When we co-hosted a retrospective of Jeremy Deller’s work with the Art Gallery of York University, Mercer Union produced two ephemeral projects with the artist: a bumper sticker that read GOD LESS AMERICA and a take-away poster that asked WHAT WOULD NEIL YOUNG DO?
Together, they suggest that the latter’s inspiration was the What Would Jesus Do? bumper sticker or bracelet. This was my assumption, and I never asked.
But later I learned that this story by Asylum Records founder and Neil Young manager Elliot Roberts has made the rounds in classic rock circles:
"It’s funny. Neil and I used to have this joke- whenever we were asked to do anything: a commercial, even a TV show- I would say to Neil, “What would Bob Dylan do?” From like, the very beginning. That’s how we made our decisions. And years later I’m managing Bob, and some decision came up, he turns to me and goes, “What would Neil do?”
So it’s possible Deller read a Neil Young biography and it prompted the poster. Elliot Roberts also managed Joni Mitchell, adding another detail to Cecilia Berkovic’s response work WHAT WOULD JONI MITCHELL DO?
This entry continues one made over 14 years ago (yeesh) using social media posts to trace how these posters ended up the world. I’m glad to see them in more bedrooms, bathrooms, recording studios and record stores, than art galleries.
See the original post here and send me pictures if you have a copy. We eventually got one to Neil Young, when curator Anthony Kiendl included my work and a project by Daniel Lanois in his Nuit Blanche zone (Lanois had just produced Young’s Le Noise LP).
