Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLII--Crobsy, Stills, Nash, and Young: Ohio

Regular readers (both of you) may recall that way back when Friday Night Jukebox began, the first song I wrote about was Crosby, Stills, and Nash's "Suite:  Judy Blue Eyes."  We're two hundred and fifty some odd featured tunes into this experiment, and this week we're going back to our first group...and adding the inimitable Neil Young, with arguably, the most powerful protest song ever written.

Crosby, Still, and Nash formed in 1969, with each of the members (David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash) coming from successful groups (the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and the Hollies respectively).  Joined off and on by Neil Young, CSN had a lot of success from the late sixties (including an appearance at the original Woodstock) to the late seventies.  To call the band volatile would be an understatement--Neil Young has left numerous times (in fairness, Young did have much more solo success than the others), Crosby did time in prison, and both Crosby and Stills had serious problems with freebasing cocaine.  Still, they have managed to release eight studio albums throughout the years, four of which hit the top ten (including one #1), and have had a #1 live album and #1 hits collection as well, and they have also had 30 (!) tours over the course of the last fifty years.  CSN was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997; each of the members was also inducted with the bands noted above (Neil Young has gotten in for his solo work and, like Stills, his work with Buffalo Springfield).  While the band has not been together since their last tour in 2015, all of the members have said they wouldn't rule out another reunion.

"Ohio" was released as a single only in June of 1970, though a live version was released on their #1 live album, 4 Way Street.  The studio version did not appear on an LP until their first greatest hits collection, So Far, in 1974.   "Ohio" would go on to reach #14 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.

Written (by Neil Young) and recorded only two weeks after the National Guard murdered four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, "Ohio" is a powerful testament to the evil the right wing is capable of, even as people exercise their constitutional right to peacefully protest.  It wasn't an accident that Young singles out Richard Nixon--conservatives have never believed in the right to dissent, only believing that dissent should be crushed by any means necessary.  From it's ominous guitar at the song's beginning (not sure Young has ever played a better guitar part) to David Crosby's plaintive wail of "How many more?" toward the end, CSNY sing a song that indicts a subset of American leaders who, for all their talk about the sanctity of life, seems to only revere life when it still resides in the womb.  It also serves as a stark reminder, especially in the age of Donald Trump, of the people who seek to subjugate us--and the power we still have in numbers to mourn the dead, to honor their sacrifice, and to change the world.  Literally one of the most stunning works of art pop music has ever produced.

Lyric Sheet:  "[Ad-libbed] How many more?"

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee