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Farmers Still Fucked 30 Years After Farm Aid Founded

From Champaign To Chicago

“It started with an offhand remark made by Bob Dylan during his performance at Live Aid, the massive fundraising concert held at Wembley Stadium, London, and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, in the early summer of 1985,” the History Channel notes.
“As television viewers around the world phoned in donations in support of African famine relief, Dylan said from the stage, ‘I hope that some of the money . . . maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe . . . one or two million, maybe . . . and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks.’ Dylan would come under harsh criticism from Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof for his remarks (‘It was a crass, stupid and nationalistic thing to say,’ Geldof would later write), but he planted a seed with several fellow musicians who shared his concern over the state of the American family farm.
“Less than one month later, Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp announced plans for ‘Farm Aid,’ a benefit concert for America’s farmers held in Champaign, Illinois, on this day in 1985.”
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The History Of Farm Aid 30 Years After Its Founding In Illinois.


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“Neil Young looked even more grim and purposeful than usual when he took the stage Saturday at Northerly Island,” Greg Kot writes for the Tribune.
“Farm Aid was wrapping up its 30th year, but Young wasn’t exactly celebrating. The executive board member in the black hat came out fuming as he went after the corporate farm system, naming names and waving his guitar as if he were wading into hand-to-hand combat with his band huddled in front of the drum riser. Young sang from the perspective of a Monsanto executive, recast as the bogey man: ‘You’re gonna need big money to stand your ground/Or we’re gonna bury you, how does that sound?'”
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Guarino for the Guardian: Farm Aid At 30: Decades Later, America’s farmers Still Hard-Pressed.
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See #FarmAid30.
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See also:
* Select performances at The Weekend In Chicago Rock.
* The Farm Aid YouTube channel.
* Farm Aid on Facebook.
* FarmAid.org.
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Comments welcome.

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Posted on September 21, 2015