A Thousand People In The Street: 'For What It's Worth' Captured Youth In Revolt | NPR

Stephen Stills & Richie Furay - Buffalo Springfield
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, 1967
CBS Photo Archive/CBS via Getty Images

A very good overview of the song 'For What It's Worth' by Stephen Stills with The Buffalo Springfield.

Podcast A Thousand People In The Street: 'For What It's Worth' Captured Youth In Revolt | NPR by Danny Hajek.



Podcast includes interviews with witnesses on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, CA in November 1966, radio news coverage call ins, a Marine who served in Vietnam, as well as Buffalo Springfield band manager Richard "Dickie" Davis.

Protesters gather outside Pandora's Box on Nov. 12, 1966

As legend has it, Stills, disturbed by the images of police brutality from that night, wrote "For What It's Worth" in 15 minutes. Band manager Richard "Dickie" Davis was in the studio when Buffalo Springfield recorded the song.

"It was recorded in one night: vocals, overdubs, bass track, all that was done in one night," Davis says. For all that momentum, however, Stills was afraid of how the band might be typecast if the song did catch on.

"That name, 'For What It's Worth,' is the most 'aw, shucks' kind of name," Davis says. "Like, 'Oh yeah, well, here's my opinion, you don't have to listen to it.' ... He was worried about it defining the group and he didn't want that to happen."

But it did: "For What It's Worth" became an enduring hit. Whether one hears it as about the Vietnam War or the Sunset Strip, the song was for the young people caught on the front lines.

"The song was about the times," Davis says. "The protests for the Vietnam War were in play right then, and they were on Stephen's mind just as much as anything else. The song was written about the Sunset Strip, but it's bigger than that.

Freedom: Sunset Strip, Los Angeles, CA - November 1966
For what it's worth...

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