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It was an off-the-cuff remark from guitarist Frank ‘Poncho’ Sampedro that gave Neil Young the title for one of his greatest songs.
When Young and his band The Restless were notified of the cancellation of a tour in the Soviet Union, Sampedro joked, “We’ll just have to keep on rockin’ in the free world.”
Young replied: “Well, Poncho, that’s a good line. I’m gonna use that if you don’t mind.”
Later, Young commented: “It was such a cliché. I knew I had to use it.”
Rockin’ In The Free World would be released in 1989, serving as the lead single for Young’s 17th studio album, Freedom. The song would also end up as one of Young’s most defining anthems.
In a 2018 interview with MOJO magazine, Sampedro said that Young had written a handful of tracks for this album when he realised he needed something harder-hitting, more up-tempo and direct.
The band were checking into a hotel room in Portland when Sampedro urged Young to look about the world around him for inspiration to help finish the track.
Sampedro remembered: “I said, ‘Look man, tonight, get in your room, think about all this stuff that’s going down – the Ayatollah, all the stuff in Afghanistan, all these wars breaking out, all the problems in America.’”
The following morning, as the members were preparing to leave on their bus, Young informed him that the song had now been completed, taking heavy influence from some of the political unrest across the globe at the tail-end of the ’80s.
Some of the ire was directed at the newly appointed George H. W. Bush administration, directly quoting lines about “a thousand points of light” and “a kinder, gentler nation” from his presidential campaign promises and inaugural address. Other political references in the song include the line “Don’t feel like Satan but I am to them” from the opening verse, which was born out of Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini’s proclamation that the United States was the “Great Satan”. There’s also a nod to Jesse Jackson’s 1988 campaign slogan “Keep hope alive” in the third and final verse.
Released in between the opening of the Iron Curtain and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Rockin’ In The Free World would become the anthem for the European liberation of its time.
In his 2013 memoir Waging Heavy Peace, Young reflected how this kind of social commentary was a “part of the process” for him.
He reasoned: “I just do what I do and keep my ears and eyes open. Things are happening all the time. You put it out there and shit happens.”
Interestingly, the main riff to the song has more in common with hard rock and early heavy metal than the folk scene Young had been part of. Palm-muting was used to deaden the strings and bring more of a staccato feel – a technique famously used by bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Metallica. The palm-muting is abandoned during the verse and chorus sections, allowing the chords to vibrate and ring out naturally.
For his solo at 2:30, Sampedro uses the E minor pentatonic scale – though also chose to include a Bb blue note and a major second found on the 14th fret of his high E-string.
Rockin’ In The Free World has been performed regularly by Pearl Jam, who have also performed the track alongside Young – a man they’ve often described as their musical mentor. The members of Pearl Jam even served as Young’s backing band on his 1995 album Mirror Ball.
Given his strong political beliefs, Young has been notably particular about where his songs have been used. Rockin’ In The Free World was approved for the 2004 Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 – a harsh critique of George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq the year prior – as well as 2015 film The Big Short, based on how reckless bankers, traders and advisors helped cause the 2008 recession.
When Donald Trump used the song in his announcement as the Republican candidate for the 2016 presidency, Young – who had sided with Democrat candidate Bernie Sanders – responded by saying its usage had not been authorised.
Trump’s staff then outlined how the campaign had obtained the legal right to use the recording through a licensing agreement with royalty collecting society ASCAP and agreed not to use Young’s music moving forwards. They also claimed: “Despite Neil’s differing political views, Mr. Trump likes him very much.”
However, Trump lashed out on Twitter later down the line, claiming Young had come “to my office looking for $$ on an audio deal” and “called me last week to go to his concert”. In his eyes, this made Young a “total hypocrite”.
Trump then went on to state that “Rockin’ In The Free World was just one of 10 songs used as background music” and signed off with: “Didn’t love it anyway”.
Despite not performing particularly successfully as a single, the song would go on to become one of Young’s most iconic tracks, and covered by artists such as Suzi Quatro, Larkin Poe, Simple Minds and Bon Jovi, as well as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen on their 2003 G3 tour.
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