I'm Delighted By Donald Trump's Candidacy. Neil Young? Not So Much

"Rockin' In The Free World", off Neil Young's
"Freedom" album, was the subject of
another dumb move by Donald Trump.  tion

Comedians did backflips of joy this week when Donald Trump announced he is running for president as he will certainly be, um, entertaining in his endeavors

I'm among those who are thrilled with his candidacy. He's so fun to point and laugh at when he says or does something stupid, as he often does.

Neil Young, however, is not so thrilled. And what happened between Young and Trump proves my point about how laughably funny Trump is.

When Trump made his campaign announcement, he played Young's classic song "Rockin' In The Free World."

According to Rolling Stone, Trump's people said he got licensing permission to use the song from the performance rights  organization ASCAP.

It would have been nice, though, to get permission from Young himself. Though a one-minute Google search would have revealed using a Neil Young song for Trump's annoucement wouldn't be a good idea, since Young's political views are more than slightly different from Trump's.

As The Guardian headline put it, referencing another Neil Young song, "Neil Young to Donald Trump: Old Man, Look At My Life, I'm Not A Lot Like You."

I'll say!

Neil Young has thrown his support behind Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential bid. I'm guessing Sanders, whose politics is basically Scandanavian socialism, doesn't really have much in common with Trump.

Rockin' In The Free World came out during the first Bush  Republican administration, and it referenced Bush. You'd think somebody in Trump's group would have noticed these lyrics.

"We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder gentler
Machine gun hand."

By the way, Young is a Canadian citizen, too. I know how much Trump hates Mexico, and lots of other countries, it seems, so maybe Canada isn't so great in Trump's world either.

There's been quite a history of musicians objecting to politicians' use of their music, but they do keep doing it, even as the musicians object. Lawsuits, or threats of suits against these politicians are seldom successful.

Still, the laugh is on Trump as usual, as he used possibly the worst song to advertise his world view.  Late news is that Trump will stop using "Rockin' In The Free World"

Of course, "Rockin' In the Free World" is one of Neil Young's best songs, in my opinion, and there's really no such thing as a bad Neil Young song.

Maybe the tune will show up at some of those well-attended Bernie Sanders rallies, who knows?

To celebrate, here's the music video to the awesome "Rockin' In The Free World":