Ohio

"Ohio"
Single by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
B-side	"Find the Cost of Freedom"
Released	June 1970
Format	single
Recorded	May 15, 1970
Genre	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 written and composed by Neil Young in reaction to the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970 and performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. It was released as a single, backed with Stephen Stills's "Find the Cost of Freedom," peaking at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. Although a live version of the song 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 album Decade, released in 1977.

It also appears on 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. ^[1] On the evening that CSN&Y entered Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles, the song had already been rehearsed, and the quartet with their regular rhythm section 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 reported that "David Crosby cried when we finished this take." ^[2] Indeed, Crosby can be heard keening "Four, why? Why did they die?" and "How many more?" in the fade.

Lyrics and reaction

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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 Ohio National Guardsmen who killed the student protesters and Young's attribution of their deaths to the President of the United States, Richard Nixon. Crosby once stated that Young keeping Nixon's name in the lyrics was "the bravest thing I ever heard." 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 then-illegal underground FM stations in larger cities and college towns. (Today, the song receives regular airplay on classic rock stations on both FM and on Sirius XM's various channels.) 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.

This song was selected as the 385th Greatest Song of All Time by Rolling Stone in December 2004.

Covers

Notable covers of the song:

• 1971
  • The song was recorded by The Isley Brothers on their album Givin it Back from 1971.
• 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
• 2002
  • The song was later covered by Devo on the 2002 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." ^[3] In the liner notes of Decade, Young reflected in 1976, "It's ironic that I capitalized on the death of those American students." ^[2]
  • Tori Amos performed a segment of the song live as a bridge for her own song "Pancake;" the date when she did is uncertain, though "Pancake" was released on Scarlet's Walk in 2002.
• 2004
  • The Dandy Warhols placed a version of the song on their 2004 B-sides and covers album Come on Feel the Dandy Warhols, available only through the band's website.
• 2006
  • The song has been covered acoustically live by the band Rise Against during their fall 2006 co-headlining tour, with Thursday, during Rise Against's encore.
  • John & Mary and The Valkyries added the song to their live set list in late 2006.
  • British rock band Winterville covered the song as part of their live set from 2006 to 2007.
• 2007
  • The song was covered by Dala on the Canadian Borrowed Tunes II: A Tribute to Neil Young tribute album.
• 2008
  • The song was covered live by Raine Maida during his 2008 solo tour.
  • The song was covered live by The Black Crowes during their 2008 tour.
  • The song was covered by Dala on the Cinnamon Girl - Women Artists Cover Neil Young tribute album.
• 2009
  • The song was covered live by Dodgy during their 2009 tour.

Personnel

• Neil Young, guitar, lead vocal on "Ohio"
• Stephen Stills, lead guitars, vocals
• David Crosby, guitar, vocals
• Graham Nash, organ, vocals

Additional personnel

• Calvin Samuels, bass ("Ohio" only)
• Dallas Taylor, drums ("Ohio" only)

References

• Interview with Bill Halverson, engineer of "Ohio." Accessed on March 26, 2007.
• Neil Young Ohio Lyric Analysis. Accessed on March 26, 2007.