Rockin' in the Free World

On the 1989 tour, after a planned exchange with the Soviet Union fell through, Sampedro remarked that they would just have to keep on rocking in the free world. Young took the line, came back the next day with a lyric, and they played it unrehearsed that night in Seattle, 21 February 1989, Sampedro calling the chords to Rick Rosas. Young later called Sampedro its co-writer. The verses take aim at the first weeks of the George H. W. Bush administration.

The electric version was recorded on 10 March 1989 in the barn at Broken Arrow, with a Record Plant remote truck parked outside. The band played live behind carpet baffles, with Young soloing and often singing his keeper vocal at the same time. Chad Cromwell remembered Young arriving with a lick and a couple of verses and adding more on an easel sketchpad over the following days. Freedom opens with a solo acoustic version from Jones Beach and closes with this one.

After

Young played it on Saturday Night Live on 30 September 1989, and the single reached two on the US Mainstream Rock chart. Rolling Stone ranked it 216 among the 500 greatest songs. Sugar Mountain counts 652 performances, and he played it with Pearl Jam at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards. It closed Fahrenheit 9/11. Donald Trump used it without permission in 2015 and 2020, and Young sued, then dropped the case. The Alarm, Suzi Quatro and Larkin Poe are among those who have recorded it.

The upload in the hypersongs web is the electric studio version that closes Freedom, not the acoustic opener.