Hey Sandy

Annotation

Harvey Andrews, from Birmingham, UK, addressed the song "Hey Sandy" (Cube Records # 2016 065) to Sandra Lee Scheuer, one of the students killed by Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State. It featured on the 1972 album Writer of Songs (Cube Records # Hifly 10). Harvey said that "I actually wrote it within a day or two of the shootings and had not heard Young's song", although it was released a few years afterwards.12 The song displayed sympathy with the demonstrators, and presented Scheuer as one of the protesters. But it later transpired, through an interview given by her friend Bruce Burkland, that "at the time this most unfortunate incident happened, Sandy was walking with one of her speech and hearing therapy students across the green".3 The narrator provided a detailed narrative of the events, placing the listener at the demonstration, and in Scheuer's shoes. It recalled the build-up to the clash: "the marching men came" as the students stood "in the college square...with flag". This square would be mentioned again at the end of the track: "the square ran red", effectively displaying the change that took place. The narrator wondered how Scheuer felt when the National Guard attacked: "did you feel the burn of the bullets?". The narrator also commented that "no one cared for another campus bum" - a reference to President Nixon's remarks on 30 April 1970.Sources1Harvey Andrews (official website)↩2Mainly Norfolk: Harvey Andrews — Writer of Songs↩3Internet Archive: Sandy scheuer (archived copy)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Kent / Jackson State Songs

Harvey Andrews, from Birmingham, UK, addressed the song "Hey Sandy" (Cube Records # 2016 065) to Sandra Lee Scheuer, one of the students killed by Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State. It featured on the 1972 album Writer of Songs (Cube Records # Hifly 10). Harvey said that "I actually wrote it within a day or two of the shootings and had not heard Young's song", although it was released a few years afterwards.12 The song displayed sympathy with the demonstrators, and presented Scheuer as one of the protesters. But it later transpired, through an interview given by her friend Bruce Burkland, that "at the time this most unfortunate incident happened, Sandy was walking with one of her speech and hearing therapy students across the green".3 The narrator provided a detailed narrative of the events, placing the listener at the demonstration, and in Scheuer's shoes. It recalled the build-up to the clash: "the marching men came" as the students stood "in the college square...with flag". This square would be mentioned again at the end of the track: "the square ran red", effectively displaying the change that took place. The narrator wondered how Scheuer felt when the National Guard attacked: "did you feel the burn of the bullets?". The narrator also commented that "no one cared for another campus bum" - a reference to President Nixon's remarks on 30 April 1970. Sources1Harvey Andrews (official website)↩2Mainly Norfolk: Harvey Andrews — Writer of Songs↩3Internet Archive: Sandy scheuer (archived copy)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Hey Sandy, hey Sandy why were you the one? / All the years of growing up are wasted now and gone / Did you see them turn, did you feel the burn of the bullets as they flew? / Hey Sandy, hey Sandy just what did you do? / Hey Sandy, hey Sandy just what did you do? / Well the sun was hot and the air was heavy as the marching men came by / And you ran to the door and you watched then pass and you asked the soldiers "Why?" / The sound of the steel and the black boot's heel were pounding in your head / And your freedom's past, they have come at last, with the blessings of the dead.... / In the college square they were standing there with flag and with the drum / And the whispered word as the young ones stirred was "now at last they've come" / And the air was still with the lonely thrill... / Now the hour is near and the smell of sweat was better yet than the awful stench of fear.... / Through the air they shout as you all ran out was "why are these things done?" / And you stood and you stared but no one cared for another campus bum / And your songs were dead and the hymns instead were to the burning pyre / And the words of youth, like love and truth, just ashes in the fire.... / Did you throw the stone at the men alone with their bayonets fixed for hire? / Did you doubt that they would, say no one could / Did you scream when they opened fire? / As the square ran red and your bloodstain spread and the darkness round you grew / Through the fear and the pain did you call the…

Notes

2016 033, Side 1, stereo, brown-and-cream label; "Hey Sandy" (Harvey Andrews), 4.20, Essex; produced by John Worth; "From the forth-coming album 'Writer of Songs' 2326 011"; ℗ 1972 Cube Records Ltd.; made in New Zealand by Polygram Records. A dealer sticker from The Music Box, 83 Cathedral Square, Christchurch, is on the label. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

English singer-songwriter, born 1943 in Birmingham, England. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Anti-War · Kent State

In collections

European Songs · Kent / Jackson State Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]