Kent State

Annotation

The song "Kent State" (Liberty Records # 15 393 A) by J.J. Light - otherwise known as Jimmy Stallings, a member of the country rock group Sir Douglas Quintet, based in Texas, USA - recalled the moments of the shooting, in a first person narrative, from the perspective of someone present at the incident: "woman is in the hot grass...the war on my back, the fire started...shooting". The narrator called out to the National Guard "what you doing coming here...shooting at my friends". At the end of the song, he sent a warning to the government, police, and the National Guard, that they "better stop pushing us around or we'll kick your brains out" i.e. they will retaliate.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Indigenous Americans

The song "Kent State" (Liberty Records # 15 393 A) by J.J. Light - otherwise known as Jimmy Stallings, a member of the country rock group Sir Douglas Quintet, based in Texas, USA. Originally from New Mexico, he grew up in the Navajo Nation. In an interview with Cult Scoop Magazine, he said: "I grew up in Farmington, New Mexico, born in 1942. I’m part Native American, Navajo". (1) The song recalled the moments of the Kent State shooting (or "Massacre"), which took place on May 4 1970, in Ohio, where members of the Ohio State Guard shot and killed four students. In a first person narrative, from the perspective of someone present at the incident: "woman is in the hot grass...the war on my back, the fire started...shooting". The narrator called out to the National Guard "what you doing coming here...shooting at my friends". At the end of the song, he sent a warning to the government, police, and the National Guard, that they "better stop pushing us around or we'll kick your brains out" i.e. they will retaliate.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

About the artist

J.J. Light was the recording name of James Michael 'Jim' Stallings (born in New Mexico), an American rock singer, songwriter and bass player of Navajo descent. He recorded doo-wop singles as Jimmy Stallings in the early 1960s before moving to Los Angeles, where the J.J. Light persona was devised with producer Bob Markley; the resulting psychedelic folk-rock album 'Heya!' (1969) yielded a European hit that reached number twelve in Germany, and from 1969 until the group dissolved in 1972 he played bass with the Sir Douglas Quintet. "Kent State", his own composition responding to the shootings…

Themes

Anti-War · Demonstration · Kent State

In collections

Indigenous Americans · Kent / Jackson State Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs