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, declaring to continue "freedom's voice" and to ensure that "justice isn't just a word". At the end of the song, the narrator called out several names. Firstly, those killed at Kent State: "Bill and Sandy, Jeff and Allison, in our memory live on". It then mentioned the two students killed at Jackson State, Mississippi: "Philip Gibbs, James Earl Green". Next she called out the name of James Rector, killed on 15 May 1969, in People's Park, Berkeley, known as Bloody Thursday. She also referred to four African-American girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in Birmingham, Alabama, on 15 September 1963: "Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair, Carol Ann Robertson, Addie Mae Collins". Finally, the narrator brought in a contemporary example: "the students of Tiananmen Square".Sources1magpiemusic.com (archived copy)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Kent / Jackson State Songs

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, declaring to continue "freedom's voice" and to ensure that "justice isn't just a word". At the end of the song, the narrator called out several names. Firstly, those killed at Kent State: "Bill and Sandy, Jeff and Allison, in our memory live on". It then mentioned the two students killed at Jackson State, Mississippi: "Philip Gibbs, James Earl Green". Next she called out the name of James Rector, killed on 15 May 1969, in People's Park, Berkeley, known as Bloody Thursday. She also referred to four African-American girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, in Birmingham, Alabama, on 15 September 1963: "Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair, Carol Ann Robertson, Addie Mae Collins". Finally, the narrator brought in a contemporary example: "the students of Tiananmen Square". Sources1magpiemusic.com (archived copy)↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: In my dream I remember a walk with you in Spring / Trees are full of blossoms and the air is full of song / You showed me, you know that grassy knoll / That place where just a few short years before, I heard the bells toll / Four lives cut short by execution and others were changed for all time / Voices raised in anger while the killers walked away / In my dream I see you standing their on that hill / The air is full of anger in the brilliant springtime sun / You are watching, we are standing as the soldiers in their uniform conspire / Our innocence gone... / And then ascending the alter we face the fire... / They turn and cut us down / In my dream I see you in that moment of despair / The air full of confusion and the hearts all full of rage / You're running along the bank of the river of their blood / Searching for reason where there could be none / Wondering who was next to fall before the gun / A daughter or a son / Then we knew those bullets were the answers to our questioning / The bells tolled for another day of reckoning / But what they couldn't kill, our voices ringing still / In my dream, twenty years are gone / And we are there, hearts full of sorrow and the air is full of rain / You and I standing with our faces to the sky / The rage remains in our memories / Twenty years of tears can't wash it away / And from that time the life that we are living full of questioning / Our voices are all the louder without cowering / So that the voices gone will surely…

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