When Neil Young wrote and recorded his song "This Note's For You" in 1988, the song was intended as a protest against corporate colonization of rock 'n' roll. At the time, Young's peers were just starting to license their tracks out for things like beer commercials, and Young thought that was gross. The song's title was a play on Budweiser's "This Bud's For You" ad slogan. Its video mocked the music-video and beer-commercial aesthetics of the day, and it won the VMA for Video Of The Year after MTV initially banned it. On Sunday night, Neil Young played "This Note's For You" live for the first time since 1997.
These days, Neil Young is giving the business to corporations in a completely different way. Last week, for example, Young stopped all Facebook promotion because of Meta's disgusting policy that it would allow its AI chatbot to "engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual." On Sunday night, Young and his new band the Chrome Hearts came to Toronto, the city of Young's birth. The gig was the first of two at -- hey, look at that -- Budweiser Stage. Young, perhaps wanting to reinforce the idea that he ain't singin' for Bud, kicked off the encore by dusting off "This Note's For You," the the audible delight of the crowd. Check out fan footage below, via JamBase.
