Unlike Hillary Clinton, David Geffen could never be called ambitious

The David Geffen who really cares in 1982.

E.R. [Elliot Roberts, Neil Young's longtime manager] Well, I did have a much larger offer from R.C.A. about £4 Million more. David Geffen and I used to be partners and David has worked with Neil for a very long time. He totally relates to Neil as an artist and has no preconceived notions about Neil. He knows that he's capable of doing anything at any point, at any time, and I made the decision and I think that at the end of 5 years we will see that Neil's record sales will more than make up for the money we refused to take now, because he will have the freedom to practice his art as he sees it, as opposed to when you make a deal where someone is paying you £I - £2 million an album you feel obligated to give them commercial music that they can sell large numbers of. Neil's not concerned with selling large numbers of his records, he's concerned with making records that he's pleased with. Unfortunately they are not always commercial from the record company's point of view. David Geffen relates to that. He knows Neil may do a country album and then he may do an electric album because there's no rhyme or reason with Neil. It's what he's moved by.

Well, that didn't last long, did it?

It had not been a groovy couple of years for Neil Young. Trans had tanked, the European tour was a disaster. Old Ways had been rejected by Geffen and Everybody's Rockin' was another commercial nonentity. Young had even been prevented from recording. But none of this prepared him for what happened next: His record company sued him.

...Communication with David Geffen was another problem. Young had gotten used to picking up the phone and getting Mo Ostin at Reprise, but direct contact between Young and Geffen, Roberts said, had evaporated ever since the failure of Trans. And per Young's wishes, no one at the label knew of the complexities involving his son. All these factors made for a situation rife with misunderstandings.

Geffen felt that Young was intentionally giving him substandard material. "He felt Neil could turn it around like that and was refusing to -- 'Neil's giving me all these esoteric albums to fuck with me,'" said Roberts. "David took it personally."

[...] The squabble with Geffen dragged on. Young refused to budge, telling the label, as he racalled to Tom Hibbert, to "back off or I'm going to play country music forever. And then you won't be able to sue me anymore because country music will be what I always do so it won't be uncharacteristic anymore, hahaha. So stop telling me what to do or I'll turn into George Jones."

David Geffen today (Time$MeanGirl$elect) finds "ambition" somehow distasteful.

“Not since the Vietnam War has there been this level of disappointment in the behavior of America throughout the world, and I don’t think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is — and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? — can bring the country together."

Is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? Like, David Geffen? Or Barack Obama? Or John McCain? Or Rudolph Giuliani? Or, for Brigham Young's sake, Mitt Romney?

Oh, sorry, Hillary Clinton is a woman and that makes David Geffen uncomfortable with her "ambition."