who were remarkably good after seeing someone like Young, I am deaf today. I had to wonder how deaf these aging artists have become?