"Ohio" Revisited: Is Song by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young An Anthem For Our Times? | Rock 'n' Roll with Me

Crosby Stills Nash & Young
 (Click photo to enlarge)

The following Substack "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Revisited  |  Rock 'n' Roll with Me  by Ellen from Endwell asks the question if the song is "An anthem for our times?".  (Thanks John K.!)

Spoiler alert -- yes & no. 

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"Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Revisited 

by Ellen from Endwell 

Given the popularity of my post on the song “For What It’s Worth (Stop, Hey What’s That Sound)” by Buffalo Springfield, which is now close to 4,000 views and rising (available here), I have to conclude that people are desperately searching for a way to make meaning out of what’s happening around the world and in their own countries.

In particular, I suspect that people are trying to figure out some way to respond to what they feel are steps in an egregiously wrong direction—perhaps even illegal, immoral, unethical, or tyrannical—by those in charge of running things, without risking themselves, their family, friends, and communities, or their way of life in doing so.

My post on the song “Ohio” is now starting to get the same attention—a song written and put out by Crosby Stills Nash & Young in the immediate aftermath of the Kent State Massacre in 1970, which was soon thereafter followed by the Jackson State Killings.

If you’ve been around as long as I have, you’ve been feeling a strong sense of deja vu for a while now. We have been here before. We have been through something eerily similar to this. That’s why I’m sharing the “Ohio” post below, so you can see why I’m saying that.

I do believe in my heart, mind, and soul that, as Martin Luther King declared in his remarkably inspiring sermons and talks using the title of a famous gospel song as his key message, “We Shall Overcome.”

As Dr. King explained, we shall overcome not simply because we wish to do so. We shall overcome because “somehow the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice” and because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.”1 If you need inspiration in these difficult times, here it is:

And here it is in the song whose title he cited, “We Shall Overcome,” sung by the glorious Joan Baez. (You can find the other two iconic versions, one by gospel legend Mahalia Jackson and the other by the famous folk singer-activist Pete Seeger, here and here.)

Herewith, without further ado, my previous post on the tragic events provoking the creation of the song “Ohio” by Crosby Stills Nash & Young.

This is a fantastic song in so many ways. Thank you, Neil Young and CSNY. 

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Full Substack article "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Revisited by Ellen from Endwell.

Also, see:

Why Neil Young’s “OHIO” has earned it’s place on the National Recording Registry 

The Truth About The Kent State Massacre

The Girl in the Photo: Kent State, Ohio - May 4, 1970

40 Years Since 4 Dead in Ohio: Kent State Massacre Remembered

4 Dead In Ohio: May 4, 1970

53 Years Later: "Ohio", Kent State & Tin Soldiers Still Marching | #MayTheFOURBeWithYou

50 Years Ago: “Four Dead In Ohio” | Decaturish

51 Years Later: "Ohio", Kent State & Tin Soldiers Still Marching | #MayThe4thBeWithYou

Ohio: Kent State 45 Years Later

Kent State, Ohio 47 Years Later: The Tin Soldiers March On & On...

Kent State University on May 4, 1970 Library of Congress Exhibit photo by Howell PosnerOriginal photo by photojournalism student John Filo 

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