Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Farm Aid - It Was 25 Years Ago Today



Farm Aid came about when Bob Dylan (who else), performing at Live Aid, commented, "... maybe they could 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..."


Willie Nelson, Neil Young & John Mellencamp
picked it up from there...












Live Aid was big. I had just moved from Philadelphia to Boston & Philly was one of the epicenters of that global event.... I was bummed that I had just left the home of the hoagie.














Farm Aid kinda crept up on me. I think I noticed it when
it was on one of the UHF stations for hours & hours.
(UHF... quizzical look from those born after Farm Aid)







In retrospect, Farm Aid was a direct descendant of the brand of liberalism that arose from the North Central states a hundred years ago. La Follette, the Progressives, the Wobblies and their ilk (as John Dos Passos informed) disabuse the notion that we in the cosmopolitan Northeast and our left coast brethren possess a monopoly on enlightened social values













A month or two ago, I referenced
the younger performers at
Studio 12 as being born
after the first Farm Aid.









Lou Reed
was at Farm Aid



all pics except Dos Passos from Farm Aid 1985

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