Four Dead in Ohio
1970 · GWS TRG-42 · North Miama, Florida
- Artist
- Maxima
- Title
- Four Dead in Ohio
- Release
- Together Again / Four Dead in Ohio
- Year
- 1970
- Label
- GWS # TRG-42
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- North Miama, Florida, USA
- Songwriter
- Neil Young
- Genre
- Garage Rock · Psychedelic Garage Rock
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Annotation
The psychedelic garage rock song "Four Dead in Ohio" (GWS # TRG-42), released in 1970, covered the well-known Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song Ohio composed by Neil Young: "Nixon's coming...I here the drumming, four dead in Ohio". This version started out with a spoken-word anti-war, revolutionary narrative. The speaker refused to "watch as a tide of apathy" took over. He declared that if the authorities wanted war, then "the revolution is what they will have". It also contained a possible reference to the My Lai Massacre (March 1968), kept secret for over a year until reported in the US press between September and November 1969: "how dare they hope that genocides will slip by us unnoticed". It could also refer to the indiscriminate bombing of Cambodia and the large number of Vietnamese deaths during the war. Released in Miami, Florida, Kevin McManus produced the record and Roger Hatfield worked on the arrangements.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs
The psychedelic garage rock song "Four Dead in Ohio" (GWS # TRG-42), released in 1970, covered the well-known Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song "Ohio" composed by Neil Young: "Nixon's coming...I here the drumming, four dead in Ohio". This version started out with a spoken-word anti-war, revolutionary narrative. The speaker refused to "watch as a tide of apathy" took over. He declared that if the authorities wanted war, then "the revolution is what they will have". It also contained a possible reference to the My Lai Massacre (March 1968), kept secret for over a year until reported in the US press between September and November 1969: "how dare they hope that genocides will slip by us unnoticed". It could also refer to the indiscriminate bombing of Cambodia and the large number of Vietnamese deaths during the war. Released in Miami, Florida, Kevin McManus produced the record and Roger Hatfield worked on the arrangements.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Themes
Anti-War · Kent State · My Lai · Nixon · Anti-Calley · My Lai-Type
In collections
Garage Rock Songs · Kent / Jackson State Songs · My Lai & Lt. William Calley Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs