Everyone from Roger Daltrey and Lucinda Williams to Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, Dave Matthews, and Billy Strings have played the 1989 Neil Young classic in just the last couple of weeks
Neil Young and the Restless, which included Crazy Horse guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro, were touring America in early 1989 when a proposed cultural exchange with the Soviet Union — which would have sent the rock band into the repressive communist nation and the Russian ballet into America — fell apart.
“Neil was like, ‘Damn, I really wanted to go,’” Sampedro recalled to Rolling Stone in 2013. “I said, ‘Me too. I guess we’ll have to keep on rockin’ in the free world.’ He was like, ‘Wow, that’s a cool line.’ Then I said it again later and he said, ‘That’s a really good phrase. I wanna use it.’”
Days later, on Feb. 21, 1989, Young and the Restless debuted “Rockin’ in the Free World” during a show at the Paramount Theater in Seattle. The lyrics are deeply rooted in that exact moment in time, referencing George H.W. Bush’s “thousand points of light” speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention, Jesse Jackson’s “Keep Hope Alive” slogan from his failed attempt to secure the Democratic nomination that year, and Iran’s repeated proclamation in the Eighties that America was the “Great Satan.”
But it quickly turned into an all-purpose anthem after appearing on Young’s 1989 LP Freedom. Within just a couple of years, everyone from Pearl Jam to Van Halen was playing the song at their shows. Its popularity reached the point this summer that seemingly half the major rock acts on the road added it to their shows all at once — at a time when we’re once again in conflict with Iran, and American leadership is lacking, to put it mildly. (A very similar thing happened in 2003-04 when the entire rock world simultaneously realized that George W. Bush was the living personification of John Fogerty’s “Fortunate Son” and added the CCR classic into their sets.)
Here’s a look at five different versions of “Rockin’ in the Free World” from the past couple of weeks alone, and then five of the most noteworthy versions from the past.
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Roger Daltrey (Sept. 25 at Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pennsylvania)
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images With a handful of exceptions like “Baba O’Riley” and “Who Are You,” Roger Daltrey is largely skipping Who songs on his summer solo tour in favor of covers like CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?,” Paul Simon’s “The Boy in the Bubble,” and the Kinks’ “Days.” Near the end of every show, he’s been breaking out “Rockin’ in the Free World.” “I was listening to this Neil Young song since he does write great songs,” Daltrey told the crowd at the Parx Casino. “He’s a good singer, Neil Young, but he wrote this song that the times have caught it up. He sings it shit since he’s not a rock singer, really. He’s a kind of…I don’t know what he is. He can work on my farm any time he wants. Anyway, so I thought this could be really good if it had a bit more bite, a bit more anger.” At New York’s Town Hall two days later, he compared Young’s original version to a “wet fart.” Roger, with all due respect, and we say this with a great deal of love, we’re going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there. Perhaps you only listened to the acoustic version that kicks off Freedom. Skip ahead to track 12 for the electric one. It’s quite incredible, even if Young’s voice isn’t for everyone. But there’s nothing fart-like about it, wet or otherwise.
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Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts (Sept. 26 at Farm Aid in Virginia Beach, Virginia)
Image Credit: Gary Miller/Getty Images One day after Roger Daltrey accused Neil Young of not singing “Rockin’ in the Free World” with enough anger or bite, the man himself responded with a furious rendition at the end of his Farm Aid set with the Chrome Hearts that had plenty of both. As has been tradition over the past couple of years, he added a “Take America Back!” refrain as a protest against Donald Trump, and wrapped up by ripping all the strings off his guitar. We’re sure even Daltrey would find this one acceptably livid. (For those of you into setlist stats, this was his 652nd time playing the song.)
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Pearl Jam with Billy Strings (Sept. 27 at the Ohana Festival in Dana Point, California)
Image Credit: Harmony Gerber/Getty Images; Gary Miller/Getty Images And just one day after Farm Aid, a group that worships at the altar of both Neil Young and the Who played their first proper show with drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. at the Ohana Festival in Dana Point, California. (Laboriel might be Pearl Jam’s new drummer. He may have merely been guesting with them. We have no clue what’s going on.) It was no great surprise that they played “Rockin’ in the Free World” since they’ve done it now 359 times, going all the way back to early 1992, but it was a surprise when they brought out Billy Strings to play it with them. There was a lot of guitar power on this stage with Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Josh Klinghoffer, and Strings all strumming along, but it somehow stayed (mostly) organized.
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Lucinda Williams (Sept. 30 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.)
Image Credit: Robin Little/Redferns/Getty Images Lucinda Williams began playing “Rockin’ in the Free World” at her concerts in late 2011, and basically never stopped. Fifteen years later, it’s as much a part of the Lucinda live experience as “Drunken Angel” or “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” and she rarely gets offstage without playing it. When her World’s Gone Wrong tour hit the nation’s capital on Sept. 30, she played an especially pointed rendition. Williams no longer plays guitar due to a stroke she suffered a few years back, but Marc Ford and Doug Pettibone do a stupendous job in her place.
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Bruce Springsteen/Dave Matthews/Dave Grohl/Tom Morello (Oct. 4 at Power to the People Festival in Columbia, Maryland)
Image Credit: Mauricio Castro for Rolling Stone Did anyone really think Tom Morello’s Power to the People Fest was going to get through the night without “Rockin’ in the Free World?” The big moment came near the end of the all-star show when Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and Dave Matthews played a fierce rendition with Morello and his solo band. Matthews even added in a new verse that a proud Neil Young shared on his website: “We got billionaires/And the homeless man/Another school shooting/We can pray again/We turn a million trees/Into toilet paper/We got Green house gas/For the ozone layer/Got a liar and a thief/Says he’s god’s right hand/Let the whole world burn/For the promised land.” (Somehow or another, this was only Springsteen’s second time playing the song. The first took place at a St. Paul stop of the Vote for Change tour where he shared the stage with Young himself.)
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Bonus Video One: Van Halen
Image Credit: Pete Still/Redferns/Getty Images Van Halen have never been particularly outspoken about politics. But on the 1993 Right Here Right Now tour, “Rockin’ in the Free World” was a regular part of their nightly encore. “This song tells you the truth,” Hagar told the crowd in Mountain View, California. “This song gives you an option. This song takes away stress better than anything since it tells you if you can’t take it any more, just turn and look the other way.” Nothing will top Young and Sampedro’s guitar work on this song, especially their legendary SNL appearance in 1989, but Eddie Van Halen does such stellar work here that we’ll forgive them for skipping the last two verses.
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Bonus Video Two: Patti Smith
Image Credit: Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images Patti Smith has a deep appreciation for Neil Young, and over the years she’s covered “After the Gold Rush,” “It’s a Dream,” “Powderfinger,” “Walk Like a Giant,” “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black),” and “Rockin’ in the Free World.” Her bandmates handle the opening verses during this 2017 gig in Central Park, and Smith blanks when it’s her turn to sing the “thousands points of light” verse and forgets many of the lyrics. “Sorry, Neil!” she says at the end. We’re sure he forgives her.
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Bonus Video Three: Stephen Stills and the Rides
Image Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images “Rockin’ in the Free World” has become such a key part of Neil Young’s live show over the years that it was in the setlist on his 2000s reunion tours with both CSNY and Buffalo Springfield. That gave Stephen Stills a lot of time to learn it quite well. And when he formed his blues-rock supergroup the Rides with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Barry Goldberg in 2013, “Rockin’ in the Free World” was a regular climactic moment in their set. Stills may not have the vocal power he had during his Woodstock days, but he remains a force on the guitar.
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Bonus Video Four: Paul McCartney
Image Credit: Jim Dyson/Getty Images Paul McCartney doesn’t play many cover songs during his regular concerts since there’s so much material from his solo years, Wings, and that other band he played with back in the 1960s that there’s just no room for anything else. But when he made a surprise appearance with Andrew Watt and Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, New York, on Aug. 20, 2024, he agreed to sing “Rockin’ in the Free World” (alongside Charlotte Lawrence), even though he only seemed to know the hook. Thankfully, he salvaged things by leading the band into “I Saw Her Standing There.” He knew this one pretty well since he’s done it one or two times before.
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Bonus Video Five: Pearl Jam With Members of Rush, Yes, and Journey
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage Neil Young was supposed to induct Pearl Jam into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, but he bailed at the last minute. David Letterman parachuted in to save the day, and it didn’t stop Pearl Jam from bringing out members of Rush, Yes, and Journey for a wild “Rockin’ in the Free World” jam at the end of the night. It was a crazy meeting of worlds, and even included the only time in history that two Pearl Jam drummers — Jack Irons and Matt Cameron — shared a single kit. Many of the guitarists put down solos, and it was a delight to see Neal Schon get a chance to shred with the cool kids. Things maybe got a little awkward when Eddie Vedder ad-libbed a critical line about “The Orange Man” while Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain, one of rock’s biggest Trump supporters, played along. But before anyone could even take notice, Trevor “Owner of a Lonely Heart” Rabin ripped into a solo. Everything about this performance is amazingly nuts. It’s too bad Young himself wasn’t there to be a part of it.
