Posted on 05/03/2024 10:50:02 PM PDT by Morgana
The late David Crosby of Crosby Stills and Nash talks about the May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State and how it lead to their song, "Ohio."
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
“led”
The national guard shooting of the college students
at Kent State University happened on May 4, 1970.
Less than a year later, I was a college student,
and at the same time, I was enlisted in the national guard.
I trained with a guy that was from Wooster, Ohio, that was
a member of the national guard unit deployed to Kent State.
...
“Nobody told me there would be days like these.”
“Strange days, indeed.”
If you know, you know.
In May 1970 I was in high-school, and had a pretty good garage band going. Had a couple of originals including some pretty strong protest stuff. When "Ohio" came out, we learned it immediately and got requests to play it everywhere we performed.
Even though my views on such things have changed and morphed a lot in nearly 55 years, I still have trouble singing it without it catching in my throat.
I am sorry to say that I believe that this summer, our government will do something similar, though to whom I can't predict. Could be protesters, could be citizens, could be you and me. Interesting times ahead.
True, though that wasn't Morgana's error, it's the YouTube comment.
But the real error on the YouTube description is that they call the band "Crosby, Stills, and Nash", when in fact "Ohio" was performed by the quartet including Young, and worse, it was Neil who wrote the song.
Ignorant noob YouTubers. Probably wasn't even born when it happened.
I couldn’t stand the 60s when it was the 60s. Aren’t all those smelly hippies dead yet?
JThe hippies are now in control, and they’re control freaks. 58,000+ regular guys died because we did want to win.
That’s because we were all fulfilling our duty of citizenship while they were evading it.
Left behind by the counter culture that mostly grew up
Like Abbie
“Aren’t all those smelly hippies dead yet?”
No sorry, The clintons, pelosi, schumer and the rest are still alive,
Comments BUMP
4 dead in O hio
how many more? There are evil individuals in and out of government.
Strange days and interesting times indeed.
Today’s protestors, BLM, Antifa, “I am HAMAS” should all be shot... We praised Rittenhouse. Today’s government praises these scum as peaceful protestors using their 1st amendment right yet they gag Trump for speaking out.
60s was a different time and I grew up in them and had a good time. I’ll take the 60s over today’s BS any day. There was a lot of bad shxt but not near as bad as today
I logged onto to Youtube to listen to the song; I had heard it before but never paid much attention to it since it starts off with “Nixon coming” when Nixon had nothing to do with the whole matter. I have never been a fan of the Canadian “Neil.”
I read an account on Wikipedia of the Kent State shooting. Two of the students killed were not even participants of the protests.
It was a miserable, incendiary event and the National Guardsmen were not, obviously, trained to handle anything like that and must have lost their nerves. It is amazing that many more were not killed. Some of the protesters were agents provocateurs and not students, just like today.
I have never understood student protests and was always taught to steer clear of mobs, who are always very dangerous. You never know what will happen. For example, why would they want to harass the Guardsmen? And those two students who died merely walking to class probably were taught the same thing.
“Strange days and interesting times indeed”
The phrase “May you live in interesting times” Is a Chinese curse on the person(s) to whom it is directed. It has nothing to do with adventure.
Strange days, possibly refers to the surreal rather than the preapolpoloyctic psychedelic perceptions... but with Morrison it’s difficult to ascertain because of his off kilter state of mind due excessive drug and alcohol abuse. Manzarek ran a strong longterm PR campaign after Morrisons death, creating a 20th century mythology which was a chief factor in continuing record sales.
eff Davis Crosby....and Neil Young
“Some of the protesters were agents provocateurs and not students, just like today.”
You hit the nail on the head. Standard leftist tactic is to send in agent provocateurs to create a riot that forces the authorities to respond. Then hope that someone innocent is hurt so they can be turned into martyrs. Because sometimes innocents have to die in service of the revolution.
This is exactly what the Hamas-supporting Jew-hating agent provocateurs are hoping for today.
“Ohio” is not a long song, I’ll give them that. However, there are two sides to every story. I could not honestly relate to Kent State in May ‘70 because I was in the 5th grade when it happened. Just because they call me a baby boomer doesn’t mean that I could’ve related to guys being drafted, hippies & yippies, rock stars and their music, greasers & bikers, soldiers returning from Vietnam, dope, “free love”, women’s lib, etc., etc... No wait, I’ll take it back that I couldn’t relate to the music...Once I heard Jimi’s version of Johnny B. Goode and the live version of Little Wing from the “In The West” album, I just about swallowed the hook...And when the Beatles quit, I think it must’ve been a kind of a universal disappointment that I felt. However, I don’t think that in ‘65, Pete Townsend had me and my elementary school classmates in mind when he wrote “My Generation”!
Maybe Townshend was singing about his own generation, the generation of most of the big music and radical politics of that era, the ‘Silent Generation”, Hendrix, the Beatles, etc.
History repeats itself.
New York Times, Oct. 1970:
“the jury found that the “major responsibility” for the May events “rests clearly with those persons who are charged with the administration of the university.” The report accused the universities administration of fostering “an attitude of laxity, over‐indulgence and permissive ness,” accused some faculty members of an “over‐emphasis” on “the right to dissent,” and criticized students for their behavior and allegedly “obscene” language.”
Tom Hayden and Bill Ayer’s group, the SDS, had been at Kent State for months prior to the shootings. Many of the professors were deeply involved with the SDS, helping organize, plan protests.
Nah, I don’t think he had my parents and most of my aunts and uncles in mind. He’s closer to being a baby boomer (b1945) than anything else.
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