Rockin' In The Free World

The song was first performed live on February 21, 1989 in Seattle with Young's band The Restless. The book Shakey by Jimmy McDonough claims the song originated when Young was on tour in the late 1980s. He and Frank "Poncho" Sampedro saw newspaper photos of the Ayatollah Khomeini's body being carried to his grave as mourners were burning American flags in the street. Sampedro commented, "Whatever we do, we shouldn't go near the Mideast. It's probably better we just keep on rockin' in the free world." Young asked if Sampedro intended to use this idea as the basis of a song and when Sampedro said no, Young said that he would do so instead. However Khomeini's death occurred months after the first live performance of the song. The lyrics criticize the George H. W. Bush administration and the social problems of contemporary American life, directly referencing Bush's famous "thousand points of light" remark from his 1989 inaugural address. An edited version of the song accompanies the end credits of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11; the phrase "That's one more kid that’ll never go to school / Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool," which originally referenced the second verse's abandoned child, now appears to reference a US soldier killed in Iraq. The song is rated number 214 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

[Verse 1] There’s colors on the street Red, white, and blue People shuffling their feet People sleeping in their shoes There’s a warning sign on the road ahead There’s a lot of people saying we’d be better off dead Don’t feel like Satan, but I am to them So I try to forget it any way I can [Chorus] Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world [Verse 2] I see a woman in the night With a baby in her hand There's an old street light Near a garbage can Now she put the kid away and she’s gone to get a hit She hates her life and what she’s done to it There’s one more kid that’ll never go to school Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool [Chorus] Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world [Electric Guitar Solo] [Verse 3] We got a thousand points of light For the homeless man We got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand We've got department stores and toilet paper Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer Got a man of the people says keep hope alive Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive [Chorus] Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world [Electric Guitar Solo] [Outro] Keep on rockin' in the free world