Neil Young is no johnny-come-lately when it comes to the environment. He has been singing about our responsibility to do better for decades. Now in 2015 he has become even more militant. On this album he takes on the giant chemical corporation most have acknowledged as evil in Monsanto. He even puts it right there in the album title. He does not like them and is not about to stay quiet about it. To achieve the garage band authentic and non-polished sound he wanted to go with the biting lyrics he wrote Young called upon the band fronted by Willie Nelson’s sons, Micah and Lukas, Promise of the Real. They latched on to the grungy feel Young wanted for the album and helped fill out the sound. It will remind fans of the Crazy Horse sound. Young sings about the lack of authenticity in farming in the United States today because of Monsanto. He is not willing to pay the high price for perfect looking fruits and vegetables and advocates a different kind of weed than his buddy Willie Nelson does. The chemicals and GMOs are destroying us from the inside out. He doesn’t stop with taking on only Monsanto as Starbucks is even in his crosshairs in the song “A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop”. Then he turns his anger towards the music industry saying that there are too many songs about love and not enough about chemicals and disease. Big banks and business are also put up to the light to be seen as evil. He wants us to stand up and say no more. At sixty-nine-years-old this advocate is not standing down or shutting up. Rocking with a purpose.
Neil Young and Promise of the Real – The Monsanto Years
