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An unofficial news blog for Neil Young fans from Thrasher's Wheat with concert and album updates, reviews, analysis, and other Rock & Roll ramblings. Separating the wheat from the chaff since 1996.
Tonight, Saturday, May 4 at 9:00 PM EST, (~2 hours from now) the Thrashers Wheat Radio Hour from WBKM.org will be streaming.
Tonight's edition will feature the latest Neil Young news, as well as, comments on the 43rd anniversary of the Kent State, Ohio Massacre. Also, an update on Thrasher's Wheat Radio Europe Tour Plans for the summer.
Neil Young Solo - "Ohio", Farm Aid 25, Milwaukee on October 2, 2010
Neil Young, "Ohio" solo. From broadcast of Farm Aid 25: Growing Hope for America, Neil Young performs "Ohio" at Miller Park in Milwaukee on October 2, 2010.
More Kent State, Ohio Massacre Coverup Evidence Surfaces
Kent State Massacre Evidence
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 11/15/73 document
via Kent State Truth Tribunal
(Click photo to enlarge)
On April 3, 2013,Kent State Truth Tribunal’s submission to the United Nations was posted ONLINE at the UN Human Rights Committee website.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 11/15/73 document (above) shows the shipment of 12,000 weapons within possession of the Ohio National Guard (ONG) including weapons used to kill and wound student protesters at Kent State University on May 4, 1970 with commentary on the destruction of 12,000 weapons.
Kent State Massacre Evidence
US Dept of Justice letter 11/19/73
via Kent State Truth Tribunal
(Click photo to enlarge)
So what really happened at Kent State, Ohio 43 years ago tomorrow?
Based on last week's U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation report, we still might never know. Or will we someday learn the awful truth of that tragic day that left 4 dead in Ohio?
It seems that the key to the truth lies with Terry Norman.
In recently discovered film of the Kent State Shooting in 1970 (1:07.40 thru 1:08), FBI informant provocateur Terry Norman (photo at top) is the young man in the light colored sports jacket. Earlier that day Norman's mentor, Detective Tom Kelly from the Kent Police had attempted to have Norman's gun approved for carrying on campus during the demonstrations, but that approval never came so it's KEY that the video clearly shows Norman handing over his gun to Detective Kelly.
From forensic evidence expert Stuart Allen's analyses of the Kent State Tape in 2010, we learned that Norman shot that weapon at the May 4th demonstration as he was attacked & beat-up by students who saw his gun. (More on Terry Norman ~ Does Terry Norman Hold the Key to Kent State?.)
Watching these Kent State videos without sound, Norman's gun hand-off coupled with the post-Kent State Tape analysis, we now understand the importance of this interaction caught on video & at many other sources.
Norman's pistol 'created the sound of sniper fire.'
In response to the DOJ whitewash report Congressman Dennis Kucinich issued a statement:
“The letter also failed to indicate any efforts to reconcile the evidence in the recording with any prior statements about the incident made by FBI paid informant, Terry Norman, who was on campus that day and was known to have brandished a gun that might have created the sounds caught in the recording.
“While I appreciate the response from the Justice Department, ultimately, they fail to examine key questions and discrepancies. It is well known that an FBI informant, Terry Norman, was on the campus. That FBI informant was carrying a gun. Eye witnesses testified that they saw Mr. Norman brandish that weapon. Two experts in forensic audio, who have previously testified in court regarding audio forensics, found gunshots in their analysis of the audio recording.
Did an FBI informant discharge a firearm at Kent State?
Did an FBI informant precipitate the shootings?"
Why is understanding the Kent State Ohio Massacre critical?
To understand the events of May 4, 1970 at Kent State and the four dead in Ohio, is to understand much of what has happened in our history before, during and after.
In the intervening 41 years, there have been a wide range of commissions, studies, research and theories of what actually led to twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen shooting into a crowd of anti-war protesters at Kent State University which left four college students dead on the ground.
Photo by Kent State photojournalism studentJohn Filo
"History never exactly repeats itself.
But its currents are never far from the present. As today’s protesters and police employ bolder tactics, the Kent State and Jackson State anniversaries should remind us that deadly mistakes can and do happen. It is the government’s responsibility to wield proportionate force, not to over-arm police and place them in a position where they could panic with deadly results."
~~ Steven Rosenfeld, Will a Militarized Police Force Facing Occupy Wall Street Lead to Another Kent State Massacre? | Civil Liberties | AlterNet
Despite many official denials, there have always been persistent theories that the National Guard was actually provoked into the shootings by a belief that they were being fired upon themselves and therefore were acting in self defense.
What follows is a brief recap for those less familiar with the The Kent State Massacre, followed by the latest developments.
The spring of 1970 was a time of significant unrest on college campuses protesting the Vietnam war and President Richard Nixon's announcement of a new American invasion of Cambodia, provoking an escalation in anti-war protests. The anti-war protest movement culminated with the Kent State Massacre which resulted in hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closing throughout the United States due to a student strike of four million students. The official President's Commission on Campus Unrest concluded that"the indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable."
Twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen fired sixty-seven rounds in thirteen seconds, leaving four students dead
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Minneapolis, MN 1970
"They were about to walk out on stage and were spending a moment warming up."
Photo by Henry Diltz
Immediately after the Kent State shooting on May 4, 1970, Neil Young composed the song "Ohio" after looking at photos appearing in Life magazine and then taking a walk in the woods. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young went to the studio and recorded the song which was released to radio stations shortly after the killings.
A rather significant article in today's The Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer "Neil Young's 'Ohio' evokes strong images of May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State" by Mark Dawidziak:
It was more than just another protest song.
Ohio was a cry of anguish, penned by Neil Young after seeing pictures taken at Kent State University on May 4, 1970.
But 40 years after members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on college students, Young's "Ohio" remains the most evocative pop-culture response to a defining moment in American history.
"This is an event that now is in every history book," said Carole A. Barbato, a Kent State University professor of communication studies who team-teaches a course on May 4. "Wherever you live, even though your environment obviously shapes how you perceive things, you're probably as aware of the shootings at Kent State as those of us in Northeast Ohio. And even though this still would be in the history books, the pop culture certainly does perpetuate that. "Ohio" was entering the pop-culture consciousness within three weeks of the shootings.
"It was the quickest and best reaction to Kent State, with Neil Young acting as 50 percent songwriter and 50 percent journalist," said David Bianculli, a pop-culture historian who teaches at Rowan University and regularly contributes to NPR's "Fresh Air."
"I'll tell you what that song meant," said Bianculli, author of the recently published "Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." "After the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, you felt kind of helpless as a young person. It seemed that when someone had your voice, that voice was silenced, usually by violence.
"Then you have Kent State, and college kids are actually fired upon. And when you just might start to be thinking, you don't dare have a voice or there is no voice, from the radio comes this voice of solidarity and outrage. It wasn't just a pop song."
...
"After 1970, that doesn't happen again. It didn't need to happen again, mostly because it didn't need to happen there. And that's what Neil Young's song spoke to."
Horse Sense: Billy Talbot on Energy, Emotion, and Free Expression with Neil Young | Bassplayer
Billy Talbot
A great interview with Crazy Horse's Billy Talbot in Bassplayer "Horse Sense: Billy Talbot on Energy, Emotion, and Free Expression with Neil Young" By JIMMY LESLIE:
Bassplayer: What is at the heart of your bass style, and how do you
apply it to Crazy Horse?
Billy Talbot: My bass style is simply to keep the feel flowing. I don’t like to make up things, per se. I like to let elements beyond playing the changes and the groove come to me within the feel as the song progresses.
We don’t play R&B songs built on dominant bass lines; our songs are all about the lyrics or the sincere expressiveness of Neil’s lead guitar, so mostly my job is to play a lot of root notes with the main feel, and stay that way for however long is required with energy. Capturing that magic is really important to Crazy Horse, so we like to record a new song the first time we perform it.
Bassplayer: Can you cite an example from Psychedelic Pill?
Billy Talbot: “Driftin’ Back” was the first real jam we’d played together in eight years. It’s mostly Asus2 to Em for nearly a half an hour. You’ll hear us expound on the feel in different ways during long instrumental sections. The important thing is when Neil starts singing again the song isn’t in a completely different place.
Bassplayer: How much direction does Neil offer?
Billy Talbot: He might offer suggestions, but Neil never tells anybody what to play, and neither do I. When you
start telling someone what to do, you lose a dimension of that person. You’re not letting them breathe,
so they’re not going to bring all of whatever they’ve got to your song. The key is getting the right people.
More of interview with Crazy Horse's Billy Talbot in Bassplayer "Horse Sense: Billy Talbot on Energy, Emotion, and Free Expression with Neil Young".
Thrasher's Wheat Radio Goes To Europe! Here's the deal
Neil Young & Crazy Horse World Tour
2013-06-02 Waldbühne, Berlin, Germany
2013-06-03 O2 World, Hamburg, Germany
2013-06-05 Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2013-06-06 Le Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, Paris, France 2013 Europe Tour Map
And our readers and listeners have responded with enthusiastic support and encouragement for which we are so grateful. Across Europe we have had offers of concert tickets, lodging, transportation and financial support which has been so wonderfully gratifying to see how much folks really want to help make this happen.
Thrasher's Wheat and WBKM.org is working hard to provide live radio coverage of this summer's Neil Young & Crazy Horse World Tour leg in Europe. The aim is to broadcast live from venues around Europe with fan interviews before the concert and instant reactions and reviews afterwards. NYAS members, Rusties and Zumans, come be a part of the show!
Our plan now is to start with the tour kickoff on 2013-06-02 in Berlin, Germany, then on to Hamburg, Amsterdam, and Paris. 4 concerts in 3 countries in 5 days.
This is something that hasn’t been done before and will be pretty cool if we can pull it off. As you might expect TWRH is a not-for-profit organisation and funding such a trip is a big challenge. Thrasher's Wheat, WBKM.org and others are now trying to raise the necessary funds for travel, logistics, tickets, lodging and other expenses.
Right now, with dates committed, we are looking to the Neil Young community for any assistance. So if you can make a contribution, provide lodging, transit, tickets or any other support, Thrasher's Wheat and WBKM.org would love to hear from you. Reach out to us at thrasher@thrasherswheat.org. We would love to hear from you with your suggestions and support.
The priority item, of course, is tickets. There will be 4 crew members for Thrasher's Wheat Radio needing tickets to 4 shows. Our preference is General Admission tickets. So if you can help us out with tickets for Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, or Paris, please get in touch.
If you have already contacted us, we will be back in touch soon. If your offer to provide assistance is not for a city on our trip, we thank you tremendously and hope that you may be able to pass along your offer to another Neil fan in need.
Let's all make this historic tour coverage happen so that we can bring the music and magic of the Neil Young & Crazy Horse Alchemy World Tour to all of those who are unable to make it to Europe this summer.
This is really all up to you -- our loyal and faithful readers here on Thrasher's Wheat, our radio listeners and the entire Neil Young fan community.
DEMOCRACY NOW'S AMY GOODMAN: Music legend Willie Nelson turns 80 today. A lot of websites say it’s the 30th, tomorrow, but we talked to his wife Annie; she said he was born just before midnight, the doctor recorded it after midnight, so legally it’s the 30th, but really it’s the 29th.
Country music legend Willie Nelson turns 80 years old today. Last night he performed a benefit birthday concert in Austin to raise money for the fire department of West, Texas — the town devastated by a fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people earlier this month. Nelson was born just a few miles away in Abbott, Texas, in 1933. In addition to being one of the most celebrated country musicians, Nelson has been politically active for decades. He co-founded Farm Aid, the annual benefit and awareness-raising concert for small farmers. Nelson has partnered in a biodiesel plant that fuels trucks with vegetable oil. And he serves on the advisory board member for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. We broadcast an excerpt of our hour-long interview with Nelson when he joined us in our studio in 2008.
Imagine the beautiful majestic canyons and valleys of Canyonlands National Park, the same legendary landscape immortalized around the world in car commercials and posters of American beauty, and you know where we are now. Imagine a nightmare where these lands are raped by Big Oil and the American Government, working hand in hand to create another tar sands disaster for Planet Earth in our sacred Canyonlands National Park. The plans are made and the forces are moving.
Ignoring the Climate Chaos that has become the new normal, ignoring the inefficiency of tar sands oil production, ignoring the species becoming extinct as you read this, ignoring a chance for a clean tomorrow, these forces of reckless greed are moving forward and if you don’t do something about it and get active, raise awareness, make your own statements, then it will be partly your responsibility. The destruction will rest on your shoulders. Get active. Make change now. Fight for Freedom to choose the fuel you use. End fossil fuel abuse. End carbon waste. Begin now.
The Driver
The Photo of the Moment is from a 2 page spread of Neil Young in the February issue of Guitar Player Magazine featuring photography by Jay Blakesberg Photography.
>> Pre-Order on Amazon.com << 
Human Highway
Concert Review of the Moment
This Land is My Land
FREEDOM In A New Year
*Thanks Neil!*
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.thrasherswheat.org/gifs/free-speech.gif)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Neil Young
Pardon My Heart
"We're The Ones 
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