Tuesday, May 04, 2010

40 Years Ago in Ohio

40 years ago today, 4 people were killed and 9 wounded during the Kent State massacre, when National Guardsmen fired into a crowd of students protesting the invasion of Cambodia.

After seeing pictures of the incident in Life Magazine, Neil Young wrote the song Ohio, which was recorded 17 days after the shooting by Crosby, Still, Nash and Young.

This is that song.



5 comments:

Megan said...

I've been re-reading Manchester's "The Glory and the Dream." I skipped ahead to the Kent State part and found this:

"There was a widespread feeling that the victims had got what was coming to them."

:(

John said...

I received a master's degree from a Kent State extension center. People of a certain age always bring up the shooting immediately after learning that.

MC said...

Megan: There were people who were just walking by who got shot. That sounds fair, doesn't it? In fact, while the wounded were very close to the guardsmen, those killed were over 300 ft away. Of course, there are always going to be those that condone the shooting of unarmed people when they disagree with their politics.

John: See, I would likely start with Drew Carey being a KSU drop out... but that's just me.

Arjan said...

I also found the song from the Beachboys about the riots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQlIIybHTDU

It sounds a bit 'happy' but the message is the same.

MC said...

Well, they were generally happier sounding (if not in real life).