“Stone dead”: the song Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young thought would kill their career
The public never really knows what they want until artists give it to them. Although most people are happy being fed the same style of tune every time they turn on the radio, it’s all about trying to make something that people can be proud of years after the fact. That means having to go through a bit of a flogging at the time now and again, and when Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young got together to write about the horrors of the world, Graham Nash thought it had the potential to kill their career.
Because listening to their debut album, this seemed like the least likely band to cause any trouble in the mainstream. Sure, their songs might not have been the most radio-friendly in the world by any stretch, but the minute those heavenly harmonies fell over the speakers, every listener was in pure heaven listening to tracks like ‘Suite Judy Blue Eyes’.
As much as they blended in with folkies at the time, the supergroup was in dangerous trouble of sounding a bit too mellow. There’s a fine line between having a few ballads and never having the ability to rock, so when Neil Young was brought in, one of the main objectives was to give them the edge that they needed.
Listening back to some of the tunes on Deja Vu, Young was still interested in making softer ballads like ‘Helpless’. He could write a heavy tune when he wanted, but it needed to be at the right time, and when students started getting murdered at Kent State, ‘Ohio’ was the kind of visceral reaction that the group needed to get out of their system.
While plenty of political songs had dealt with social unrest, the fact that the harmonies still soared across this tune made it all the more tragic listening back. Considering how many people lost their lives that day on campus, Young sounds like he’s crying along with all of the heartbroken parents who will never get the chance to see their kids again, all because a couple of cops didn’t agree with their right to protest.
Even though this had the makings of a pure cultural moment at the time, Nash remembered that there was talk that the group had lost their minds for even considering releasing it, saying, “What band would have a song like ‘Teach Your Children’ racing up the charts and then immediately kill it stone dead when four students were killed? Neil wrote ‘Ohio’, and we recorded it and put it out within ten days. People in the business thought we were absolutely crazy.”
As it turned out, that kind of raw emotion was exactly what people needed to hear. This was senseless violence for the sake of senseless violence, and in every word Young sang, fans knew that there was someone in their corner willing to empathise with them and see how they could help a situation that despicable.
Releasing ‘Ohio’ is far from the most commercial thing that a band can do, but it might be one of the most necessary decisions that any musician has to make. People may have to sacrifice turning off some listeners, but there’s no use in singing if you’re not allowed to say what’s in your heart.
