Congratulations to Neil Young and Daryl Hannah for their new gig.

Neil Young Ecologist

Neil Young likes ponchos and classic cars (he even makes watercolors of them!). But, since these cars are gas guzzlers, Young’s gotten involved with trying to transform them into electric hybrids with no emissions and high mileage.
Often referred to as an environmentalist, Young hates Monsanto and, to criticize their food mutating ways, has recorded The Monsanto Years. Focusing on profit and not health puts all of us at risk.
Young will go on tour to promote the album. He will be travelling with the group Promise of The Real whose members include two of Willie Nelson’s sons. Willie, himself, is also an outspoken critic of Monsanto.
Using music as a form of protest is not new to Young. He wrote Southern Man to describe the racism towards Blacks in American’s South. Young also wrote the powerful Ohio about the four Kent State students killed by the National Guard in 1970.

But Young’s songs are not just about protests. They reflect the 1960s mindshift promoting social awareness. Alternative ways to approaching the world were sought often leading to drugs and their “mind expanding” properties. Experimentation became the norm.
Myth has it that Young wrote Cinnamon Girl, Cowgirl In The Sand and Down By The River all in one afternoon while in bed with a high fever. The year was c. 1969.
I did some on-line research hoping to find explanations for the lyrics of these three songs and came to the conclusion that Young, himself, probably couldn’t explain them now.

Cinnamon Girl
Hippie love, Be Here Now, herbal teas and a return to nature is what cinnamon girls are about. They also like running around at night chasing the moonlight.

Cowgirl In The Sand
Hippie cowgirls are not the same as country cowgirls just like hard rock is not the same as country rock. Cowgirls in the sand are liberated and, believing in sexual emancipation, practice free love which sometimes freaks out the boys.

Down By The River
Even Love and Peace chanters have problems controlling their emotions. This guy got tired of being dragged over rainbows by his girlfriend so he shot her. Unfortunately, 45 years later, there is a worldwide epidemic of women slaughtering.

Recently, the ecologist Young dumped his wife of 36 years for the ex-actress and environmentalist Daryl Hannah. They are eco lovers.

This article was posted on the now non-existent cynthiakorzekwa.com August 2015.  I repost it now in celebration of the recent marriage of Neil and Daryl.  Neil Young’s music (along with Crosby, Stills, and Nash) was the muzak of my teenage years.

Auguri!