Hey, Neil Young: We young singers are hog-tied, too

Neil Young recently said:

"I was waiting for someone to come along, some young singer eighteen-to-twenty-two years old, to write these songs and stand up… I waited a long time. Then I decided that maybe the generation that has to do this is still the '60s generation."

Now, from San Francisco Chronicle an open letter to Neil Young from singer-song-writer Stephan Smith titled "Hey, Neil Young: We young singers are hog-tied, too". The article describes how hard it is for young protest singers in today's climate.

"Dear Neil,

You recently said that you felt compelled to write your new album "Living With War" because you got tired of waiting for young protest singers to pick up the torch. I'm compelled to tell you that young protest singers are here, and we're holding the flame. I'm one of them.

The trouble is, you can't hear us on major radio stations for the same reasons you noted last year when you poignantly stated, "I can't do anything in the record industry, or especially radio, because it's so controlled by corporations."

While established artists like yourself may have felt your hands tied, the truth is far worse for upcoming artists: Even booking agents and managers won't touch us for fear that we will offend their audiences in a country where consumerism and patriotism stand united, as your song "Restless Consumer" makes clear."

Another World Is Possible

Play and listen to more MP3 samples of Stephan Smith's Slash and Burn.

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