Rockin' in the Free World

Young wrote the song while on tour with his band The Restless in February 1989. He learned that a planned concert tour to the Soviet Union was not going to happen and his guitarist Frank "Poncho" Sampedro said "we'll have to keep on rockin' in the free world". The phrase struck Young, who thought it could be the hook in a song about "stuff going on with the Ayatollah and all this turmoil in the world.” He had the lyrics the next day.[4]

The lyrics negatively reference the George H. W. Bush administration, then in its first month, quoting 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." The song also refers to Ayatollah Khomeini's proclamation that the United States was the "Great Satan" and Jesse Jackson's 1988 campaign slogan, "Keep hope alive". The song was first performed live on February 21, 1989, in Seattle with The Restless, without the band having rehearsed it.[4]

The song is rated number 216 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and is included on Young's Greatest Hits (2004) release. It reached #2 on the Billboard Magazine Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.[5]

"Rockin' In The Free World" has been recorded by other artists. A version by The Alarm appears on their 1991 album Raw. It was also done by Swiss hard rock band Krokus on their 2017 covers collection Big Rocks.

The song was played during Donald Trump's grand entry preceding his formal announcement that he would run as a Republican candidate for the 2016 presidency.[6] Young, a longtime supporter of Bernie Sanders, said that Trump's use of "Rockin' in the Free World" was not authorized.[7] Sanders has since used the song at his own political rallies.[8] The contention, later determined to be a licensing issue, was resolved, and Trump's campaign used the song. Young explained to Rolling Stone that he had no issue with the campaign using the song.[9]