Ohio (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song)

"Ohio"
Single by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
from the album So Far
B-side	"Find the Cost of Freedom"
Released	June 1970
Format	Single
Recorded	May 21, 1970
Genre	Hard rock
Length	2:58
Label	Atlantic
Writer(s)	Neil Young
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singles chronology
"Teach Your Children" (1970) "Ohio"' (1970) "Our House" (1970)
Audio sample file info · help

"Ohio" is a protest song and counterculture anthem written and composed by Neil Young in reaction to the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970, and performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.^[1] It was released as a single, backed with Stephen Stills's "Find the Cost of Freedom", peaking at number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Although a live version of "Ohio" was included on the group's 1971 double album Four Way Street, the studio versions of both songs did not appear on an LP until the group's compilation So Far was released in 1974. The song also appeared on the Neil Young compilation albums Decade, released in 1977, and Greatest Hits, released in 2004.

The song also appears on Neil Young's Live at Massey Hall album, which he recorded in 1971 but did not release until 2007.

Recording

Young wrote the lyrics to "Ohio" after seeing the photos of the incident in Life Magazine.^[2] On the evening that CSN&Y entered Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles, the song had already been rehearsed, and the quartet—with their new rhythm section of Calvin Samuels and Johnny Barbata—recorded it live in just a few takes. During the same session they recorded the single's equally direct B-side, Stephen Stills's ode to the war's dead, "Find the Cost of Freedom".

The record was mastered with the participation of the four principals, rush-released by Atlantic and heard on the radio with only a few weeks' delay. (This was despite the group already having their hit song "Teach Your Children" on the charts at the time.) In his liner notes for the song on the Decade retrospective, Young termed the Kent State incident as 'probably the biggest lesson ever learned at an American place of learning' and reported that "David Crosby cried when we finished this take."^[3] Indeed, Crosby can be heard keening "Four, why? Why did they die?" and "How many more?" in the fade.

According to the notes to Greatest Hits, it was recorded by Bill Halverson on May 21, 1970, at Record Plant Studio 3 in Hollywood.^[4]

Lyrics and reaction

The lyrics help evoke the turbulent mood of horror, outrage and shock in the wake of the shootings, especially the line "four dead in Ohio," repeated throughout the song. "Tin soldiers and Nixon coming" refers to the Kent State shootings where Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four students and Young's attribution of their deaths to the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, even though the National Guardsmen had not been federalized and were under orders from the Governor of Ohio. Crosby once stated that Young keeping Nixon's name in the lyrics was "the bravest thing I ever heard." The American counterculture took the group as its own after this song, giving the four a status as leaders and spokesmen they would enjoy to varying extent for the rest of the decade.

After the double's release, it was banned from some AM radio stations because of the challenge to the Nixon Administration in the lyrics, but received airplay on underground FM stations in larger cities and college towns. Today, the song receives regular airplay on classic rock stations. The song was selected as the 395th Greatest Song of All Time by Rolling Stone in December 2004.^[5] In 2009, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.^[6]

Covers

Notable covers of the song:

• 1971 – The song was recorded by the Isley Brothers on their album Givin' It Back.
• 1993 – Paul Weller recorded a cover during the sessions for Wild Wood, and it was released as a B-side to his single "The Weaver."
• 1998 – The song was included as a hidden track on the album Thirty Days Out by the Montrose Avenue.
• 2001 – Zegota, an American punk rock band, released a 9-minute-long cover of the song.
• 2002 – The song was covered by Devo on the album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You'd Hear. The song was of particular significance to this group. Two of its founding members, Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, were students at Kent State during the killings, Casale having witnessed the shooting and known two of the victims. Casale was not impressed by it at the time, seeing it as an opportunist song by "rich hippies...making money off of something horrible...that they didn't get."^[7] In the liner notes of Decade, Young reflected in 1976, "It's ironic that I capitalized on the death of those American students."^[3]
• 2003 – A live version of the song was included as a bonus track on a re-release of Mott the Hoople's self-titled first album.
• 2004 – The Dandy Warhols placed a version of the song on the B-sides and covers album Come on Feel the Dandy Warhols, available only through the band's website.
• 2007 – The song was covered by Dala on the Canadian Borrowed Tunes II: A Tribute to Neil Young tribute album. Their recording later appeared on the 2008 tribute album Cinnamon Girl – Women Artists Cover Neil Young.
• 2009 – The song was covered by Chris and Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes in the documentary feature film The People Speak.
• 2011 The Hung White Ponies featuring Ryan Kralik, Rick Rosas, Dave Krusen and Josh Hisle as a single. Kralik, who hails from Kent, Ohio, and Hisle donated the proceeds to the Kent State May 4th Memorial Scholarship Fund.
• 2014 – The song was covered by French singer Nolwenn Leroy on her live album Ô Tour de L'Eau.

Personnel

• David Crosby — vocals, rhythm guitar
• Stephen Stills — vocals, guitars
• Graham Nash — vocals, organ
• Neil Young — vocals, guitars

Additional personnel

• Calvin Samuels — bass
• John Barbata — drums

See also

• List of anti-war songs

References

• Neil Young Ohio Lyric Analysis. Accessed on March 26, 2007.