For those who like their rock music flavoured with anger and serious intent, the piece de resistance is not native to a cramped West London rehearsal hall in early ‘1977‘ or even found in the blitzkrieg barrage coming from the stage of the CBGB nightclub a couple of years before.
Indeed, the most pointed ‘protest’ song of the rock era did not come from disaffected youths conveying how they have been ignored by governments who simply don’t care, but a superstar aggregation at the height of their powers – and whose work up to making such a profound statement had been, for the most part, comprised of introspective, acoustic ballads.
Neil Young, Graham Nash,
David Crosby, Stephen Stills,
On May 4 1970 the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students at Kent State University, Ohio. Enraged at escalation of the Vietnam war, the counter-culture protest movement had become increasingly militant, responding with strikes and sit-ins at universities across the United States.
During one such confrontation, this at Kent State, the National Guard were deployed to disperse the protesters. The Guardsmen fired upon the students with live ammunition – resulting in four being killed, nine wounded and America effectively at war with itself. (Eight Guardsmen were indicted by a federal grand jury but criminal charges were dismissed in 1974, the eight giving testimony of fearing for their lives and firing in self-defence).
In the immediate aftermath of the shootings David Crosby, one quarter of the ‘super group’ Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, whose current hit single ‘Teach Your Children‘ embraced counter-culture values in the same earnest way much of their recent ‘Deja Vu‘ album had done, showed fellow band member Neil Young a copy of ‘Life‘ magazine carrying photographs of the killings.
Encouraged by Crosby, Young, a Canadian, went away and wrote ‘Ohio‘ – a fiery and passionate response to the shocking events at Kent State.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young booked a Los Angeles studio to cut the song (recorded in two takes without overdubs) that was mixed, released and on the charts within five weeks of the incident it evoked – despite being banned by a number of radio stations for its criticism of the Nixon administration.
Such are the rudimentary facts. In terms of artistic accomplishment it stands as the crowning achievement of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, their performance on the record as powerful to be found anywhere in the history of rock music – the song as angry and sincere to this day as in the hours it was recorded fifty years ago.
In the lyric Young articulates the feelings of many as America found itself wracked by division not just over Vietnam, but social and generational conflict.
The line, ‘How can you run when you know?’ gives a sense of asking which side are you on, the challenge it throws down whether to give up or continue the fight. Mentioning the president by name in the opening line ‘Tin soldiers and Nixon coming‘ not only gives ‘Ohio‘ intense resonance, but moved Crosby to say that keeping the name in the lyric was ‘the bravest thing I ever heard.’
As Stills, Nash and Young drive the song to its conclusion by repeating the line ‘Four dead in Ohio,’ Crosby breaks out to make repeated calls of ‘Why did they die?’ and ‘How many more?’ until almost hoarse.
‘Ohio‘ was paired with B-side ‘Find the Cost of Freedom,’ a plaintive Stills composition written as an ode, as he put it, ‘for all the martyrs for this fragile thing called democracy.’
Recorded at the same session, it was a song that closed CSN&Y concerts of the time (as demonstrated on the ‘Four Way Street‘ live album of the following year). Four voices accompanied by Stills on acoustic guitar, it displayed their political sensibilities in a less demonstrative way to the strident A-side, but was the perfect foil nonetheless.
Up to now Young had been a largely non-political song writer, but ‘Ohio‘ made politics a fresh theme of his work – this newly discovered consciousness evident in a song such as ‘Southern Man‘ that emerged before the year was out, appearing on Young’s brilliant ‘After the Gold Rush‘ album.
But it is on ‘Ohio‘ where his protestations are at their most forceful – and while the song was written by him, there is a rare sense of collaboration among CSN&Y in making it such a gripping piece, the four of them coming together with a sense of clarity and purpose in creating something so dark, yet vivid.
Described in some quarters as an anti-anthem, Young offered this appraisal of ‘Ohio‘ in the sleeve notes to his 1977 ‘Decade‘ anthology.
‘It’s still hard to believe I had to write this song. It’s ironic that I capitalized on the death of those American students. Probably the biggest lesson ever learned at an American place of learning.’
Fifty years on ‘Ohio‘ remains the masterpiece one imagines Neil Young would have preferred not to have written.
This article was first published on 29/4/2020.
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.
