Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – Ohio
At 12:22 on Monday May 4, 1970, 29 members of a group of 77 National Guard troops from A Company and Troop G fired shots towards a group of students at Kent State. 13 seconds and about 67 shots later it ended. Some shots were in the air as warnings, others to induce injury and not kill. The outcome was 4 deaths and another 9 receiving injuries.
Neil Young after seeing pictures of the shooting wrote the song Ohio. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded the song on May 15 and released as a single in June. The song became to many an anthem for the times giving a tribute that may last forever to the ‘Four dead in Ohio’.
The b-side was Stephen Stills’ ode to the war’s dead, “Find the Cost of Freedom.”
It peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. It may have charted higher if some radio stations hadn’t refused to play the song due to it’s anti-war/anti-Nixon lyrics.
The studio version of the song first appeared on their 1974 Greatest Hits Album, So Far. A live version of the song was on the live album Four Way Street.
The four dead in Ohio were:
(Name, distance from Guard, Injury)
Jeffrey Glen Miller, 265 ft, shot through the mouth – killed instantly
Allison Krause, 343 ft, fatal left chest wound
William Knox Schroeder, 382 ft, fatal chest wound
Sandra Lee Scheuer, 390 ft, fatal neck wound