Ohio

Annotation

Super-group, formed in 1969 in Bethel, New York, USA, featuring David Crosby (vocals, guitar), Stephen Stills (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass), Graham Nash (vocals, guitar, keyboards), and Neil Young (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica). As a group, their most famous Vietnam War-related track was the Ohio / Find the Cost of Freedom single about the Kent State shooting in Ohio, where four students were killed, with the famous line: "tin soldiers and Nixon coming...I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio". As individual, solo artists, they released a number of Vietnam War songs, including: "What Are Their Names" on Crosby's album If I Could Only Remember My Name; "Relaxing Town" on Still's album Stephen Stills 2, discussed below; "Military Madness" and "Chicago" on Nash's Songs for Beginners, and "Oh! Camil (The Winter Soldier)" on Nash's Wild Tales; "Lookout Joe" on Young's Tonight's the Night. Also note that Buffalo Springfield, feauturing Young and Stills, released the song "For What It's Worth", added to the 2nd pressing of their debut Buffalo Springfield. This album included a live version of "Ohio", as well as "Chicago", which started with the intro: "here's a song for Mayor Daley". Also on this album was the medley "49 Bye-Byes / America’s Children", which included Buffalo Springfield's famous song about demonstrations "For What It's Worth". The spoken-word section called on people to take to the streets, to speak out to President Richard Nixon, VP Spiro Agnew, and Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley. The reference to "how many is it that they shot down already?" is presumably including the four in Ohio, at the Kent State demonstration on 4 May 1970.&

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — 1968 Chicago Seven / Eight Songs

Super-group, formed in 1969 in Bethel, New York, USA, featuring David Crosby (vocals, guitar), Stephen Stills (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass), Graham Nash (vocals, guitar, keyboards), and Neil Young (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica). As a group, their most famous Vietnam War-related track was the Ohio / Find the Cost of Freedom single about the Kent State shooting in Ohio, where four students were killed, with the famous line: "tin soldiers and Nixon coming...I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio". As individual, solo artists, they released a number of Vietnam War songs, including: "What Are Their Names" on Crosby's album If I Could Only Remember My Name; "Relaxing Town" on Still's album Stephen Stills 2, discussed below; "Military Madness" and "Chicago" on Nash's Songs for Beginners, and "Oh! Camil (The Winter Soldier)" on Nash's Wild Tales; "Lookout Joe" on Young's Tonight's the Night. Also note that Buffalo Springfield, feauturing Young and Stills, released the song "For What It's Worth", added to the 2nd pressing of their debut Buffalo Springfield.This album included a live version of "Ohio", as well as "Chicago", which started with the intro: "here's a song for Mayor Daley". Also on this album was the medley "49 Bye-Byes / America’s Children", which included Buffalo Springfield's famous song about demonstrations "For What It's Worth". The spoken-word section called on people to take to the streets, to speak out to President Richard Nixon, VP Spiro Agnew, and Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley. The reference to "how many is it that they shot down already?" is presumably including the four in Ohio, at the Kent State demonstration on 4 May 1970.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Kent / Jackson State Songs

Super-group, formed in 1969 in Bethel, New York, USA, featuring David Crosby (vocals, guitar), Stephen Stills (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass), Graham Nash (vocals, guitar, keyboards), and Neil Young (vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica). As a group, their most famous Vietnam War-related track was the Ohio / Find the Cost of Freedom single about the Kent State shooting in Ohio, where four students were killed, with the famous line: "tin soldiers and Nixon coming...I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio". As individual, solo artists, they released a number of Vietnam War songs, including: "What Are Their Names" on Crosby's album If I Could Only Remember My Name; "Relaxing Town" on Still's album Stephen Stills 2, discussed below; "Military Madness" and "Chicago" on Nash's Songs for Beginners, and "Oh! Camil (The Winter Soldier)" on Nash's Wild Tales; "Lookout Joe" on Young's Tonight's the Night. Also note that Buffalo Springfield, feauturing Young and Stills, released the song "For What It's Worth", added to the 2nd pressing of their debut Buffalo Springfield. This album included a live version of "Ohio", as well as "Chicago", which started with the intro: "here's a song for Mayor Daley" - a reference to Richard J. Daley and the 1968 Chicago demonstrations outside the Democratic National Convention. Also on this album was the medley "49 Bye-Byes / America’s Children", which included Buffalo Springfield's famous song about demonstrations "For What It's Worth". The spoken-word section called on people to take to the streets, to speak out to President Richard Nixon, VP Spiro Agnew, and Chicago's Mayor Richard J. Daley. The reference to "how many is it that they shot down already?" is presumably including the four in Ohio, at the Kent State demonstration on 4 May 1970.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Cause they got the guts to get out in the streets and tell the truth every day... / Making it a little hot for them / You know all right, but you know that we're all just out there proving to Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew and Richard Daley / And all them other, well whatever you want to call them / That America is still the home of the brave oh yes it is / And you got to be brave children, how many is it that they shot down already? / Something like seventeen of us

About the artist

Canadian-American singer-songwriter, born 12 November 1945 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; moved to the US in 1966 (Buffalo Springfield, CSNY); wrote 'Ohio' (1970). [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Kent State · Anti-War · Nixon

In collections

1968 Chicago Seven / Eight Songs · Kent / Jackson State Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]