Kent Shootings
· Kent State University Ohio
· May 4th 1970
· 12:24 pm
· Ohio National Guard shot into crowd of Kent State University demonstrators
· Killed 4
· Wounded 9
· Triggered nationwide student strike, forcing hundreds of colleges and universities to close
· In The Ends of Power, Haldeman (1978) states that the shootings at Kent State began the slide into Watergate, eventually destroying the Nixon administration
· The decision to bring the Ohio National Guard onto the Kent State University campus was directly related to decisions regarding American involvement in the Vietnam War
· Nixon ordered invasion of Cambodia, immediately protests were rising, like in Kent State University
· National Guard was sent to control protests
· 3000 people
· 100 Ohio National Guardsmen carrying lethal M-1 military rifles
· active participants in the rally were primarily protesting the presence of the Guard on campus, although a strong anti-war sentiment was also present
· General Canterbury ordered the demonstrators to disperse
· Had no effect
· Tear gas was canisters were fired into crowd
· 61-67 shots were fired in 13 seconds
· Most fired into the ground or into the air, but a small portion fired directly into the crowd
· Students we unarmed
· The Guardsmen who fired into the crowd claimed to have fired in self defense because they felt threatened
· None were found legally responsible for the shootings
Songs:
· “Ohio” by: Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
· Pete Atkin and Clive James wrote "Driving Through Mythical America", recorded by Atkin on his 1971 album of the same name, about the shootings, relating them to a series of events and images from 20th-century American history.
· Steve Miller's “Jackson-Kent Blues,”[58] from The Steve Miller Band album Number 5 (released in November 1970), is another direct response.
· The Beach Boys released "Student Demonstration Time"[59] in 1971 on Surf's Up. Mike Love wrote new lyrics for Leiber & Stoller’s “Riot in Cell Block Number Nine.”
· Bruce Springsteen wrote a song called “Where Was Jesus in Ohio” in May or June 1970. The unreleased and uncirculating song is reported to be the artist's emotionally charged response to the Kent State shootings.[60]
· Jon Anderson has said that the lyrics of "Long Distance Runaround" (on the album Fragile by Yes, also released in 1971) are also in part about the shootings, particularly the line "hot colour melting the anger to stone."[61]
· In 1970-71 Halim El-Dabh, a Kent State University music professor who was on campus when the shootings occurred, composed Opera Flies, a full-length opera, in response to his experience. The work was first performed on the Kent State campus on May 8, 1971, and was revived for the 25th commemoration of the events in 1995.
· In 1971, the composer and pianist Bill Dobbins (who was a Kent State University graduate student at the time of the shootings), composed The Balcony, an avant-garde work for jazz band inspired by the same event. First performed in May 1971 for the university's first commemoration, it was released on LP in 1973 and was performed again by the Kent State University Jazz Ensemble in 2000 for the 30th commemoration.
· Dave Brubeck's 1971 cantata Truth Is Fallen is dedicated to the slain students at Kent State University and Jackson State University; the work was premiered in Midland, Michigan on May 1, 1971, and released on LP in 1972.[62]
· The All Saved Freak Band dedicated its 1973 album My Poor Generation to “Tom Miller of the Kent State 25.” Tom Miller was a member of the band who had been featured in Life magazine as part of the Kent State protests and lost his life the next year in an automobile accident.
· Holly Near's “It Could Have Been Me” – her personal response to the shootings – was released on A Live Album (1974).
· Jandek's song "Governor Rhodes" is presumably a meditation on the Kent State shootings, the title a reference to the Ohio governor who ordered the National Guard to confront protesters. The song was released on the LP Telegraph Melts in 1986, but is believed by some to have been recorded shortly after the shootings.[citation needed]
· The industrial band Skinny Puppy's 1989 song "Tin Omen" on the album Rabies refers to the event.
· The band Polaris's song Hey Sandy, which was the theme song to the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete, may have referenced the shootings and Sandra Scheuer (being the titular "Sandy" of the song), although the actual meaning of the song is in debate.
· Lamb of God's 2000 song "O.D.H.G.A.B.F.E." references Kent State, together with the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the Waco siege.
· A commemorative 2-CD compilation featuring music and interviews was released by the May 4 Task Force in May 2005, in commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the shootings.[63]
· Joe Walsh, who briefly attended Kent State, has said that he wrote "Turn to Stone" in response to the shootings.[citation needed] He also mentions the event in the song "Decades" (1992).
· Lodi, New Jersey-based horror punk band Mourning Noise mentions this event in its song "Radical" recorded live for the album "Death Trip Delivery".
· One of the students who participated in the protest was Chrissie Hynde, future leader of The Pretenders, who was a sophomore at the time.[64]
· Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale, founding members of Devo, also attended Kent State at the time of the shootings. Casale was reportedly "standing about 15 feet (4.6 m) away" from Allison Krause when she was shot, and was friends with her and another one of the students who were killed. The shootings were the transformative moment for the band, which became less of a pure joke and more a vehicle for social critique (albeit with a blackly humorous bent).[65]
· Sage Francis references the Kent State shootings in his song “Slow Down Gandhi.”
· Gwar references the Kent State shootings in the song "Slaughterama" saying "Good thing I was such an expert shot with the National Guard back at Kent State, I bagged four that day."
· Genesis recreates the events from the perspective of the Guards in the song The Knife, on Trespass (October 1970). Against a backdrop of voices chanting "We are only wanting freedom," a male voice in the foreground calls "Things are getting out of control here today", then "OK men, fire over their heads!" followed by gunshots, screaming and crying. The song became a concert mainstay, and established Genesis on the prog-rock scene.
· Barbara Dane sings "The Kent State Massacre" written by Jack Warshaw on her 1973 album I Hate the Capitalist System.[66]
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