Famous picture from Kent State shooting, inspired a few lines of "Ohio".
The guardsmen at the university walking towards the main building on the day of the shooting.
As I begin my research on this song and its meaning, I learn that I have no previous knowledge of the shooting, so little knowledge that I did not even know it happened until I began the project. To get a quick overview of the shooting, I visited Wikipedia to learn a little about broad perspectives of the who, what, when, where, and why of the event that inspired Neil Young's song. I learned that basically four students were killed and nine were injured in a shooting at Kent State in 1970. That would explain why "Ohio" talks about death. That instantly grabbed my attention, the death of four kids just like me. So now I know the when and where, but the important questions are who and why.
So my research about this simple song has led me all the way back to a civil war in Vietnam in the 1970's. Who would have thought? I used this source about the war just to get a background on what all was happening over there. The source seems credible enough because it is a company that sells information to major news sources about global security and war information. I researched and found out how other sources are siting this company. The Times and other major news sources use the information given on this website so I figured I could too. I started reading and quickly got overwhelmed with all the weird names and big words so I asked my teacher to help me clear things up. She sent me to my class textbook (which I naturally trust because my teacher uses it to teach an entire year course about American history) to read about the war and President Nixon's reaction to what was happening. I read that the Russians (big time enemies of the US) were working along side the North Vietnamese troops. Nixon believed that they were launching many of their attacks from Cambodia so naturally he decided to send US troops in to bomb and destroy any bases that may be there. Despite it's success, the US involvement in the Cambodian invasion brought fourth a lot of strong anti-war attitudes in America. Nixon went on television on April 30, 1970 to announce that he was sending US troops to Cambodia, he said "We take these actions, not for the purpose of expanding war into Cambodia, but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam, and winning the just peace we all desire." Nixon's lies and secrecy about the efforts and his unnecessary forces that escalated the problem caused a lot of controversy, including an anti-war protest at Kent State University.
In May of 1970, many college students attending Kent State University in Kent, Ohio began protesting US war efforts after Nixon announced the US bombings in Cambodia on television. I used an online encyclopedia of Ohio history to learn more about what happened at the shooting and the effect it had on American society. I figure that an encyclopedia better be pretty darn accurate otherwise it shouldn't be allowed to be an encyclopedia, so I'm trusting that the information from this website is all truth. This site says that the anti-war protests at Kent State began on May 1st and started getting violent pretty quickly. Students and other protesters began throwing bottles and rocks at police officers to show their anger. These minor acts of violence only got worse with time, protesters started breaking windows and stealing from stores in a fit of rage.
I thought that this whole protest shooting thing only lasted one day but in reality it was four long days of violence and tension.On May 2nd the mayor decided that things were getting slightly out of hand and declared a state of emergency. He sent national guards onto the campus to control the situation, and when they got there buildings were being burned the university was in a state of total chaos. By May 3rd, about a thousand guards had been sent to the college only creating more tension and anger. The governor called the demonstrators "un-American" and said that "They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America." This caused the protesters to get even more heated about the whole situation, they began shouting at the guards calling them "pigs" and began throwing rocks and other objects as them as well. It sounds a little bit like most of this was unnecessary and could have probably been dealt with in a more civilized manor. It seems that people tend to get a little crazy when emotions get involved. On may 4th the guards got scared and started threatening the crowd with their bayonets and fired tear gas into the crowd. When that didn't really do much of anything, twenty-nine of the guards, in fear for their life, opened fire into the crowd killing two protesters and two innocent by standers. The shooting lasted only thirteen seconds firing a total of sixty-seven shots.THIRTEEN SECONDS! Four children, just like me, killed by gunfire in thirteen seconds. It is ridiculous how fast things can get out of hand and how quickly life can be taken.
These thirteen seconds and four deaths had a major impact on American life. It angered the majority of American people and put the protesters on the same human level as everyone else causing even more protests. Universities all over the country shut down for the rest of that school year because they didn't want any more problems like the one at Kent State, mostly in attempt to keep anyone else from being hurt or killed. Things didn't finally begin to settle down until Nixon started taking American troops out of Vietnam. The shooting was such a short lasting event that made such huge impact in the US, even on young college students. The shooting is the sole inspiration of the song "Ohio" which conveys the seriousness of the tragedy that happened at Kent State on May 4, 1970.
I don't think that people want to hear music that they can always relate to. Americans want to listen to music that is exciting or emotional. Not many people listening to "Ohio" were at the actual shooting or had any connection to it at all, but it is a song that brings forth a strong emotion about death. At this Neil Young archive website, the death of four children: Allison Krause (19), William Schroeder (19), Jeffery Miller (20), and Sandra Scheuer (20) puts the shooting on a personal level no matter who is listening to the song. The song brings the American opinion of war and the shooting itself together with the raw emotion brought about by any death and puts them all in a song that draws in an audience to have sympathy for the families of the dead children and anger towards the American government for being so irrational and cruel. "Ohio" was successful in that it took an event that didn't directly involve the entire American people and put it to music in a way that could entertain everyone and draw out some kind of strong emotion.
Map of Cambodia where North Vietnamese were launching attacks so US bombed there.
College students holding anti-war protests at Kent State in 1970.
I thought that this whole protest shooting thing only lasted one day but in reality it was four long days of violence and tension.On May 2nd the mayor decided that things were getting slightly out of hand and declared a state of emergency. He sent national guards onto the campus to control the situation, and when they got there buildings were being burned the university was in a state of total chaos. By May 3rd, about a thousand guards had been sent to the college only creating more tension and anger. The governor called the demonstrators "un-American" and said that "They're the worst type of people that we harbor in America." This caused the protesters to get even more heated about the whole situation, they began shouting at the guards calling them "pigs" and began throwing rocks and other objects as them as well. It sounds a little bit like most of this was unnecessary and could have probably been dealt with in a more civilized manor. It seems that people tend to get a little crazy when emotions get involved. On may 4th the guards got scared and started threatening the crowd with their bayonets and fired tear gas into the crowd. When that didn't really do much of anything, twenty-nine of the guards, in fear for their life, opened fire into the crowd killing two protesters and two innocent by standers. The shooting lasted only thirteen seconds firing a total of sixty-seven shots.THIRTEEN SECONDS! Four children, just like me, killed by gunfire in thirteen seconds. It is ridiculous how fast things can get out of hand and how quickly life can be taken.
These thirteen seconds and four deaths had a major impact on American life. It angered the majority of American people and put the protesters on the same human level as everyone else causing even more protests. Universities all over the country shut down for the rest of that school year because they didn't want any more problems like the one at Kent State, mostly in attempt to keep anyone else from being hurt or killed. Things didn't finally begin to settle down until Nixon started taking American troops out of Vietnam. The shooting was such a short lasting event that made such huge impact in the US, even on young college students. The shooting is the sole inspiration of the song "Ohio" which conveys the seriousness of the tragedy that happened at Kent State on May 4, 1970.
Neil Young: Canadian Rock Guitarist
So I wanted to know why this Neil Young guy would write about a shooting in the middle of nowhere Ohio. So i went to Alabama Virtual Library (the most difficult source to navigate) and found this bio about Mr. Young, which surprised me a little. AVL is an academic website put together by research librarians for educational purposes so i'm pretty sure this bio isn't some made up thing from some crazy weirdo. I found out that Neil Young is from Canada! I was not expecting that at all and I'm a little confused about why the heck a Canadian rock artist would write a song about a shooting at a college in Ohio. After all I've read about the Kent State Shooting, it sounds like it was a pretty huge deal all over the country, starting a period of anti-war protests and was a contributor to a new type of protest music that started in this time period. Neil Young was just pleasing the people and writing a style of music he knew would sell.I don't think that people want to hear music that they can always relate to. Americans want to listen to music that is exciting or emotional. Not many people listening to "Ohio" were at the actual shooting or had any connection to it at all, but it is a song that brings forth a strong emotion about death. At this Neil Young archive website, the death of four children: Allison Krause (19), William Schroeder (19), Jeffery Miller (20), and Sandra Scheuer (20) puts the shooting on a personal level no matter who is listening to the song. The song brings the American opinion of war and the shooting itself together with the raw emotion brought about by any death and puts them all in a song that draws in an audience to have sympathy for the families of the dead children and anger towards the American government for being so irrational and cruel. "Ohio" was successful in that it took an event that didn't directly involve the entire American people and put it to music in a way that could entertain everyone and draw out some kind of strong emotion.
