Context
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 and his 1988 presidential campaign promise for America to become a "kinder, gentler nation." Despite this, the song became the de facto anthem of the collapse of communism (specifically the Fall of the Berlin Wall, which occurred a month into the album's release) because of its repeated chorus of 'Keep on Rockin' in the Free World'.
An edited version of the song accompanies the end credits of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. In the film, 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 in the song references the second verse's abandoned child, is used in reference to a young US soldier killed in Iraq.
The song is rated number 216 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song is featured as a playable track in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
Read more about this topic: Rockin' In The Free World
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