POP MUSIC REVIEW : Politics Provide the Spark at Farm Aid VI Benefit : Neil Young has harsh words for the Clinton Administration in a preconcert interview.

Neil Young made the most powerful noise Saturday at Farm Aid VI, and he did it before the 11-hour, all-star benefit concert even began.

Speaking at a pre-show press conference with various farm leaders, Young, who co-founded Farm Aid in 1985 with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, said, “Farm Aid has gotten to be a picnic and a party for everyone. There’s something about this one that makes me mad. I thought when we got rid of Bush and Reagan we wouldn’t need any more Farm Aids.

“We voted for change. Why weren’t the secretary of agriculture and the vice president here? This is serious business. This is not a party. . . . Farm Aid is not an American tradition. It’s a Band-Aid. We ought to get rid of it. We want war from Washington.”

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In the wind-swept Cyclone Stadium at Iowa State University, about 40,000 people saw nearly four-dozen acts at the marathon affair, the final seven hours of which was broadcast live on the Nashville Network cable channel. The event is designed to heighten awareness of the problems facing U.S. family farmers and to raise money to aid financially troubled ones. Since 1985, Farm Aid has raised $15 million to distribute to support groups.

The line-up lacked the hot quotient of Farm Aids past--no country hotshot like Garth Brooks or Wynonna Judd, no rock giant like Bob Dylan or Elton John, no current Top 10 pop act like Whitney Houston or Spin Doctors. Indeed, Paul Simon, Alice in Chains, Shai and Merle Haggard--all advertised attractions--bowed out in recent days.

The hottest properties were Iowa’s most famous part-time residents, Tom and Roseanne Arnold, who served as emcees and sang “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and the theme to the old TV show “Green Acres.” And then there was the First Brother, singer Roger Clinton and his soul-flavored band, Politics.

Has Farm Aid lost its hip cachet in the music industry?

“It’s beyond hip,” Young said backstage. “People come here because they believe in what’s going on.” Lyle Lovett, a Farm Aid regular, added, “Anything Willie is involved with is a hip thing. . . . It’s cool not because of the stature but because of the spirit of the people here.”

During the concert, a moment of silence was observed for Cesar Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers of America union who died Friday, and Kris Kristofferson and Arlo Guthrie dedicated songs to him.

Musical highlights were Nelson opening with “Heartland,” his most eloquent musical statement about the farmer; Bryan Adams galvanizing the crowd with his hit rock tunes; the politicized Black 47 whipping up feisty Irish rock; Lovett, wearing a Future Farmers of America jacket, dueting with Nelson on Lovett’s “Farther Down the Line” backed by an all-star band that included Ringo Starr; and Young soloing on a special song (written that day) that chronicled the history of Farm Aid and concluded with the line “we’re looking for a country that don’t need Farm Aid.”

Will there be another Farm Aid?

“Probably so,” Nelson said at the end of another long day.