A Happy Independence Day To All of Our "Children of Destiny": Celebrate and Exercise Your Freedoms!

"Children of Destiny" - Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Frame from Official Music Video

A very happy Independence Day (4th of July) to all of our "Children of Destiny" out there across the EARTH lands.

Last year on Independence Day 2022, the world was in a very different place than today as we scroll back to read folks thoughts one year ago. And judging by those keen observations a year ago, we deeply thank our readers and commenters for once again being ahead of the curve, aware and awake. We remain honored and humbled that so many find TW to be vital to their daily readings.

After shutting it all back down in 2020 and bombing our way back open in 2022, the more things change, the more they remain the same as it ever was.
Consitution
And on this Independence Day in America, as we celebrate #1776, our constitutional republic, exercise our freedoms, eat hot dogs (and conduct our protests with diatribes and actions), once again we are reminded how Neil Young's music resonates with its own special brand of fireworks with the song and video "Children of Destiny" from the 2017 album The Visitor with the band Promise of the Real.

As you may recall, one of the big Neil news items in 2020 was CITIZEN NEIL or ... Neil Young Becomes A U.S. Citizen.

Neil Young: "I'm Happy To Report In. Vote Your Conscience."

In 2019, the application by Canadian Neil Young to become a U.S. citizen was delayed due to "possible lack of GMC (Good Moral Character)". In January 2020, Neil posted a photo of himself saluting the US flag, with a caption: "I'm Happy To Report In. Vote Your Conscience."

 Neil Young and Daryl Hannah on January 23, 2020
(Celebrating his Dual Citizenship w/ his wife)
(also, see Official Daryl Hannah | Instagram)

 

Neil Young

In 2019, in a posting on Neil Young Archives: "I Have Been Very Successful In My Life", Neil revealed that his initial citizenship interview went fine, but due to a technicality, another interview was required by the USCIS because of his "marijuana related activities".

In October 2019, Neil Young said in an interview: “I’ve passed all the tests; I’ve got my appointment, and if everything goes as planned, I’ll be taking the oath of citizenship” shortly after turning 74 on Nov. 12." Neil continues to be optimistic on becoming a U.S. citizen in order to "vote my conscious on Donald J. Trump".

via Neil Young Archives

Image via Rusted Moon

"Children of Destiny" - Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Frame from Official Music Video

Meanwhile, back to Neil Young's song "Children of Destiny". Judging by the reaction in July 2017, clearly once again Neil had managed to polarize his fan base. As if right on cue, some fans say "Right on Neil! Tell it to The Man!". Other fans say, "This is really dreadful hippie patriot jingoism."

Normally, over the past years here at Thrasher's Wheat, we blog on the 4th of July -- where we were born in the U.S.A. -- our hopes and dreams, such as 2015's Americana and The American Dream - This Land Is Our Land, This Land Is Your Land or Who's Really Going To Stand Up?

"Children of Destiny" - Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Frame from Official Music Video

Neil Young really hasn't changed that much in the past 40 years. He is still singing truth to power and we love him for that alone.

"Children of Destiny" - Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Frame from Official Music Video

Once again, thanks Neil. You're clearly on the right track. Past experience demonstrates that the more polarizing a new song is to your fan base, the more it demonstrates its the power and success. If we can't share our differences, we can't peacefully coexist.

To all, have a great and safe holiday.

Here is Neil Young's statement to go with the video version of "Children of Destiny".

Friends

Thanks so much for your response to Children of Destiny! This is a heartfelt message to people all around the world, our home. We hope this song resonates with you and gives you strength to know that you are not alone. Resist those who lash out against our positive message with violence, name calling and negativity. We are concerned for our Democracy, Environment and Freedom. Nothing will ever stop us from standing up. We gathered together on the full moon to record our song.

Here is a new video of that moment!

Love and Respect,
Celebrate Interdependence!
Neil

Thanks Neil.

Neil Young + Promise of the Real

Your words inspire us indeed. When we say we know the feeling, it is because of the support you gave us when we here at Thrasher's Wheat were feeling the same way regarding the relentless negativity of "The Doubters".

"The Doubters" -- who embrace failure -- will never be the "Children of Destiny". Not sure about that? Check the danger of able @ ~2:00:00 and your world will be rocked for the children. This is the TRUE Field of wheat.

Likewise, we still see the vista. We hear the muse. We continue. We continue because we believe and have faith in that greater good. Just as we all must teach our children (of destiny) well, we "must have a code that we can live by." Because, you are a child, i am a child, and we are all children of destiny. And, don't forget, in the fields of wheat, the "Children of Destiny" will NOT be harvested -- however, the chaff will be burned by unquenchable fire.

And just as your encouragement long ago inspired us to soldier on, we won't quit or give up. We will
"Keep on bloggin'
`Til the power goes out
The batteries dead
Twist and shout"

Because, "We're The Ones We've Been Waiting For", as we like to remind ourselves.


Who's Going To Stand Up and Save The Earth?
Neil Young
2014-07-12, Hyde Park, London, England
For more on Neil Young + Promise of the Real's song "Children of Destiny", see:

• NEW Official Music Video: Neil Young + Promise of the Real - "Children of Destiny" (55+ comments)
• Statement by Neil Young + Orchestra Video Version of "Children of Destiny" (35+ comments)
• A Happy 4th of July To All of Our "Children of Destiny": Some Commentary on Neil Young's New Song w/ counter response to Forbes Magazine's review by author David Alm (20+ comments)
• Comments of the Moment:"Children of Destiny" by Neil Young + Promise of the Real (15+ comments)
• Neil Young's Muse: The Passion, The Pathos & The 4% (10+ comments)
• Comments of the Moment: Statement by Neil Young on "Children of Destiny" (10+ comments)

Patrick Henry Quote

Thomas Jefferson Quote

Keep Calm and Keep on Rockin'

 

And -- as if that wasn't patriotic enough for you -- then here's something that'll really get those patriot juices flowin' ...

 

GEORGE Magazine - 1997; U.S. Citizen Neil Young - 2020 

George & John, Donald & Neil + Bob: 

Sooner or Later, It All Gets REAL ... As in Now 

(or The Problem In Georgia)

 

Our most controversial -- and REAL -- post of 2020 ..  imagine that, if you will ... 'cause, "don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning, find someone who's turning, and you will come around."

 

May The 4th/FOUR Be With You

 #MayThe4thBeWithYou

 

 

(this is what Democracy REALly looks like)

 

 

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

The Girl in the Kent State Photo

Washington Post Magazine - April 25, 2021

This weekend's cover of the Washington Post Magazine, carried the iconic photo at Kent State, Ohio on May 4, 1970.

“That picture hijacked my life. 

And 50 years later, I still haven’t really moved on.”

 Mary Ann Vecchio - Today

The article by Patricia McCormick explores what happened to the 14-year-old Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling next to the dead body of Jeffrey Miller. How Mary Ann Vecchio has carried the burden of being a national symbol.

 

The photo taken by student photographer John Filo, captured the moment and was published across the country and around the world the following day and still continues to resonate.

Immediately after the Kent State shooting (sometimes referred to as the "Kent State Massacre") 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. Soon, the lyrics "Four dead in Ohio" became an anthem to a generation. In some parts of the country, the song was banned from playlists because of it's "anti-war" and "anti-Nixon" sentiments. 

 

Probably one of the greatest oddities of the interview with Mary Ann Vecchio is that she was not asked about the shirt that she was wearing at the time in the iconic photo.

"SLAVE" Shirt

Now why would a runaway 14-year-old girl be wearing a shirt with the word "SLAVE"? Would not that be a valid question to ask?  Might someone have made the shirt and given to her to wear on this day?  And who might that have been?

 

Fence post cropped out (L) & with fence post (R)

 

"It's still hard to believe I had to write this song. It's ironic that I capitalized on the death of these American students. Probably the most important lesson ever learned at an American place of learning.

David Crosby cried after this take."

from liner notes of the Neil Young's Decade album

"Ohio" 45 Atlantic Records Single (w/ "Find The Cost of Freedom")
by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - May 1970

Last year, we posted our annual remembrance on 50 Years Later: "Ohio", Kent State & Tin Soldiers Still Marching . 

 

Jeffrey Miller - Age: 20

Shot @ 90 Yards From National Guard

 

 

This year, we will once again post on the four dead in Ohio.

 

Our annual tradition will continue until the tin soldiers stop cutting down students ...

May The FOUR Be With You

 #MayThe4thBeWithYou

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

"Ohio" 45 Atlantic Records Single (w/ "Find The Cost of Freedom")
by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - May 1970

Last week, we posted our annual remembrance on 50 Years Later: "Ohio", Kent State & Tin Soldiers Still Marching .

The following excerpt from 50 Years Ago: “Four Dead In Ohio” | Decaturish by Jeff Cochran documents the various intersections of Neil Young and President Richard M. Nixon.

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Life Magazine (May 15, 1970) issue which inspired Neil Young to write the song "Ohio"

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

On The Human Highway . . . David Crosby handed Neil Young the May 15, 1970 issue of Life magazine. It featured photos of the tragedy at Kent State University. May 4, 1970. Four dead in Ohio. Enraged, despairing and caught up in the moment, Young quickly wrote “Ohio,” a deliberate and disquieting rocker evoking the anger and sadness felt when National Guardsmen turned their guns on protesting students: a representative group of the nation’s young people already embittered by America’s role in the Vietnam War.

Jimmy McDonough, in his Young biography, Shakey, summed it up by writing, “Neil Young, in ten lines, captured the fear, frustration and anger felt by the youth across the country and set it to a lumbering D-modal death march that hammered home the dread.”

And who had aroused the anger of America’s youth? President Richard M. Nixon.

And who did Neil Young call out in “Ohio?” President Richard M. Nixon.

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming.
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.

Neil Young performs in 2018 the CSN&Y song “Ohio”. Directed by Daryl Hannah.

David Crosby once said that Young’s calling out Nixon’s name in the song “was the bravest thing I ever heard.” After all, Crosby noted, “it seemed like those who stood up to Nixon, like those at Kent State, were shot. Neil Young did not seem scared at all.”

“It’s still hard to believe I had to write this song,” Young wrote for the liner notes of his album, Decade, his three-disc compilation released in ’77. “It’s ironic that I capitalized on the deaths of these American students. Probably the most important lesson ever learned at an American place of learning.”

Recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young 11 days after the killings, “Ohio,” was released in June ’70, peaking at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group was already riding high on the album charts with Deja Vu, released that March.

Two singles from the album, “Woodstock” and “Teach Your Children,” respectively, had already reached numbers 11 and 16. But overloading the market with CSNY product was of no concern at the time. Crosby told Rolling Stone the reaction by Stills and Nash was “How soon can we record it?”

According to Crosby, it was finished, along with the flip side (“Find The Cost of Freedom”), within 24 hours. Haste didn’t make waste. CSNY made a brilliant and captivating record. Dorian Lynsky of The Guardian called “Ohio” “arguably the perfect protest song: moving, memorable and perfectly timed.”

"Ohio" 45 Atlantic Records Single (w/ Bill of Rights picture sleeve)
by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - May 1970

Appalled by the loss of life and the toll it exacted, Neil Young created a powerful piece of music that is part and parcel of a tragic time in our nation’s history. How does one think of Kent State and not think of “Ohio?” The song may sound like a call to arms but it mainly serves as the most sobering of wake-up calls. “Ohio” accesses the pain humans inflict on one another in causes of political one-upmanship. “Don’t you know there’s a war going on?,” people used to ask during the Second World War. In 1970 it might have been asked, “Don’t you see what this war is doing to us?’

It was Young’s sense of humanity that informed “Southern Man” and “Alabama,” two songs he released as a solo artist in the early ’70s. Young focused on concerns of interest to his followers and peers. Inveighing against bigotry, lynching, and Governor George Wallace was expected from Neil Young. Naturally, he was on the side of our “better angels,” to paraphrase Lincoln.

Given the political and social tenets, either firmly or loosely held by people who bought his records and attended his concerts, Young was on solid ground with his beliefs: for example, his feelings for humanity at large. And when one holds firm to such core beliefs, defending or sympathizing with unpopular figures and political opponents are possible.

So who did Neil Young come to sympathize with? Richard M. Nixon.

Hello Mr. Soul . . . Cameron Crowe, writing in the February 9, 1979 issue of Rolling Stone reported on a memory from the summer of ’76. Neil Young is on tour. Young and his son, Zeke, are sitting on a hotel bed watching television. A news bulletin interrupts the broadcast. Pat Nixon, wife of the disgraced former president, had suffered a stroke. The report has an announcer talking over a film clip of a distraught Richard Nixon moving through the hospital’s revolving doors. Young took it all in and after some time passed, headed for his bus in the hotel’s parking lot. There he wrote a song, “Campaigner,” and played it in concert a few hours later.

Hospitals have made him cry
But there’s always a freeway in his eye
Though his beach got too crowded for a stroll.
Roads stretch out like healthy veins
And wild gift horse strain the reins
Where even Richard Nixon has got soul.

First called “Requiem for a President,” “Campaigner” was included on Decade.

Campaigner (2017 Remaster) · Neil Young - Decade

“Guess I felt sorry for (Nixon) that night,” Young told Crowe.

The Losing End . . . Richard Nixon was always the campaigner, even when he said his campaign days were behind him. Two years after losing the Presidential election to John F. Kennedy, Nixon came up short again, defeated by Pat Brown in the 1962 California Governor’s race. On the morning after his defeat, he put the blame on the media during his self-proclaimed “last press conference.” Not about to leave the scene gracefully, he told the reporters, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore. Just think how much you’re going to be missing.”

But there would be more Nixon press conferences. Hundreds of them. What else could he do but campaign for public office? Since 1946, he had been running for office. That year, fresh out of the Navy, he was elected to represent a Southern California congressional district. Four years later California voters sent him to the U.S. Senate. In ’52 he was elected Vice President; in his eight years of serving under President Eisenhower, he expanded the role of that office. Richard M. Nixon was on his way to the top.

The two tough, tight defeats in two years’ time would be enough for most politicos to seek other lines of work, but even as he was hurling invectives against the press in November ’62, Nixon, despite his promise that it would be his last press conference, already had plans for a comeback. Biographer Stephen E. Ambrose wrote that “Nixon couldn’t imagine living without campaigning, and didn’t try to.”

His reemergence was well-planned and successful. In ’64, he earned a truckload of favors by campaigning for Republican congressional candidates. Four years later, Nixon cashed in at the favor bank and was elected the 37th President of the United States.

Those who had followed Nixon’s political career from the start, having watched him sling mud in his first two campaigns, first against Jerry Voorhis and then against Helen Gahagan Douglas (wife of actor Melvyn Douglas), weren’t surprised that his own dirty work brought down his presidency. Nixon’s fall, not fast in coming but ruinous to his career and image, made him the lonely man walking San Clemente Beach in his dress shoes. Another comeback by the Campaigner seemed unlikely. After resigning the presidency, then relying heavily on a pardon from Gerald Ford, his health quickly declined. Not even three months out of the White House, phlebitis brought him near death’s door. And less than two years after that, Pat Nixon was in the hospital with a stroke. Yes, as with Neil Young, one could generate some sympathy for Richard Nixon.

All Day Presidents Look Out Windows . . . Mainly, there were two schools of thought regarding the way Nixon should be thought of, spoken of and written about in the first few years after he left the White House. Some felt he had suffered enough. That group was made largely of people who had supported him in office, and there were lots of them; Nixon won 49 states in his ’72 reelection bid. Then there were those against him and his policies from the start, as well as those who felt betrayed by his unconstitutional actions in office and the lying to cover it all up. That crowd didn’t want to see him pardoned, forgiven or granted the respect former presidents naturally receive. They had a point.
...

Some Things Never Change . . . Neil Young might have wondered about the state of Nixon’s mind on July 7, 1976. Walking through the hospital, worried about his wife, whom he truly loved; what was Nixon thinking? Where, if not for the foolishness of Watergate and other illegalities inspired by his paranoia, where would the Nixons be that day? The White House! On that day there were six and a half months remaining on the second term Nixon was elected to serve. For the Nixons, it could have been a happy time, when they planned for retirement, not a resignation. And perhaps Mrs. Nixon’s health wouldn’t be endangered. Richard Nixon, deep in his heart, could have accepted some blame for his wife’s condition. But, no, he would publicly attach blame to others. Less than a year later, in his interviews with David Frost, he took aim at The Final Days, Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstein. He didn’t refer to the writers by their names, only as “trash.”

All I say is Mrs. Nixon read it, and her stroke came three days later. I didn’t want her to read it, because I knew the kind of trash they are. But nevertheless, this doesn’t indicate that they caused the stroke because the doctors don’t know what caused the stroke. But it sure didn’t help. Those who write history as fiction on third-hand knowledge, I have nothing but utter contempt. And I will never forgive them. Never. ………

...

Less than a week after Nixon’s death, Neil Young completed his Sleeps With Angels album, another stellar effort from the hot streak he had going from ’88 through ’95. An observant track on the album is “Western Hero,” a soft but striking anthem to those who sacrifice for all, yet fade away, noticed by few. Young’s music and words are thoughtful, connecting with the images so well-captured on big screens and in our thoughts:

And on the shores of Normandy
He fought for you, he fought for me
Across the land and on the sea
But now he’s just a memory.


"Western Hero" by Neil Young + Promise of the Real at Farm Aid's 30th anniversary concert at FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in downtown Chicago, Illinois, on September 19, 2015.
Just a memory, but one that inspires with deeds, when campaigning isn’t necessary.

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Thanks Jeff for allowing a generous excerpt of your extensive article on Nixon, 70's politics and CSNY's "Ohio".

OK Star Wars fans on #StarWarsDay! Know your true history of May 4, 1970 at Kent State Univ., Ohio & Nat'l Guard shooting into a crowd of anti-war protesters https://t.co/ZKUgfJU6oZ … May The FOUR Be With You #MayThe4thBeWithYou @CSNofficial @thedavidcrosby @Neilyoung ☮️❤️ pic.twitter.com/QAFn1H6Y69

— ThrashersWheat (@ThrashersWheat) May 4, 2019

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Comment of the Moment: CSNY's "Ohio" 50 Years Later + Reflections | #MayThe4thBeWithYou

"Ohio" 45 Atlantic Records Single (w/ Bill of Rights picture sleeve)
by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - May 1970

Yesterday was 50th anniversary of the "Kent State Massacre" and while there was much coverage here and elsewhere, it paled in comparison the the enthusiasm around "Star Wars Day" and hashtag #MayTheFourthBeWithYou.

We tried to do our part here @ TW with our alternative "Kent State Massacre" hashtag #MayThe4thBeWithYou.



The Four Dead in Ohio




May The FOUR Be With You
#MayThe4thBeWithYou
We try.

Which brings us to our Comment of the Moment on 50 Years Later: "Ohio", Kent State & Tin Soldiers Still Marching by Dan S.:

Neil is a master at empathy. All three songs featured today on NYA illustrate his passion.

As I have mentioned before, just hearing the opening chords of Ohio induces a physical reaction for me. I get goosebumps instantly and feel a rush of emotions every time. There are few songs that have such a profound impact on me as this one. It’s not just the event that is documented, but the commitment and intention in its creation that carries such weight. This song moves me in a tangible way, and the intensity never wavers with the passing of time.

The acoustic solo version of Who’s Gonna Stand Up? is far more powerful than the version with all the production behind it. This version drives home the point of the song, and reveals the empathetic nature of the lyrics. This is a wonderful example of “less is more” working its magic.

I’m Glad I Found You is yet another example of Neil’s empathy rising to the occasion. Here he uses his ability to combine the grandeur of a orchestra with a delicate and vulnerable vocal. Lyrically this song feels like a validation of his new found love, and a response to some of the external judgment that his new relationship garnered from the public. No anger here, just empathy and understanding. What a unique gift Neil has, and what a blessing that he is willing to share it with the world.

Peace 🙏

Thanks Dan, as always! #MayThe4thBeWithYou

And we do know what you meant about having this event permanently impact you. We were only 9 YO at the time, so even more impressionable.

We actually did write about that awhile back in Glen Boyd's Neil Young FAQ book. Here's the chapter scan (and we'll try and locate the text file sometime. Maybe for 51st anniversary?)

Neil Young FAQ:
Everything Left to Know About the Iconic and Mercurial Rocker
by Glen Boyd

Introduction p#1 by thrasher
Neil Young FAQ

Introduction p#2
Neil Young FAQ

Introduction p#3
Neil Young FAQ

The short story is that our teacher had the newspaper the next day on May 5 w/ the huge soon to be famous photo. everyone was really shocked and upset. But what stuck with us the most was how our teacher was most upset about how the newspaper could publish such a picture.

"What about the children?" the teacher said as she said waving around the image in our faces. Obviously, it all left a bit of an impression still quite vivid 50 years later. And so began our long running tendency to "think for ourselves and question authority" ...

Also, check out Wisconsin Public Radio journalist Robin Washington program yesterday on the 50th anniversary of "Ohio" @ Simply Superior, May 1, 2020 | WPR.org. (thanks John Q.!) Program notes:

This week - Simply Superior presents a documentary special: "Hear the Drumming: The music of the Kent State and Jackson State tragedies"

Premiering on KUWS 91.3 and Wisconsin Public Radio Northern stations, Friday, May 1, 2020 Offered by PRX to public radio stations nationwide for air May 2, 2020 and beyond.

Fifty years ago on May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Vietnam War protesters at Kent State University, killing four. The tragedy shocked the nation and inspired Neil Young to write "Ohio," released in barely a month by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and immediately climbing the charts.

The song cemented the group's almost reluctant transformation from a harmonic love-song trio to a politically charged quartet, but it was not the only music spawned by that event, as well as another: the lower-profile killings of two antiwar protesters at the historically black Jackson State College in Mississippi just days later, on May 15.

In a year-long project focusing on the music inspired by those events, "Simply Superior" host Robin Washington presents songs by artists ranging from the Beach Boys to the Isley Brothers to actress Ruth Warrick, whose credits include "Citizen Kane" and the soap opera "All My Children," as well as far more obscure performers. Washington also discusses "Ohio" with Calvin "Fuzzy" Samuel, CSNY's Antigua-born bass player, who today is ironically a resident of Dayton, Ohio, and who revisits the song with a 50th anniversary recording.

"Hear The Drumming" is produced by Robin Washington as a co-production between Wisconsin Public Radio and Trains, Planes and Automobiles LLC. Executive Producers are Washington and Paul Damberg. The program continues the theme of Washington's music documentaries, including the nationally acclaimed "My Favorite Things at 50," commemorating the 50th anniversary in 2010 of John Coltrane's transformation of the Broadway tune into an enduring jazz standard.

View this post on Instagram

Today marks 50 years since the Kent State shootings that inspired “Ohio”. This original lyrics manuscript is from May 20th, 1970. #NeilYoung #NeilYoungArchives #Ohio

A post shared by Neil Young Archives (@neilyoungarchives) on May 4, 2020 at 12:33pm PDT

Neil Young and his wife Daryl Hannah created a video in 2018 for the CSN&Y song “Ohio”.

More at NEW Neil Young Official Live Video: "Ohio", 2018.

School shootings. 50 years. How many more?

How can you .... ???

"Ohio" 45 Atlantic Records Single (w/ "Find The Cost of Freedom")
by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - May 1970

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