With sometime on his hands ever since he recognized the riskiness of scheduling a tour with Crazy Horse in the current climate, Neil Young has used that time to create an updated version of his song “Shut it Down,” from their 2019 album,” Colorado” On April 9th, he released a video for “Shut it Down 2020.” In announcing the video, Young wrote: “These are uncertain times. I wish you all the best as you care for our sick, the young and old who we love so much.
“Sending the best wishes to all the health care and government workers all over the world, to all the scientists who will learn and share with us the best ways to ensure survival in our world challenged. Let’s all work together and stay positive that we will find a way. With love to all, in all walks of life, all political persuasions, all colors. We will succeed working together for the good of our world as we are here together, hanging in the balance of nature.”
In early March, just two weeks after indicating that he was considering a 2020 tour with Crazy Horse, the classic rock legend indicated that the “barn tour,” as he described it, was on hold, due to these “uncertain times.” Young was referring to the Coronavirus outbreak.
According to a March 7th post on his website https://neilyoungarchives.com Neil Young Archives site, the veteran singer-songwriter-musician noted, “We are looking at this uncertain world with our fully booked Crazy Horse Barn Tour, ready to announce the first stage.
“The last thing we want is to put people at risk, especially our older audience. Nobody wants to get sick in this pandemic.”
Young closed the post by writing, “Sending best wishes to all of the health care and government workers in all of the world, to all the scientists who will learn and share with us the best ways to ensure survival in our world challenged.”. From Young’s late February description, the shows would take place not in actual barns but in “old arenas.” The news of the possible tour came only days after announcing that he would not be touring at all in 2020.
Young’s full statement in late Feb. was as follows: “We have been looking at booking the Crazy Horse BARN Tour,” Neil wrote. “Many of the old places we used to play are gone now, replaced by new coliseums we have to book (sp) year in advance and we don’t want to go to anyway. That’s not the way we like to play. It sounds way to much like a real job if you have to book it and wait a year, so we have decided to play old arenas – not the new sports facilities put up by corporations for their sports teams. Largely soulless, these new buildings cost a fortune to play in.”
“We wanted to play in a couple of months because we feel like it,” Young added. “To us it’s not a regular job. We don’t like the new rules.” Young then listed a number of arenas in which he used to perform but have since been demolished, and then listed arenas still in existence. “If you are looking for us on our Crazy Horse Barn Tour, we will hopefully be in one of the existing arenas,” he said at the end of his statement.
Hi, this is Neil. Link to the NYA info-card for this song with press, documents, manuscripts, photos, videos. Look around NYA for fun and listening! ALL my music in high resolution at https://neilyoungarchives.com/info-ca.
The Fat Angel Sings 