Four Dead in Ohio

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

Lyrics

English: No longer can I sit idly by why the heirs of outrageous indifference pierce the lungs of my brothers / Nor can I watch as a tide of apathy sweeps the ideas of a generation into the sea / How dare they think that fire will not be met with fire / How dare they hope that genocides will slip by us unnoticed / How dare they infect, and abduct, seduce and induce, hatred... / If it's peace they want, then they shall have it / But if war is what they want, the revolution is what they will have

Notes

GWS Recording Corp. of America, "World of Hits", 1175 N.E. 125th Street, Suite 413, North Miami, Florida; TRG-42 B; "Four Dead in Ohio", credited on the label to (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young); produced by Kevin McManus and D. Hieronymus; arranged by Roger Hatfield. Yellow label with globe logo. [From the record sleeve and labels]

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 [War Years]