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{{short description|Protest song performed by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young}}

factoids

| length = 2:58Atlantic Records>Atlantic| writer = Neil Young| producer = Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young| prev_title = Teach Your Children| prev_year = 1970Our House (CSNY song)>Our House| next_year = 1970| misc = {{Audio sample }}}}"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.WEB, Glenn, Gamboa,weblink Neil Young's 'Ohio' captures gravity of event – News, Ohio.com, 2016-10-03,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20161014211742weblink">weblink 2016-10-14, dead, 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 and number 16 in Canada.WEB,weblink RPM Weekly 100, August 22, 1970, Library and Archives Canada, 17 July 2013, March 31, 2017, October 6, 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20161006110104weblink">weblink live, Although live versions of "Ohio" and "Find the Cost of Freedom" were included on the group's 1971 double album 4 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 remained unreleased until 2007.

Recording

Young wrote the lyrics to "Ohio" after seeing the photos of the incident in Life Magazine.BOOK, Shakey, McDonough, Jimmy, 2002, Anchor Books, New York, 978-0-679-75096-3, 345, On the evening that the group 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 (even though the group's hit song "Teach Your Children" was already on the charts at the time). In his liner notes for 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."Neil Young. Decade. (Reprise Records, 1977). In the fade, Crosby's voice—with a tone evocative of keening—can be heard with the words "Four!", "Why?" and "How many more?".WEB,weblink Ohio Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, July 25, 2020, May 13, 2020,weblink live, According to the liner notes in Greatest Hits, the track was recorded by Bill Halverson on May 21, 1970, at Record Plant Studio 3 in Hollywood.WEB,weblink Crosby, Stills & Nash 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' {{!, Classic Tracks {{!}}|website=www.soundonsound.com|language=en-gb|access-date=2017-10-15|archive-date=2017-10-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015044608weblink|url-status=live}}

Lyrics and reception

An article in The Guardian in 2010 describes the song as the "greatest protest record" and "the pinnacle of a very 1960s genre", while also saying "The revolution never came."NEWS,weblink Neil Young's Ohio – the greatest protest record, Lynskey, Dorian, 2010-05-06, The Guardian, 2017-10-15, en-GB, 0261-3077, 2024-05-10,weblink live, President Richard Nixon, who is criticized in the song, won a landslide reelection in 1972, which included winning the 1972 United States presidential election in Ohio by a margin of over 21%. 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 Guard officers shot and killed four students during a protest against the Vietnam War. 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 a varying extent for the rest of the decade.WEB,weblink The History of 'Ohio': Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Raw Reminder of the Kent State Massacre, Ultimate Classic Rock, 4 May 2015, 2017-10-15, 2017-11-30,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20171130205310weblink">weblink live, At the time of the shooting the American public was highly critical of the protestors and blamed them for the violence. This is what the line "What if you knew her? / And found her dead on the ground" was about. Sociology professor David Karen said the importance of the song was that "it didn't let the moment die" and "underlined just how corrupt and awful the government was."WEB,weblink The Story Behind the Song: The tragedy of Neil Young track 'Ohio' - Far Out Magazine, 4 May 2021, 25 February 2024, 25 February 2024,weblink live, After the single's release, it was banned from some AM radio stations including in the state of Ohio, because of the challenge to the Nixon AdministrationWEB,weblink 50 Years Ago: Kent State Massacre Inspires CSNY's 'Ohio', Frank Mastropolou, 4 May 2015, 24 October 2020, 29 October 2020,weblink live, 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 2010.MAGAZINE , In 2009, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.WEB,weblink GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, GRAMMY.org, 2016-10-03, 2015-06-26,weblink live,

Personnel

• David Crosby – vocals; rhythm guitar on "Ohio"
• Stephen Stills – vocals, guitars
• Graham Nash – vocals
• Neil Young – vocals, guitars
• Calvin Samuels – bass on "Ohio"
• John Barbata – drums on "Ohio"

Charts

Weekly charts{| class"wikitable sortable"

!Chart (1970)!PeakpositionKent Music Report>KMRKENT>FIRST=DAVIDKENT MUSIC REPORT>AUSTRALIAN CHART BOOK 1970–1992YEAR=1993LOCATION=ST IVES, NEW SOUTH WALES, N.S.W.>AUTHOR-LINK=DAVID KENT (HISTORIAN), 44RPM (magazine)>RPM Top SinglesHTTP://WWW.BAC-LAC.GC.CA/ENG/DISCOVER/FILMS-VIDEOS-SOUND-RECORDINGS/RPM/PAGES/IMAGE.ASPX?IMAGE=NLC008388.3821&URLJPG=HTTP%3A%2F%2FWWW.COLLECTIONSCANADA.GC.CA%2FOBJ%2F028020%2FF4%2FNLC008388.3821.GIF&ECOPY=NLC008388.3821 >TITLE=RPM WEEKLY 100, AUGUST 1, 1970 LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA >DATE=17 JULY 2013 ARCHIVE-DATE=FEBRUARY 2, 2022 URL-STATUS=LIVE, 16Single Top 100)JAAROVERZICHTEN – SINGLE 1970ACCESS-DATE=FEBRUARY 25, 2018SINGLE TOP 100. HUNG MEDIEN>LANGUAGE=NLARCHIVE-URL=HTTPS://WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG/WEB/20140704082534/HTTP://DUTCHCHARTS.NL/JAAROVERZICHTEN.ASP?YEAR=1970&CAT=S, live, 13Billboard (magazine)>Billboard Billboard Hot 100Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 – {{ISBN>0-89820-089-X}}14Cash Box (magazine)>Cash Box Top 100Cash Box Top 100 Singles, August 1, 1970 {{Webarchiveweblink >date=February 17, 2020 }} Retrieved 1 April 2020.14Record World Top 100RECORD WORLD MAGAZINE: 1942 TO 1982ACCESS-DATE=2020-12-28ARCHIVE-DATE=2021-06-08URL-STATUS=LIVE, 13

See also

• List of anti-war songs

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

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

{{Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young}}{{Neil Young}}{{Authority control}}