This channel has made my day so much brighter. I’m exhausted after work & listening to great music brightens my nights. Neil Young’s awesome I seen him @ the Fox theatre in Detroit a few years ago ❤️🇺🇸👍💜❤️
Your source is incorrect. He wrote it after David Crosby came over and explained the situation. He played what he was writing for David, who then called Graham Nash to book a studio and get the musicians together. The song was released a month later. One victim was simply walking to class. There are conflicting reports on the actual sequence of events. The Guard claimed people threw rocks. But the response to a rock is not a rifle. That was David Crosby shouting "Why?" and "How many more?" It was spontaneous as were the tears he was crying.
One day, I'd like to pay my respects at the site during the anniversary of this event and place flowers at the place these kids died at. I was a kid when this happened in 1970 and for the life of me I couldn't understand why students where being shot at.
Shame on Ohio for over and over reelecting their Governor that ordered this. James "Rocky" Rhoades served 4 terms as Governor of Ohio! He should have been impeached and had his sorry ass thrown in jail.
My husband (before we were together) had just returned home from a tour of duty in Vietnam. He was a medic. The higher ups decided that his company should start training for mob/riot control to help contain/control protests that were happening here in the States against the war. My husband refused. He told his captain that he wasn't going to point a weapon at a fellow citizen because they were protesting against the very hell-hole he just returned from. He spent 3 months in solitary confinement until his time was up. He had to accept a general discharge but he felt it was worth it rather than having to go up against fellow American citizens. Thanks for your reaction, Jamel. It was a dark time in our history but it's a time we shouldn't forget. Take care and be well. Peace.
I was there as a freshman, between classes, crossing the commons, past the Victory Bell and up Blanket Hill, heading for Fletcher Hall (my dorm) for lunch. I am now 70, and as I think of all the living I have done since then, that Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, William Schroeder (in my history class), and Sandra Scheuer, were robbed of, it still brings me to tears.
...."How can you run when you know?" To me, this completes the thought. The message of solidarity there to stay with her, protect each other, stay with each other. In these situations, protestors are often heavily criticized (or even blamed) for not complying with the orders of the police/military. But honestly, how can you disperse (run) when you're seeing someone be taken and brutalized before your eyes? Or further, if you yourself are being brutalized? It is a biological response. I'm so sorry to hear that you did know her (Allison). May she rest in peace.
It has been repeated. Armed government forces working for the state haven't stopped gunning down innocent civilians during non violent protests. Have you read the U.S. news the last 50 years?
@@michellewolf7907 She was also one of the few mildly bright spots of that situation. She was actually a runaway who was reunited with her family thanks to them seeing that picture.
The four that were killed weren't even in the protest. They were going to classes. I still remember the picture in the paper of a woman crying over the body of her friend that was shot
Yes Rich56!! you’ve nailed the SINGLE most stunning thing bout this song. opening guitar riff an ice pick in the spine....I LOVE this song but if I’m having a bad day I can be sobbing before this song is over. This song has frightening power “.....What if you knew her ...” that line puts a hole through me every time And I thank CSN and especially Young for that. Rock n Roll + Soul = Narcotic
@@peggypennington3270 My sister so do I. I have one more reason to truly remember that day, I turned 16. I didn't know it then but I was changed forever. I had a talk with my folk and I'm sure they saw it, I was just too young to understand it. Be well and safe, peace to you and yours.
Some of us old folks still remember the shock, sorrow, and rage that we felt when it happened. Neil put those feelings to music. I still shed a tear when I hear it.
I'm 68 years old and I remember this day like yesterday. Hearing this song makes me cry still to this day. This is a gut reaction that I can't describe in words. Here we are all this time gone by and the war mongers are back in power who would have our soldiers fighting for money just like back in Vietnam. So sad so sad, music is power.
It's really sad that so many still disregard and or forget history. As they say "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it". It's both sad and kind of scary.
I remember that day too as a kid. It was a scary time - the deaths of Bobby Kennedy, MLK, the riots and burning in the cities . . . I didn't really understand, but I knew things were very unsettled and unsafe.
After seeing the famous photo in Life magazine, Crosby, who was in staying in the mountains with Neil Young showed it to Neil. He said Neil took the magazine and his guitar and walked of into the woods. One hour later he came back with this song. Crosby called Graham Nash and said get to the studio NOW. They recorded it the next day in an hour and a half. The record company did not want them to release it because "Teach Your Children" was rising up the charts. CSNY said NO it goes out.
Interesting fact: CSNY had a hit rising the charts, Teach Your Children, but they released this great song immediately because they felt they had to get it out right away.
David Crosby called Graham Nash to get everyone to the recording studio the NEXT DAY after Neil Young showed the song to him (after writing it in an hour). It was more important to them to show how America was killing it's children than to have a hit record.
My brother in law’s mom was at Kent during the shootings she is in one of the pictures as a nursing student attending to a shot student. Such a sad stain on American history.
David Crosby did an amazing interview on Howard Stern and says Neil Young took the newspaper article with him into the woods and 20 minutes later had a finished song. Stephen Stills saw the importance of the song and urged the band to record the song as soon as possible. They released the song despite already having a single (Teach Your Children) on the charts.
David Crosby was interviewed by Bob Costas (posted on this site) in which he described it differently. He said that he and Neil were sitting on the porch with guitars, David was handed a copy of Life magazine with the photo of the young woman kneeling over the dead body of a girl who had been shot and with arms outstretched seemed to be screaming with grief and disbelief at what happened. He and Neil continued looking at the photo and becoming more emotional about it. Crosby says Neil immediately started composing the song, very simple at that point, and Crosby tried to get him to flesh it out. Before long, it was written and Neil felt it needed to be recorded immediately. So David called to Graham Nash, made arrangements to book a studio and they all went there to record it asap, releasing it within two weeks because of the timely and urgent quality of this.
I was 17 when this happened. I wasn't anywhere near Ohio, but it shocked the nation. I was a student and it could have been me. All these years, it still shocks me. Man, those were turbulent times and this song is still as powerful now as it was then.
Yes along with this song Ohio, Marvin Gaye's "what's going on" is definitely one of a few songs that brings tears to my eyes no matter how many times I listen to it!!!
"How many more?!" I grew up listening to the protest and rebellion music from this era. My heart is broken over and over watching history repeat itself generation after generation. Anger is a healthy response to abuse and injustice. Fight oppression.
I can still see the cover of all the newspapers the day after. The dead boy lying on the ground and the hysterical girl kneeling over him. In another column of the front page of The New York Times that day was the announcement that my uncle, Charles Gordone, had become the first Black man to win a Pulitzer Prize for his play "No Place To Be Somebody"! Is it really so long ago?
Reminiscent of Eisenhower having film crews at the German concentration camps as they were first seeing the horrors. He said that it was so bad people would doubt it unless they saw it for themselves. And now we have people doubting both the holocaust and Kent State and a whole host of horrors
I attended Ohio State back then, and we had a large walk area called The Oval that was HUGE like a park.... it would fill up with student protesters (Thousands of students) and a couple of weeks before the Kent State massacre, we were occupied by the National Guard who were armed with live rounds of ammunition... our radical protesters were throwing rocks at the National Guard and it was really by the grace of God no one was shot and killed.... there is plenty of footage of this on RU-vid.. It was like a tinder box ready to explode at any time. I remember it like it was yesterday......
I remembered the tumultuous 60s like a bad dream. I was never so glad to see the 1970s roll in and put an end to all the social and cultural scariness. And when we finally left Vietnam, it was like being cured from from a lengthy illness.
@@mikehenson819 yeah back in the mid 60's when they first started busing kids around to new schools trying to achieve some diversification and de-segregation in the system it was met with great resistance. I remember fighting on our street between blacks and whites. yelling and throwing things at each other. it was crazy.
R.I.P. to David Crosby. This is one of my favorite songs by CSNY and I can listen to it on a loop and I have listened to it on a loop just today when I found out about Mr. Crosby.
I was 10 then. These words haunt me still. I can't forget them. 4 killed, 10 injured. Bro you need to see the images. This song is done over many of them. Tears in my eyes again.
@@Serai3 Really? Even though the protest was about the expansion of the Vietnam War to include the bombing of Viet Cong and NVA supply lines through Cambodia - as well as National Guard presence on the campus, nobody referred to it as the Cambodia War. It was part and parcel of the Vietnam War. Are you being deliberately obtuse?
@@NT-fo3me No, asshole. I'm being someone who was around at the time. Yeah, Cambodia came out of the Vietnam War, but the bombing there was its own side issue at the time, and many protests were SPECIFICALLY about that part of the war. So who's being fucking obtuse NOW?
That's a HUGE blanket statement... while depth of feeling in lyrics might be absent from most Top 40 radio these days, it certainly doesn't mean that all of today's music is bereft of feeling and meaning.. check out Kendrick Lamar's How Much Does a Dollar Cost or Childish Gambino's This is America for some stunning songs from the last couple years. I love oldies like this song, but there is still good music being made today.
This song makes me cry every time I hear it. I was 10 & living in Akron (about 12 miles from KSU) at the time this happened. Something I will never forget!
67 shots fired. Nine wounded - four dead. Per wiki, the closest of the four was 265ft away. The other dead were were 300-plus feet away. At least one of the dead was just walking by and not part of any protest.
It is what happens when those in 'control' feel threatened and go to extremes. The Guard should never have been called in. The authorities escalated to situation to look tough. Then it got out of hand. The Natl Guard were the ones rioting that day.
@@heathcliff8624 Excuse me. Whether I served of not has NOTHING to do with understanding what happened that day and how demagogues use situations only for their own perceived benefits at the expensive of millions who suffer and DIE. Don't preach to me about baseless. Don't tell me it is "something which I know nothing about". Did you serve in Vietnam? Even then we knew it was a baseless, a useless waste of lives. I lost several friends to that stupidity. I lived through that time and know a lot more than armchair philosophers who truly yak about things THEY know nothing about. So sit down.
Sandra was my friend. We were protesting everything. We were fighting for everybody’s rights and we’re fighting against the war. I lost a friend that day in 1970 at Kent state.
Tragic memories. Youthful lives taken for no reason. Memories are still there when ever I hear this song. I was only 17 but as anyone who was old enough to remember will tell you. 1960-70 changed America in a way that we as a country are still suffering from the effects.As you can tell from the comments the pain is still there. Also the division.
i remember this when i was in junior high. it really shook me that our own national guard could shoot college students just for protesting the vietnam war.
Same, it was stunning and horrifying, the propaganda the media put out was a lot different than today, we only had 3 TV stations at the time so the news was a bit slanted toward the opinion of the people in power, I remember them talking about teenagers jumping out of windows on LSD, I seriously doubt that happened to the extent that it was reported, if it happened at all. It was all a whole lot of fear mongering by the “establishment” to advance the “war on drugs” which never worked and to squash the hippie movement that was all about peace, love and flower power, it was a way to demonize all young people and destroy the movement in favor of the Vietnam War. Nixon did get us out but he told some lies, bombed Cambodia, unnecessarily. J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI even had a hit out on Martin Luther King Jr., that’s what I read years later. They made the black panthers out to be a terrorist group because they were the first black armed protestors. MLK believed in peaceful protests for the most part but he did once say “the riot is the voice of the unheard.” He wasn’t wrong, nobody paid much attention to the rights of African Americans until shit caught on fire, It’s just the truth, I remember like it was yesterday. I grew up in the south, right in the middle of it as a white kid.
I was a senior in college when Kent State happened in 1970. It was a very tense week on campus after that - even though we were halfway across the country from there. Such a senseless tragedy. This song was everywhere as soon as it came out.
@@lisabellamy8424 Yeah, I get it. Especially the last verse, where he's hoping the world we get better, and then interrupts himself with "Anybody seen my old friend Bobby?"
The protest was about Nixon's expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. There were protests at colleges all around the country. I was a student at UT Knoxville and took part. To learn the facts about Kent State read Michener's book "Kent State."
I'm from Ohio and remember this all too well. There were 9 others wounded. A couple of years later, a band wanted to play this song in my highschool's talent show but were not permitted to..."too controversial".
As someone who attended Kent State in the latter part of the 70's, I've learned a bit about this tragedy. The protest began because of the covert expansion of the Viet Nam War into Cambodia. The protests were not entirely peaceful as they had burned down the ROTC building a few days before, prompting Ohio Governor Rhodes to send in the National Guard. A couple of problems with this is that the Guard were not trained in crowd control (the State Police would have been a better choice due to their training) and they were also fatigued since they were just deployed to (The) Ohio State University the previous week. In trying to disperse the crowd they marched themselves into a corner. When trying to march back, they turned toward the crowd and raised their weapons. No one has positively determined who or if an order to fire was made and who fired the first shot, as far as I know. Sadly, four were killed and nine were injured. The four that died, Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, and Sandra Scheuer, were basically bystanders, observing the protesters between classes. Three of the thirteen casualties, including Schroeder, were shot in the back. It was a truly dark day. Neil Young has said that this incident was one of the biggest lessons learned of a generation. As a side note, the famous picture of the girl screaming over the body of Jeffery Miller was taken by a student photographer named John Filo, which won him a Pulitzer Prize. The girl was a 14 y/o runaway from Florida who had befriended a couple of the the students that were hit that day: Sandra Scheuer who was killed, and Alan Canfora who was wounded. I hope this helps you understand the song a bit more
Thank you for sharing more of the entire story. The protests had been far from peaceful and the National Guard was having rocks hurled at them. Still tragic, no matter what - but there is more to the story than "peaceful" protesting.
Yes, I was following the events on the news back then. This was a tragic result to an escalation of violence. As well as burning down the R.O.T.C. building as you stated, the protesters had also been throwing rocks at the National Guard for days before they fired. Although this in no way justifies the shootings, to call the protesters totally peaceful isn't an accurate representation
They had broken windows downtown a few days earlier, but I never heard of the protesters throwing rocks at the Guard for days previous, just the day of the shootings. And walking around the area when I was there back then, I was hard pressed to find any, let alone enough, rocks to pose a threat to Guard. Additionally, none of the students even believed the guns were loaded with live ammunition. That was an ignorant assumption on their part. Personally, if I ever see a gun I assume it's loaded.
This song is about the Kent state murders of four innocent students, some weren't even involved in the protest but that shouldn't matter, they were murdered in cold blood not "accidently shot"
So much has changed while so much has not. Events like Kent State and My Lai caused the military to empathize obeying lawful orders and how the ‘just following orders defense’ doesn’t apply. But the militarization of the police with their ‘qualified immunity’ has negated some of this. I’ll encourage everyone to watch “The Trial of the Chicago Seven” on Netflix for another example.
I remember reading Tales of Hoffman about the trial of the Chicago 7. Nobody reading it today would believe it. Bobby Seale bound and gagged, which CSN&Y sang about on 4 Way Street - Chicago
Jamel if you are interested in that time in history you should check out the Vietnam documentary Ken Burns made. There was so much going on back then, it's a lot more complicated than soldiers following orders killed innocent people. That's what happened, but knowing why it happened I think helps us understand why we are the way we are today.
The most surprising thing I learned from that documentary is that the Vietnam occupation actually started in the 40s when the US let support to the French who were trying to re-conquer Vietnam. I was truly stunned about the timing, because up until then, I always associated the Vietnam War with the 60s and 70s.
@@julieharden2433 It's one of the longest wars in human history, certainly the longest in post-Napoleonic modern warfare. The Vietnamese also resisted Japanese occupation through force. Over 30 years of constant warfare. 6 years after the US withdrew, in 1979, China invaded them and retreated after heavy losses.
Just love your reactions to the oldies. I remember when Ohio state happened and this song soon came out. It was the start of my protesting the war. 65 and still protesting.
I was a little boy when this happened at Kent State. Growing up with the Vietnam War in your livingroom every night and then this, was traumatizing. I remember saying my prayers ever night, wishing the war would end so that I wouldn't be drafted when I turned 18.
Fun fact: future members of new wave pioneers Devo were students at Kent State when this happened, and the incident was influential in their philosophical development. Perhaps it's time to check out Devo. Whip It is their most famous song, Freedom of Choice is my favorite, and there's countless other great songs there.
This happened at Kent State University near Kent , Ohio just up the road from me in the Upper Ohio Valley in MAY , 1970. The students were trying to stop the war in Vietnam . Later that year I would be drafted into the Army and go on to serve in that damn war . Those poor kids 4 dead and 10 wounded simply because they were Against WAR . HATE has always been with us and sadly it doesn't appear to be going away .
Karl, the line " we are Stardust, we are golden" comes from Woodstock. Interesting fact, Joni didn't play the festival, but saw footage of it at a hotel and wrote it a few days later.
The shooting this song is about also inspired the band DEVO to form. They were Kent State students and were there when the National Guard opened fire. The incident also inspired Chrissie Hynde to move from Ohio to London, where she eventually formed The Pretenders.
I was 9 years old, and lived in Kenmore Ohio, not far from Kent State, and I remember hearing the initial reports on the radio at home with my family; nobody really believed it was happening. There are many reports out on the why and how of it all, simply put: a true American tragedy. Thanks for revisiting it, and hopefully we all learned something, though these days it doesn't seem like people paid any more serious attention then than they do now.
Sadly it's still very real and relevant today, dare I say even more relevant half a century later, last summer showed this ugly truth. I love reaction videos because growing up with this music I naively assumed everyone was hearing it and hoped it would bring some change. Being much older and (somewhat) wiser now, I'm seeing that wasn't the case but "the times they are a changin'" again. The ability to expose such a large audience to music they never knew existed is (my opinion) something that can change how people view the world. Music is an oral history of times gone by but also meant to help recognize it happening again. Music has no borders, harmony and synchronicity is an act of nature that allows us to see beyond our own experiences, these reaction videos just reinforce that what I thought was life changing at the time still is for people 50 years later.
Neil Young wrote this song after seeing photos in Life magazine. A very sad day in American history, National Guard troops fired 67 shots in 13 seconds. Two of those killed were hundreds of feet from the protest and not even participating in it.
@@bwana-ma-coo-bah425 Not sure it was his job to chronicle every single American state killing of its own people in song. In any case, in 1965 he was touring Canada (his home country) as a solo singer and wasn’t well known. For songs about Watts: see Frank Zappa, Phil Ochs and Cypress Hill.
@@bwana-ma-coo-bah425 Ironically, thanks to another comment, I see that another Canadian, Gordon Lightfoot, wrote Black Day in July about the Detroit riots of 1967. It was banned on the radio in 30 states. The problem ain’t the songwriters - the problem is the folks doing the killing.
@@stshnie yes he did. 100 million points to you. However the problem I have is why does a white guy write a song about 4 white dead in Ohio get recognition and radio air play, and when a white guy writes a song about killings in Chicago of many blacks it gets banned. Is this white still America at it again? The problem isn't the people doing the killings. The problem is America allows new born babies to have access to a gun. Here is the difference between Americans and Canadians. Canadians see a kill kill movie and see it as just that. A movie. Americans see the same movie and see it as reality. The reason Americans are nice in the hospitality industry has 2 reasons. 1. you work on tips 2. you fear that the person might pull a gun out and shoot you. Seems to me white America ha a lot to answer to.
@@PHDWhom - I did not know that Jefferson Airplane had a cover of Wooden Ships. Thanks for the tip, and I just listened to it. My preference is still the CSNY version, as that is the one I grew up with. Usually the version you heard first (and or most) is the one that will stick with you.
@@tubularap airplane didnt actually "cover" the song, they helped to write it. The credit is shared. Airplane's version is a bit different, it adds piano, but I find it to be equally powerful.
@@lisarainbow9703 - Thanks for that interesting info. I'm going to look further into the backstory of the song. Never did, I always just assumed it was by Stephen Stills, because of the style.
This was the world I was born into... my mom was pregnant with me at the time... 50 years later and the senseless killings are still happening. Half a century... you'd think that something would have changed by now...
I was only 12 this song came out but I had an older brother who was hit hard by this an explained the meaning to me. Still brings tears 50 years later. RIP bro, and to the all the YOUNG people involved in this tragedy.
@@sheilathailand1903 It sure was . I’m a son a Vietnam vet and my father lost his younger brother there in 71. My mother is quite liberal. I feel so much from all sides. Pride and sorrow for our servicemen and women who cared for them, disdain for politicians and respect for dissenters.
Last year I wrote my final essay in a class about this song and got a 100. 15 pages on 10 lines and an outro, this song is simply and undeniably incredible.
Back in the day artists would dive right into politically charged issues without worrying about ruining their brand, this happened on campus at Kent State. If you like this one check out the Doors Five to One
I was part of that generation. In the late 60's I was a part-time college student protesting the war-------protesting racism------advocating change. I worked for Robert Kennedy's Presidential campaign. -----------and, I remember the Kent State massacre ! and, that's what it was-----a massacre. There was NEVER any justice for those 4 killed ! NEVER. NEVER !! --------------------MJL, 75 y/o
Interesting. Our young and middle aged men and women have just spent the last 20 years, and counting in combat zones with little more than that hammer you speak of, at least I think. Profound, and I am hugely critical. Succinct. Whether you meant it to be or not. T Y!☮️❤️
It was an absolutely horrible thing that happened. I was on a nearby campus the next day, and armed men on horses were riding us down and yelling at us that school was closed for the school year, and we were not even protesting. It was like that all over the country. What's going on now is a really different thing, not better or worse, just different.
Same time, several students in Mississippi at Jackson state were killed, in the same manner - both peaceful protests against Vietnam. The National guard were young people untrained to handle, again, a peaceful protest by students, as was happening all over the world. It's strange to me that so many young people don't know about the history of that war at home, glad someone is reminding us. A truly great song.
The girl referred to in the song was not even in the protest. She was some distance away and killed by a bullet from the National Guard probably fired over the heads of the actual protesters.
@@kiplambel4052 If you're referring to the girl in the famous photo, she was a 14 y/o runaway from Florida who had befriended some of the students, including two that had been killed. When she was returned home, the Florida governor labeled her a Commie. Such were the times.
The 1970 Kent State shooting was still a major news story when the song came out. The shooting was on May 4, the song was recorded May 21, and was released a few weeks later. That's quick.
I was 12 years old and delivering newspapers when this happened. I remember seeing that picture of the girl with her hands in the air over the body of the student that was shot on the front page of each paper I delivered and it had a profound affect. The song came out so quick after (something like 10 days) and I bought it on 45. Still resonates to this day.
I lived not terribly far from Kent State. I was 10 years old. I remember the headlines. The protesters apparently threw bottles and bricks. Why the National Guard had real bullets, instead of rubber bullets, I don't know. I don't know if that was an option. Joe Walsh was a local musician, and Allison was a friend of his. I heard him interviewed by Steve and Garry on WLUP(Chicago) in the 80's about it. He was trying to get a memorial made at Kent State. "All in The Family" was a comedy, but showed the culture war going on. Young people against the Vietnam War vs. their parents, who still trusted the government(before Watergate), and had fought in WW2, and thought it was patriotic to fight against communism. They had seen the worst of Mao and Stalin. Nobody was wrong, they just had very different perspectives. Apparently, the National Guard panicked at Kent State and opened fire. The song still makes me cry.
Neil Young read the headline in the paper while hanging out with Dave Crosby. Left the room, wrote this and came back in 45 minutes. was a single the next week
A tortured time. National Guard shooting students, 11 days later police did it again at Jackson State. Most people have no idea how torn up the US was during the mid Sixties to the mid Seventies. Those of us who lived thru those times can see the same hatred in today's polarized nation.
But is it the same hatred? This feels worse somehow. It feels like a lot of the people who lived through the 60s didn't learn anything from what happened and continue to make the same mistakes.
Yes! I was in 10th grade when this happened. I'll ALWAYS remember Walter Cronkite reporting this tragedy. He was so sad and disgusted. t seems like not much has really changed.
It was at Kent State and it was a protest against the war in Vietnam. The National Guard was there to contain them from the buildings. The protestors were in their face and some bottles and stones were thrown at the Guardsmen, many of whom were just kids as well. No order to fire was given but one guy got scared and fired causing his squad to open fire thinking an order had been given, a true American tragedy
In an interview, Graham Nash said that when he heard the news of the Kent State Massacre, Neil Young wrote the song and insisted they record it and release it right away. It was so important to them that they didn't mind it competing with "Teach Your Children" that was just released as a single shortly before.
This happened when I was a freshman in high school. Crazy times, but great music. My friends were wearing bracelets of POW or MIA soldiers with their info on it and they were supposed to wear them until they were found. It was tense. Friends had older brothers in Viet Nam. I never understood war and I still don't.
I was just a year older than you. I'll never forget the shock and horror of that news. That and watching my mom scan the faces of boys in Vietnam shown on the evening news are embedded in my brain. Mom was searching for my brother John. I think she barely slept the 13 months he was gone. And then we saw the Kent State coverage. Incredible music, tough times.
I was a sophomore in high school and my brother was in a field hospital in Vietnam in 1970. He rode in the helicopters picking up dead/wounded from battlefield. He has never talked about it in front of me. I think he probably confided in our dad, but definitely not our mother. I still have my POW bracelet. I did a google search for the name on my bracelet a few years ago. He survived the war, but has since passed away.
“The Truth About Kent State,” written by a minister, is a great read. Those teenagers/young adults had no idea the National Guard would open fire on them, most just walking to class.
May 4th 1970. Kent State University in Ohio. This event shook the nation. It shouldn't have happened but it did. It changed the way many Americans thought about the President and the government in general.
With all that has happened in the last 5 years, heck the last two, where are the bands and songs like this today? Was a peaceful protest. They did get close to the guard, flowers in gun barrels type of close. There was a disturbance near the ROTC building, but nothing near the shots fired. Sad day. Love CSNY, and later CSN. One of my favorite groups. Love your work Jamel, glad I found your feed!
