Rockin’ in the Free World: US Secretary of State Blinken plays guitar in a bar in Kyiv

The popular song Rockin’ in the Free World is once again of interest to American politicians.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken played the guitar at the Barman at Dictat bar in Kyiv. Vedant Patel, the first deputy spokesperson for the State Department, commented on the event on the microblogging service X.

The video shows the politician performing Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World.

“I saw with my own eyes that the spirit of Ukraine remains unbroken,” he said.

Tonight at Barman at Dictat in Kyiv, @SecBlinken saw firsthand that the spirit of Ukraine remains unbreakable. pic.twitter.com/d9A8I0ttED

— Vedant Patel (@StateDeputySpox) May 14, 2024

In the comments, the followers reacted to the event. Most of the commenters started asking why Ukrainian troops do not receive enough weapons.

“Great bar. Send more weapons instead”, “Super cool”, “Where are the F-16s?”, they said on the social network.

The song Rockin’ in the Free World

The song Rockin’ in the Free World was released on Young’s seventeenth studio album Freedom in 1989. It was performed by Canadian-American singer Neil Young. The musician wrote the song during a tour with his band The Restless. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Rockin’ In the Free World 214th on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The single criticises the George W. Bush administration. The composition is included in the album Young’s Greatest Hits (2004). It reached number 2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Since its release, the song has been played at various political events in the United States. In 2020, US presidential candidate Donald Trump used the song again during his pre-Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore on 3 July, along with two other Young songs, Like a Hurricane and Cowgirl in the Sand.

As a reminder, Maria Prymachenko’s paintings were “revived” in the Kyiv museum to the music of the DakhaBrakha band.