Count on Neil Young to make a clear public statement on his beliefs. The 79-year-old artist has remained consistent in his political activism throughout his career, up to Thursday’s release of “Big Crime.” The new track—which is available for listening on his website, Neil Young Archives—is a response to President Donald Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., a move Trump supposedly made to reduce crime (though the crime statistics of the city tell a different story).
Young debuted “Big Crime” on stage with his band the Chrome Hearts at Chicago’s Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island on Wednesday as part of his “Love Earth” world tour. The song follows in the lyrical mold of old-school protest songs: “Got to get the fascists out/Got to clean the White House out/Don’t want no soldiers on our streets/There’s big crime in D.C. at the White House,” Young sings.
Young has been vocal about his opposition to Trump for many years, in addition to using his platform to protest a variety of social ills. For instance, he removed his music from Spotify in 2022 because the platform hosted COVID-19 misinformation like vaccine skeptic Joe Rogan. More recently, he announced he would no longer be a part of or engage with Facebook after it was reported Meta’s AI chatbot was allowed to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” among other disturbing things.
For more insight into Neil Young’s mind, the artist frequently shares his stream-of-consciousness thoughts while blogging on the road during his tour. “Today Trump said his name deserves to be on the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE… Independence from Truth I guess,” he complained earlier this month. And after Trump’s recent meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin: “As our president entertains world thug war criminal on American soil, I remember how he treated [Zelenskyy] in [our] White House… but there is more to life than that,” Young wrote. “I remember the faces in Ohio as we sang a song remembering the victims of an earlier thug president. There will be more on the streets of our nation. We need to stand together and defend one another as our time approaches.”
