I don’t care what anybody says; Neil Young is bad ass.

Rock & Roll doesn’t get more passionate and sincere then Rust Never Sleeps, and I always thought he pulled off the hippy singer-songwriter deal better then anyone not named Joni Mitchell. Some of his wilder experiments (particularly in the 80’s) aren’t too appealing to me but I find his loyalty to his own artistic pursuit, rather than an audience very admirable. (Also, without Young there may not be a Sonic Youth. Without Sonic Youth, there is no Daydream Nation. Is that a world anyone wants to live in?)

So when I found out that there is to be a Woodstock-esque event held in front of the DMZ, I knew I was going. However, I think this concert will fail to achieve the Woodstock spirit for two resons:

1. Rod Stewart

2.Location .

Sure, the most appropriate way to bring attention to the divided peninsula is in Seoul but these accomplished musicians in the concert (Donovan and Young, rest I either have never heard of, or don’t care about) have not a clue about Korean culture.

http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/03/27/neil-young-rod-stewart-don-mclean-donovan-it-cant-be/

And Korea might not be the absolute worst place in the world to have a Woodstock (after all, there is fascist China - who would think about holding a worldly event there?), but I think it’s definitely top 5.

From my perspective, Korea is way ahead of America in it’s consumerism. Here, trends happen as fast as Firefox can refresh, and the education system takes unhealthy, senseless conformity to a whole new level. A walk on the street makes George Carlin’s metaphor of America-as-a-strip-mall look like the farmer’s market. Hell, even the churches shamelessly advertise themselves in Korea.

Give a Korean kid a Genie and he’ll name you colleges; ask him “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?” and he just might give you a list (bonus points if you catch the Nick Lowe/Elvis Costello reference). Play for him Joni Mitchell’s “In France They Kiss On Main Street” and it’ll spark no interest - but some Nike sneakers with 5% charity benefit might.

Passionate art doesn’t work in Korea, products do. Woodstock bands like Ten Years After and Jefferson Airplane wouldn’t have been given a chance at this point- these guys weren’t good looking television personalities, and that’s really the only kind of people that matter here.

Businessmen are much better marketers than musicians, and they train us to be moved by them a lot more. The worst part is that really works.

I hope that Neil Young doesn’t get involved in an embarrassing Rod Stewart led pop fest or a sincere performance on deaf ears (although I would definitely prefer the latter) but I think I’ll manage to sit through a Stewart set (especially if he for some reason decides to sing his Jeff Beck era stuff) to get to the good stuff; there are worse ways to get a glimpse of a “Heart of Gold”.

photo credit hubarts.com