Saturday Morning Records: #10 — Neil Young’s Freedom

A new series for paying subscribers — celebrating favourite albums for the weekend

This album is very much tied to my Neil Young Origin Story, in that the first time I ever computed seeing and hearing Neil Young at the same time was when he stood up at a Free Nelson Mandela concert, and, solo acoustic, ploughed through a song called Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World. Of course I knew Heart of Gold and Out of the Blue (My My Hey Hey) — but not much else.

In fact, it was a J.J. Cale/Jon Cale moment — because in much the same way that I used to get them confused and briefly thought they were the same person with a major change of image, I remember telling my aunty that “Neil Young has really changed his image…” and then went on to tell her about this long-haired hippie looking guy. Which totally checks out as being exactly who Neil Young has always been. Except I thought I was talking about Paul Young! For a second, I thought the guy that had blown me away with Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World (and Mother Earth from Ragged Glory) was the same guy that had sung Wherever I Lay My Hat That’s My Home. I could not believe the change!

Shame.