Neil Young is providing free access to his digital archive to residents of Greenland in protest at US Goverment threats to annex the nation,
Neil Young is providing free access to his extensive digital archive to the citizens of Greenland. The move is in protest at US President Donald Trump's repeated threats to annex the country, which has been a fully recognised part of the Danish state since 1953.
"As a gesture of kindness and respect, we stand with you along with a strong majority of Americans," says Young. "I would like to offer a free one-year subscription to all Greenland residents. I hope my music and music films will ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats you are experiencing from our unpopular and hopefully temporary government.
"It is my sincere wish for you to be able to enjoy all my music in your beautiful Greenland home, in its highest quality. This is an offer of Peace and Love. All the music I have made during the last 62 years is yours to hear. You can renew for free if you are in Greenland. We do hope other organisations will follow in the spirit of our example."
Neil Young posted a video titled Stand for Peace, which features him playing The Star-Spangled Banner solo (GuitarWorld)
Wielding his iconic, much-modded and road-worn 1953 Gibson Les Paul – known as Old Black – Young delivers a very Young-ian rendition of the US national anthem that will also bring to mind Jimi Hendrix's gloriously freewheeling Woodstock rendition of the same tune.
By Young-ian, we mean that the tone of this interpretation is absolutely brutal – getting progressively more so as it goes on. By the time Young reaches the song's conclusion, the drive and nastiness is such that you'd think that the circuitry of his guitar amps is actively cooking.
The core of Young's guitar amp setup is a 1959 tweed Fender Deluxe. Originally a 15-watt unit, it was hot-rodded with two 6L6s in place of its original tubes. That boosts the output from 15 to 19 watts, and makes the Deluxe run so hot that Cragg typically has high-powered fans running behind the amp at all times to “keep it from blowing up.”
Though it's decidedly lacking in close-ups of Young himself, the video does feature a tasty shot of the guitarist's pedalboard, which is almost as famous as Old Black.
