Veteran rocker breaks the rules by embracing traditional values

Insight on the News, Sept 29, 1997 by Scott Bullock

Singer and songwriter Neil Young never has been afraid to speak his mind. One of a handful of rock musicians to support Ronald Reagan, the guitarist continues to rock to the beat of a different drummer.

Since his artistic rebirth in the late 1980s, rock icon Neil Young has won over a new generation of fans barely alive when he penned such anthems as "Ohio" ("Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming ... / Four dead in O-HI-O"). Indeed, Young's primitive but compelling guitar work has earned him the title "The Godfather of Grunge."

But Young has another side that rock critics rarely mention, except in criticism. For the former sixties idealist has committed the ultimate apostasy -- expressing support for certain conservative values.

After winning the Village Voice's Artist of the Decade award in 1979, Young threw the left-wing rock-critic community for a loop when he announced his support for Ronald Reagan. The musician not only agreed with Reagan that government had grown too large, he criticized President Carter for relinquishing the Panama Canal and supported strengthening the U.S. military. Young, a Canadian by birth, proudly told a reporter that he was "more American than the majority of Americans -- a true capitalist pig!" It was more than the critics could handle, and they viciously attacked him.

More iconoclast than ideologue, Young still nurtures a conservative streak. While rock stars were embarrassing themselves with preposterously overblown claims about the dangers of nuclear power, Young embraced it, calling anti-nuclear rallies a "desperate attempt to return to the sixties." He is painfully aware of the overindulgence and self-destruction that married too many of his generation. One of his most moving and effective songs, "The Needle and the Damage Done," has probably done more to keep kids off hard drugs than any D.A.R.E.-type public-school program.

A long-time California resident, Young is in many ways a traditionalist. He is famously devoted to his wife, Pegi, and his children, two of whom have cerebral palsy. Moreover, like many paleoconservatives, Young expresses skepticism about the benefits of technological advancements, notwithstanding his support for nuclear power. He is an ardent opponent of digital technology, which he believes drains recorded music of range and dynamics even as it improves audio purity. He is fascinated with classic cars, trains and other bits of Americana. And as one of the organizers of Farm Aid, he champions the traditional family farmer. He has penned politically incorrect songs such as "Welfare Mothers," with lyrics like "Welfare mothers make better lovers / Down at every laundromat in town").

But perhaps the most appealing aspect of Young for conservatives is his independence from the almost uniformly left-wing rock establishment. Throughout his career, he has bucked trends and challenged ideological rigidity in the music industry while maintaining his artistic integrity.

During the 1980s, Young switched music styles from album-to-album -- hard rock, techno, rockabilly, country, rhythm-and-blues -- an eclectic approach that so enraged recording-company executive David Geffen (one of the largest funders of the Democratic Party) that he sued Young for making "unrepresentative" music. Young wore Geffen's scorn as a badge of honor, claiming that he considered the lawsuit a bigger compliment than a Grammy.

Young's stylistic changes and individualist attitude have not always translated into musical successes, but they have won him the respect of generation X rockers who value independence above all else. His contrarian spirit also is exemplified by his well-known pledge never to hawk corporate products or endorse politicians.

To be sure, Young has embraced positions both in his lyrics and his public pronouncements that would make conservative wince. In recent years, he has incorporated cliched environmentalist sloganeering into some songs. And Young's devotion to the American Indian -- another trapping of his traditionalist orientation -- has led to such diatribes as "Cortez the Killer," an absurd rendition of history whereby bad Westerners destroy the pacifist Aztec culture.

Nevertheless, as one of few sixties rockers still making interesting music, Young stands out among his contemporaries. Conservatives should pay closer attention as this grizzled veteran enters his fourth decade making rock 'n' roll.