40 Years After "Ohio"

Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin'
Four dead in Ohio*

This week passed a somewhat ignominious anniversary. On May 4, 1970 national guardsmen fired on student demonstrators at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. Four students were killed and at least nine more wounded. Sadly, the students were killed up to 390 feet away as they were walking across the campus or standing. Several of the wounded students were shot at greater distances. The farthest being 750 feet where student Donald Mackenzie was shot in the neck. They were not part of the demonstration, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Toward the end of the 1960s, student protests were becoming more frequent. The war in Vietnam was still raging and the Nixon administration, elected on a platform of ending the war, was slow to admit the futility of the conflict and even slower to end it. Anti-war protests on campuses were frequently met with force and invariably it was the students who received more than they bargained for. Kent State was the culmination of anger and frustration felt on both sides. There is still conjecture surrounding the events of that day, but one thing is certain, the Ohio National Guard used disproportionate force in their attempt to break up the demonstration. There was no reason to shoot.

Enter Neil Young. In 1970 he had joined with Steven Stills, David Crosby, and Graham Nash to form Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Their album Déjà Vu was released in March of 1970 and became a platinum seller. Two months later, while hanging out at their road manager's house, Crosby handed Neil a copy of Life magazine containing the famous picture of a Kent State student grieving over the body of her dead classmate. Neil was moved by the photo and the story, and grabbing his guitar he wrote one of the quintessential contemporary protest songs, "Ohio." "On the porch in the sunlight," recalls Crosby. Within twenty-four hours a studio was booked and the song was recorded. It reached number fourteen surpassing CSN &Y's previous single from Déjà Vu "Teach Your Children."

Lyrically, "Ohio" is short. Two strophes. Just ten lines. But in those ten lines Neil captured the fear, frustration, and anger felt by youth across the country. In typical Young fashion he sets it to a plodding dirge that asks the question, "What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground? How can you run when you know?" The prevailing thought among much of the older generation was that the students deserved it. Neil turns this around and brings home the tragedy by making it a personal question. What if it was you or someone you cared about? What then?

As usual, some radio stations refused to play the song and Neil was criticized for writing it in the first place. The perception being that these long-haired hippies (CSN & Y) were profiting off the tragedy. This was not lost on Neil, as he admits being conflicted over the success of the song, "I always felt funny about makin' money off that. It never has been resolved. I think I resolved it by the way I treated other things after. That was about the first time I had to have a conscience about something like that."**

Still, after 40 years, "Ohio" is still relevant. Parallels between the war in Vietnam and the U.S. conflict in Iraq have been drawn, but that is not the point. Wars will always be protested, the important thing to take away from "Ohio" is the simple act of saying something. In other words, it tells us not to be silent when injustices occur and to have some empathy for those who are suffering because of those injustices. This is not some 1960's counterculture, touchy-feely concept, this still applies.

After all, what if you knew her?


* Neil Young, "Ohio" (1970)
**Jimmy McDonough, Shakey: Neil Young's Biography (2002): 346.