Ohio – CSNY and Neil Young
[Neil Young - Wiki Excerpt]
Neil Percival Young, (born November 12, 1945) is a Grammy Award winning Canadian singer-songwriter, musician & film director. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 1995 & also as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997. Neil Young began performing as a solo artist in Canada in 1960. He then migrated to California in 1966, as part of Buffalo Springfield & established himself as the tentative fourth member of Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN). When Young was with CSN (renamed CSNY), he wrote & recorded Ohio. Due to Young’s relationship with all members diminishing to being too acrimonious for them to cooperate, he left both and forged a solo career, to success and critical acclaim. He has since become “one of the most respected and influential musicians of his generation”.
Ohio is a protest song written & composed by Neil Young in reaction to the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970. Ohio was performed by CSNY. Ohio was released as a single, backed with Stephen Stills’s “Find the Cost of Freedom”. CSNY’s Ohio peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. Although a live version of Ohio was included on CSNY’s 1971 double LP Four Way Street, the studio versions of Ohio & Find the Cost of Freedom did not appear on an LP until CSNY’s compilation So Far was released in 1974. Ohio also appeared on the Young compilation LP Decade, released in 1977. Ohio also appears on Young’s Live at Massey Hall LP, which he recorded in 1971 but did not release until 2007.
Neil Young wrote the lyrics to Ohio after seeing the photos of the Ohio shootings incident in Life Magazine. On the evening that CSNY entered Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles to record Ohio, Ohio had already been rehearsed, & CSNY with their regular rhythm section recorded Ohio live in just a few takes.
CSNY’s Ohio was released despite CSNY already having their hit song “Teach Your Children” on the charts at the time. In his liner notes for Ohio on the Decade retrospective, Young reported that “David Crosby cried when we finished the final Ohio take.”
The lyrics of Ohio help evoke the turbulent mood of horror, outrage & shock in the wake of the Ohio shootings, especially the line “four dead in Ohio,” repeated throughout Ohio. Crosby once stated that Young keeping Nixon’s name in Ohio’s lyrics was “the bravest thing I ever heard.” After Ohio’s release, Ohio was banned from some AM radio stations because Ohio challenged the Nixon Administration in the lyrics. Today, Ohio receives regular airplay on classic rock and satellite radio. The American counterculture took the group as its own after Ohio, giving the four a status as leaders and spokesmen. Ohio was selected as the 385th Greatest Song of All Time by Rolling Stone in December 2004.
[ Neil Young, guitar, lead vocal on CSNY's Ohio; Stephen Stills, lead guitars, vocals on CSNY's Ohio. David Crosby, guitar, vocals on CSNY's Ohio. Graham Nash, organ, vocals on CSNY's Ohio. Calvin Samuels, bass on CSNY's Ohio. Dallas Taylor, drums on CSNY's Ohio.]
Young has been an undeniably important artist; The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame website begins their article on Young stating flatly that “Young is one of rock & roll’s greatest songwriters and performers”.
[Renewed Activism and Brush with Death - Wiki Excerpt ]
Young continued to release new material at a rapid pace through the first decade of the new millennium. Young’s 2001 single “Let’s Roll” was a tribute to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, & the passengers and crew on Flight 93 in particular.
In March 2005, while working on the Prairie Wind record in Nashville, Young was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. He was treated successfully with a minimally invasive neuroradiological procedure, performed in a New York hospital on March 29. Two days afterwards, Young passed out on a New York street from bleeding from the femoral artery, which surgeons had used to access the aneurysm. The complication forced Young to cancel his scheduled appearance at the Juno Awards telecast in Winnipeg, but within months he was back on stage, appearing at the close of the Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario on July 2. During the performance, he debuted a new song, a soft hymn called “When God Made Me”. Neil Young’s brush with death influenced Prairie Wind’s themes of retrospection and mortality. The album’s live premiere in Nashville was immortalized by filmmaker Jonathan Demme in the 2006 film
Young’s renewed activism manifested itself in the 2006 LP Living With War, which was hastily recorded & released in less than a month. The LP’s overtly political songs rebuked U.S. President George W. Bush & the War in Iraq and included the provocatively-titled “Let’s Impeach the President”. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young reunited for the supporting “Freedom Of Speech Tour ’06″. CSNY Déjà Vu, a concert film of the tour directed by Young was released in 2008, along with an accompanying live album. Neil Young continues to tour extensively.
[ Achievements - Wiki Excerpt ]
Neil Young was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1982; and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice: first in 1995 for his solo work& again in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield.
Neil Young has also directed five movies under his pseudonym Bernard Shakey, & released them through his own Shakey Pictures imprint.
Neil Young has twice received honorary doctorates. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario in 1992, & an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from San Francisco State University in 2006. The latter honor was shared with his wife Pegi for their creation of the Bridge School.
In 2003, Rolling Stone listedYoung at #83 in its rankings of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”, describing him as a “restless experimenter…who transforms the most obvious music into something revelatory.”
In 2000, Young was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame. He ranked No. 39 on VH1′s 100 Greatest Artist of Hard Rock that same year.
In 2001, Young was awarded the Spirit of Liberty award from the civil liberties group People for the American Way.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Young #34 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
In 2006, Paste Magazine compiled a “Greatest Living Songwriters” list; Young was ranked No. 2 behind Bob Dylan. (While Young & Dylan have occasionally played together in concert, they have never collaborated on a song together, or played on each others’ records).
In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked Young at #37 in its list of “The 100 Greatest Singers of All-Time”.
In 2009, Young was nominated for a Grammy for Best Solo Rock Vocal performance.
[ Notable Covers of Ohio - Wiki Excerpt ]
1971 -Ohio was recorded by The Isley Brothers on their album Givin it Back. 1993 – Paul Weller recorded Ohio on Wild Wood, and Ohio was released as a b-side to “The Weaver.” 1998 - Ohio was included as a hidden track on the album Thirty Days Out by The Montrose Avenue; 2002 - Ohio was covered by Devo on the the album When Pigs Fly: Songs You Never Thought You’d Hear. 2004 - The Dandy Warhols placed a version of Ohio on their 2004 B-sides & covers album Come on Feel the Dandy Warhols. 2007 – Ohio was covered by Dala on the Canadian Borrowed Tunes II: A Tribute to the Young tribute album. 2008 – Ohio was covered by Dala on the Cinnamon Girl – Women Artists Cover Neil Young tribute album.
