Neil Young tackles car industry on its green record

Young's latest album, Fork in the Road, takes on the ailing US car industry and its environmental record – but will his fans buy it?

When thumbing – or wheeling, as is the case today - through your music collection there is always that tickle of temptation when you reach Neil Young's After the Goldrush. I rarely resist that urge. But there is one line in the title track that I fear hearing again due to its poignancy: "Look at mother nature on the run in the 1970s."
Nearly 40 years on from the album's release, it's sad to think that things have got worse – much worse.
Thankfully, Young is still putting out albums – and next week, on 7 April, his latest is due for release. Young (I feel like calling him Neil, but let's keep things reverential) has a liking for producing single-theme albums.
One of his most recent, Living with War, was a critique of George Bush's warring ways, and his newest, Fork in the Road, is centred on the ailing car industry and its impact on the environment, and was quickly recorded before Christmas as the economic crisis was picking up pace. (OK, I accept it's a tough sell, but if anyone can pull it off, Neil Young can.)
Young has always had a love affair with his cars, but in recent years he's been increasingly talking about how he's been greening up his own driving habits, including an attempt to convert his 1959 Lincoln Continental into an electric vehicle. This car – which Young calls his LincVolt – now takes centre stage in the homemade video for Johnny Magic. (Young is also inviting people to make their own video for the song with a LincVolt jacket going to the winning entry.)
It's a big year for Young as he – at long last - headlines Glastonbury, as well as the Isle of Wight festival and Hard Rock Calling at Hyde Park. Young is also releasing the long-anticipated first volume of his Archives collection in June.
The crowds at the festivals will no doubt be calling out for his classics such as Heart of Gold, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, and Hey Hey, My My, but it will be interesting to see how they take to his new songs about our present-day woes. There is one line from the title track to his new album that's sure to get a hearty cheer, though:
There's a bailout coming, but it's not for me It's for all those creeps watching tickers on TV