Ohio (song)
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"Ohio" is a protest song performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and written by Neil Young in reaction to the Kent State shootings. It was released as a single, peaking at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its first appearance on album came on the group's So Far compilation released in 1974.
Recording
Almost immediately after the shootings occurred, Young penned the lyrics to "Ohio" after seeing the photos of the incident in Life magazine. On the evening that CSNY entered the Record Plant recording studio in New York City, the song had already been rehearsed, and the quartet with their regular rhythm section recorded it live in just a few takes. During the same session they recorded the song's equally direct b-side, Stephen Stills' ode to the war's dead "Find the Cost of Freedom." Like its companion, the Stills track was cut live, the four voices blending to the accompaniment of only Stills' guitar. It also appeared on the So Far LP of three years later.The record was mastered with the participation of the four principals, rush-released by Atlantic and heard on the radio with only a few weeks delay. In his liner notes for the song on the Decade retrospective, Young reported that "David Crosby cried when we finished this take." Crosby can be heard keening "why? why did they die?" and "how many more?" in the fade.
Lyrics and Reaction
The lyrics help evoke the turbulent mood of indignation and shock in the wake of the shootings, especially the line "four dead in Ohio," repeated throughout the song. "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming," refers the Ohio National Guardsmen who killed the student protesters and Young's attribution of their deaths to the President of the United States, Richard Nixon. "Should have been done long ago" echoes the sentiments of right-wing supporters of the war and their view of hippie protesters as traitors, as voiced in interviews of the time such as CBS Television's The Common Man. Crosby once stated that Young keeping Nixon's name in the lyrics was "the bravest thing I ever heard."After the single's release, it was banned from some AM radio stations because of the challenge to the Nixon Administration in the lyrics, but received airplay on then underground FM stations in larger cities and college towns. The American counterculture took the group as its own after this song, giving the four a status as leaders and spokesmen they would enjoy to varying extent for the rest of the decade.
The song was later re-recorded by Devo on the 2002 album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear. The song was of particular significance to this group, as its founding members Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh had been present at Kent State during the tragedy.
Perfomed by:
- Neil Young, guitar, vocal
- Stephen Stills, guitars, vocal
- David Crosby, guitar, vocal
- Graham Nash, vocal
- Calvin Samuels, bass (A-side only)
- Dallas Taylor, drums (A-side only)
References
- [Interview with Bill Halverson], engineer of "Ohio." Accessed on June 14, 2005.
- [Neil Young Ohio Lyric Analysis]. Accessed on June 14, 2005.
External links
| Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young |
|---|
| David Crosby | Stephen Stills | Graham Nash | Neil Young |
| Discography |
| Crosby, Stills & Nash | Déjà Vu | Four Way Street | So Far | CSN | Replay | Daylight Again | Allies | American Dream | Live It Up | CSN Boxed Set | After The Storm | Carry On | Looking Forward | Greatest Hits |
| Songs |
| [[Suite: Judy Blue Eyes]] | Marrakesh Express | Wooden Ships | Woodstock | Ohio | Southern Cross | Helpless |
| Other related bands |
| The Byrds | Buffalo Springfield | The Hollies | CPR | Crosby & Nash | The Stills-Young Band | Manassas | Crazy Horse |
| Other related people |
| Joni Mitchell | Judy Collins | Chris Hillman | Cass Elliot | Timothy B. Schmit |
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