For What It's Worth (Stephen Stills song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“For What It's Worth”
“For What It's Worth” cover
Single by Buffalo Springfield
from the album Buffalo Springfield
B-side "Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It?"
Released January 1967
Format 7" single
Recorded December 5, 1966
Genre Folk rock
Length 2:37
Label Atco
Writer(s) Stephen Stills
Buffalo Springfield singles chronology
"For What It's Worth"
(1967)
"Bluebird"
(1967)

"For What It's Worth" is a song written by Stephen Stills. It was performed by Buffalo Springfield and released as a single in January 1967; it was later added to the re-release of their first album, Buffalo Springfield. The single peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2004, this song was #63 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

[edit] Song information

While the song has come to symbolize worldwide turbulence and confrontational feelings arising from events during the 1960s (particularly the Vietnam War), Stills reportedly wrote the song in reaction to escalating unrest between law enforcement and young club-goers relating to the closing of Pandora's Box, a club on West Hollywood, California's Sunset Strip. The song's title appears nowhere in its lyrics, and many casual listeners likely know it better by the first line of chorus: "Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down."

In 2006, Stephen Stills was interviewed by Tom Kent on his radio show "Into the '70s" and pointed out that though many people think "For What It's Worth" is about the Kent State Shootings, it was actually recorded before that event.

[edit] Cover versions and musical references

"For What It's Worth" has been covered countless times, as well as sampled, referenced, and used in film and other media. Among these many references, two are most notable for both originality and popularity.

The 1998 song "He Got Game" (from the box office topping movie of the same name) by hip hop music group Public Enemy not only samples "For What It's Worth", but also features Stephen Stills re-performing the bridge specially for that track.

A February 13, 1978 episode of The Muppet Show re-writes the song with animals singing slightly altered anti-hunting lyrics. The musical interlude was filled with hunters wildly shooting their guns while animals (many of them from Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas) hide.[1]

[edit] External links