Kent

Annotation

The contemporary folk group Magpie, formed in Kent, Ohio, 1973, featured Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner - Leonino graduated from Kent State University and witnessed the demonstrations and the clash with the National Guard. (1) She wrote, and played the song "Kent" (Sliced Bread Records # SLBR 71185) for the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the shootings in 1995. In the linear notes of this CD, she wrote that "as a survivor of the massacre at Kent State, for years I tried to write this song. It was difficult and it is still a very painful subject for me and for many others who were on the hill that day in May, 1970. Thanks to the patience and love of my husband I was able to put this pain in to words about that time". In the song the narrator dreamed about visiting the place where the shootings took place: "in my dream I remember a walk...that grassy knoll...four lives cut short by execution". She viewed the individual impact of the event as "our innocence gone...changed for all time". The narrator then imagined the exact moment of the shootings: "despair, the air full of confusion...hearts all full of rage...the river of their blood". The lyrics then moved to the present…

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

About the artist

Magpie were an American folk duo consisting of Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner, who began playing together in Kent, Ohio in September 1973 while Leonino was completing her senior year at Kent State University, and who went on to a long career in political, labour and environmental song; they took a Wammie as traditional folk duo of the year in 1998. Leonino had been present at the shootings at Kent State on 4 May 1970, when National Guard troops fired on students protesting the war in Vietnam, and afterwards wrote the song commemorating them, which was performed at the twenty-fifth anniversary…

Themes

Anti-War · Kent State · Jackson State

In collections

Kent / Jackson State Songs