Neil Young - Rocking In The Free World

This paper is an analysis of the lyrics of Neil Young's 1989 hit "Rockin' in the Free World" (Appendix). The goal of this paper is to use five sociological concepts to discover whether the song was meant to be an anthem for American, or an indictment of America. The song was written by Neil Young on his tour bus while America was having heavy conflicts in the Middle East. The song was first played on Feb 21, 1989, at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle (McDonough, 2002). When asked about the song Neil said: "The line was "such a clichй"...I knew I had to use it. It was the perfect time in our country to release this song to our music fans"(McDonough, 2002). A interview done by Dean Kuipers in 1995 goes like this:

Kuiper: "What about a song like 'Rockin' in the Free World', which really socked it home at the right time in this country, was it a celebration or an indictment?"

Young: "Well, kinda both, you know. Depends on how you look at it...it's all there together. That's the picture that I saw. Is it a celebration or an indictment. Or is it ironic? People can sing it like an anthem, and yet, if you listen to the words, it's like, what the frig?' You know?"

Kuiper: "But that's the question!

Young (laughing): "That's it. That is the question. You asking the question means you got the song." (McDonough, 2002, pg. 183)

An indictment is defined as "an indication that something is bad and deserves to be condemned" (Soanes, 2001, pg. 458). My paper will analyze the lyrics of the song and using five concepts I will give my perspective on whether this song is an anthem of American greatness, or an indictment and American flaws. The five concepts I will use to analyze the lyrics are alienation, anomie, latent function, social dysfunction and ethnocentricism.

Alienation is defined as "the estrangement of individuals from one another, or from a specific situation or process" (Marshall, 1998, pg. 13), another similar definition is "the experience of isolation resulting from powerlessness" (Macionis & Gerber, 2004, pg. 97).

Alienation appears quite explicitly in the lyrics, on line one of the third verse, Young sings about "1000 points of light for the homeless man." This homeless man is obviously alienated from the rest of society. With no where to go, and with a very little possibility of making a positive contribution to society this man is isolated from not only the people of America, but also the advantages that are available to the 'regular' people of society.

The first three lines of the second verse the line reads: "I see a woman in the night, with a baby in her hand, under an old street light, near a garbage can. Now she puts the kid away, and she's gone to get a hit." I see an image of a young woman in her twenties leaning over a garbage can looking for some scraps to eat. The women alienated from society because she is unable to provide herself with enough food, or proper place to care for her child. She is unable to do anything about this because she is a drug addict. Isolated from the rest of society she turned to drugs to give her life somewhat of an positive side.

In the first verse, lines four to six Young signs "There's a lot of people saying we'd be better off dead. Don't fee like Satan but I am to them. So I try to forget it anyway I can." I think that Young was speaking about the government of the Unites States in 1989 when he wrote this. George Bush Sr. was President and his country was involved in some heavy conflicts in the Persian Gulf. When I read line five I feel that Young is speaking about the government, line six is a commentary on President Bush. Bush had made so many decisions that the people didn't agree with that he isolated himself and his government from the people that he was supposed to be leading.

Alienation is one of the problems that is wrong with American society. People are often isolated from there peers because of choices, good or bad, that they have made. Even the President can make decisions that isolate his from his own people. That is one flaw of the American culture.

Anomie is defined as "a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals" (Macionis & Gerber, 2004, pg. 105) also as "an absence or confusion in the norms of a society (Marshall, 1998, pg. 21).

Anomie is one concept that I found to be quite evident in the lyrics. In the second verse Young signs about a drug addict woman and her child, on line five and six he signs "There's one more kid that will never go to school. Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool." This child will grow up without much support from his drug addict mother and mostly likely not much support from society. "Never go to school", most of the values that we learn come from our schooling; we learn how to line up into lines, or learn how to effectively communicate with people. If this child does not attend school he will not have the values that are needed to survive in society.

"Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool." This line also stands out strongly to me. Love is such an important part of life, it is where we learn how to properly act in front of the opposite sex, and also how we learn what to cherish in life. "Never get to be cool" to me just shows how important it is in our society to fit in and to have friends who are always there for you. If a child is unable to do either of these things, then he/she will never be sure of what society expects in certain situations.

Anomie is another flaw of American society because there are so many different situations where different actions seem appropriate but if one doesn't know which action is the right one then he is left in the dark. There are many children who "will never go to school, never fall in love, and never get to be cool" so how can we expect these children to run the country in the future if they are not taught the basics of what is expected of them in society. They must be taught some of these values in school, and they must learn some of these values for themselves while amongst their peers.

Latent function is defined as "consequences that are largely unrecognized and unintended" (Macionis & Gerber, 2004, pg. 18) and also as "unintended, unrecognized