Neil Young, the famous songwriter from the 1960s and '70s, who has remained productive through contemporary times, is building a musical archive that he hopes both his aging fans and future generations will buy to learn of his work.

Young appeared on stage at the opening of JavaOne Tuesday, and amidst the rehearsed lines, it was clear he was genuinely grateful to the originators of Java and Java developers who have enabled something that he longed to create since the 1980s: a multimedia presentation of his work, updatable with new material as it's found, and accessible to millions.

"Thank you, Java; thank you, Sun," said Young as his appearance on stage neared its close, and the "Rockin' In The Free World" refrain from his song of the same name started to play. It was perhaps a good choice as Sun Microsystems (NSDQ: JAVA) tries to emphasize its transition to a free and open source software company.
Young will soon issue the first disc in a five-volume edition containing the record of his work dating back to 1963, when he was an instrumentalist and member of the Buffalo Springfield band. He thanked Java because it is the software that runs Blu-ray players, and his archival work will appear on Blu-ray format discs.