Keep On Rockin' In the Free World?

Neil Young just popped up on my playlist, and it got me wondering why exactly Keep On Rockin' in the Free World is the only song of his I ever seem to hear on the radio, with perhaps an occasional Harvest Moon. I used to revile Keep on Rockin' for whatever reason and due to it being my only Neil association, I pretty much wrote him off. I liken it to how I gave up PB&J at about age eight on account of over-consumption. Then one day, aged nineteen or so, I rekindled my love for the sandwich classic and it's been smooth sailing ever since. I guess this isn't quite the same as my Neil experience as I didn't love him to begin with, but I was overexposed, at least to said track. My dad actually played Horse With No Name a fair amount, but I think I thought it was by The Doors because they had that song Riders on the Storm and my mind operated under the assumption that riding on a storm and going through the desert on a horse with no name were fairly synonymous and thus must be written by the same folks. Collectively I associated them with Dune. Funny how the mind works.

Anyway, short story long, after living with some chums in Vermont for about a year, one of whom breathed Neil Young, I became fond of Neil, especially this song and for semi-comedic reasons this one . With respect to the latter, the echoed chorus of a deep, throaty, off-key "piece of crap!" just works for me.

Before I forget, I have to show some love to The Daily Mail, which I generally find to be about as tasteful as gossip can be. Take for instance their coverage of Putin and that gymnast. And where else was I going to read so in-depth a synopsis of Patricia Cornwell's lesbian affair?

Lastly, before I forget, a quick shout out to chum Bridget Palardy, videographer (man I hope this is the right word) of this fine piece for Nylon Mag on emerging musical stars MGMT. This is the part where I say we all went to school together, back when they were "The Management" and Kids wasn't as jazzed up. While I used to get wrapped up in that "I knew about them first" bullshit, the fact is, I probably was not remotely as into these guys as most other people on campus. I do like Kids though, and Destrokk. And despite Kids being played at many a college party, I will always have the image of one dopey hipster in particular dancing in a shitty manner. I had to get one little gripe in there. After all, it's in my blog description.