Every now and again, when I get angry at war and the leaders who waste young lives, I play some Neil Young. Ohio was a battle cry.
We’re thinking of you Ukraine!!
Neil Young – Ohio – A protest song of magnitude!
This is one of my favourite Neil Young tracks. It has real emotion and fury.
Richard Nixon had just announced an escalation of the Vietnam War at the beginning of May in 1970. There was an expansion into Cambodia. The student antiwar protest movement was infuriated. There were widespread protests.
Trouble had been fermenting for days. On the campus of Kent State in Ohio a large group of students protested. The National Guard were called out in strength by the governor of the State Rhodes. State troopers with fixed bayonets and live ammunition confronted the protestors. The protestors did not disperse and the State troopers fired into the unarmed crowd killing four students and injuring nine others one of whom was paralysed.
The incident became known as the Kent State Massacre and provoked widespread fury and protest across the States.
Neil Young was incensed and wrote Ohio. It was quickly recorded by CSN&Y and put out while the venom was hot.
I rate it as one of Neil’s best songs.
Neil Young – Ohio
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Read more: Neil Young – Ohio Lyrics | MetroLyrics