May 4, 1970: Some Songs Have to Be Written

On May 4, 1970 -- 40 years ago today -- 28 Ohio National Guardsman fired 67 rounds into a crowd of antiwar protesters and in 13 seconds killed four students -- Allison Krause, 19; William Schroeder, 19; Jeffrey Miller, 20; and Sandra Scheuer, 20 -- and wounded nine others. Two of those killed, Krause and Miller, participated in the protest while Schroeder and Scheuer were simply walking from one class to the next.

"What if you knew her and
Found her dead on the ground?"

Following antiwar protests and some drunken vandalism on May 1, Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom had asked Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes on May 2 to send in the guard, which he did. Rhodes, a law-and-order politician much like then-President Richard Nixon, declared that, "[The protesters are] worse than the brown shirts and the communist element and also the night riders and the vigilantes. They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America. I think that we're up against the strongest, well-trained, militant, revolutionary group that has ever assembled in America." By the time the guard arrived on May 3 more students had joined the protests and the campus ROTC building had been set afire. A peaceful protest of roughly 500 students on May 4 was disrupted by the shootings.



A week later David Crosby, sitting on a sunny porch in Pescadero, CA, handed that week's Life magazine to Neil Young, who stared at the now-infamous photo of a girl grieving over a dead classmate, picked up his guitar, and wrote "Ohio." Cut live on May 15, the song was released as a 45 within days and reached #14 on the charts.

"I always felt funny abut makin' money off that. It never has been resolved," Young told biographer Jimmy McDonough. "There's nothin' I did before 'Ohio' that would be in the same category -- and very little since. Because it's kind of a political song as well as a feeling song, and it's dated to a particular incident, kinda like 'Rockin' in the Free World.'"

Young's ragged guitar tears open a hole at the start of the record, marching steadfastly ahead. Stills' lead guitar spirals upwards, sharpening the edge for Young's call to arms:

Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin'
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drummin'
Four dead in Ohio

Fewer protest songs are much clearer than that. Add Nash's backup vocals and Crosby's anguished harmonies, especially as the song fades, and you have a great record that marks a tragic moment in U.S. history.

"Ohio" was the best record I ever made with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young," Young said. "Definitely. That's the only recording that I know of where CSNY is truly a band."