The controversial ad that compared Neil Young’s record label to Hitler: “The most ridiculous damn thing”
Neil Young is an incredibly successful musician. His upcoming headline set at Glastonbury, the string of hits he’s released, and the plethora of excellent musicians he’s worked with all represent one thing that anyone who knows anything about music already understands: Young is undeniably great. However, what would a good music career be without some contention?
John Lennon once said that one of the best things that a songwriter can be is honest. For this very reason, he disliked a lot of The Beatles’ music, as he saw a lot of what they did as mundane and disingenuous. When asked about his favourite Beatles songs, he listed those he believed he had been the most honest.
“Because I meant it, it’s real,” he said, defending his decision to pick the track ‘Help’. “The lyric is as good now as it was then, it’s no different, you know. It makes me feel secure to know that I was that sensible or whatever […] aware of myself. It was just me singing ‘help’, and I meant it, you know.”
If it’s an honest songwriter that you’re looking for, then you can’t go very far wrong with Neil Young. Not only was their truth laced throughout his music, but he was never afraid to share his opinion with fellow musicians or industry professionals. This is why it was incredibly perplexing for Young when he was sued by his own record label at the time, Geffen Records, for not being his authentic self.
Between 1983 and 1987, Young was signed to Geffen, but they weren’t happy that his work, such as Trans and Life, sounded “Neil Young” enough. As such, they took legal action against the singer in what has to be one of the most bizarre legal cases to ever rock the music industry.
In an apparent retaliation to the boundaries set by the label, in the UK in 1986, ahead of Young’s album Landing on Water, a controversial ad appeared promoting the record. It featured the iconic photo of Neville Chamberlain holding the Munich Pact, which he had recently signed with Hitler. Chamberlain declared during this speech that the pact represented “Peace in our time,” but actually, the pact sold Munich to the Nazis and did more harm than good. In the advert, instead of holding a copy of the Munich pact, Chamberlain is holding a copy of Young’s album.
Fans and critics were left questioning what it could possibly mean; however, given the trouble Young was having with his label, many thought it should be interpreted as Young being Chamberlain and Geffen being Hitler. When this theory was put to him, Young laughed it off.
“I didn’t have anything to do with that,” he said, “But I kind of like the concept. Whoever thought of that must have been a genius […] Sounds like high art to me. It does.” Shedding some more light on the situation at the time, Young spoke about why he had decided to run with the album Landing on Water, stating that it was supposed to reflect the impending doom that was guaranteed following the label’s restrictions on his creativity.
“The cover and the title of that album, it’s directions on how to survive an insurvivabie thing: how to land on water, in a jet that’s crashing,” said Young, “The most ridiculous damn thing you’ve ever heard of. You’re really landing on water where there’s no clear floor underneath you: everybody dies. That title was there because I knew where that album was going. I knew the process and the thought behind the people who were putting the album out; what they wanted me to do.”
He continued, “Ultimately, ‘Make a record that sounds like you’. That was a very tough thing to do. But I tried to do a great record. We put everything we had into making that a great record. But I was just starting to come out of the trees at that point.”
