On Monday 4th May 1970 the Ohio National Guard shot dead 4 people, and injured 9, at a protest rally at the Kent State University in Ohio.  The protesters had been demonstrating, looting, and attacking police in the town for the four days following Nixon’s announcement that America would invade Cambodia.  An estimated four million people had risen up and protested across the country in response to the Cambodian Incursion, but Kent would go down in history (full account).

Alongside the nationwide protests, Neil Young had heard of the events in Kent, and wrote a song for Crosby, Stills and Nash.  The song was simply titled “Ohio”.  Within just twenty days of the shootings the song was receiving national airplay across the country, providing a vehicle to carry the message.

The song itself is uncompromising, sharp, and cutting.  Imagine yourself what it would be like to write a song accusing your own president of crimes, and your own countries army as “cutting US down”.  It is unimaginably frank, and soaked tonally in anger and accusation.  It’s frankly brilliant.

Four dead in Ohio.

d

*** Note: This is not the Neil Young version, as that has been banned from internet airplay by WGM.

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

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

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

Today’s feature is a wonderfully simple and poised song, composed and performed by Conor.  Released from the I’m Wide Awake and It’s Morning album in 2004, the song depicts the daily struggle of two people facing depression.  The title of the song comes from the Portuguese word for moon, and possibly a number of Hawaiian language references made throughout the verses.

Enjoy the song, and remember to quote the Flaming Lips;

“It’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round“

d

I know that it is freezing, but I think we have to walk
I keep waving at the taxis, they keep turning their lights off
But Julie knows a party at some actor’s West side loft
Supplies are endless in the evening by the morning they’ll be gone

When everything is lonely I can be my own best friend
I’ll get a coffee and the paper, have my own conversations
with the sidewalk and the pigeons and my window reflection
The mask I polish in the evening by the morning looks like shit

And I know you have a heavy heart, I can feel it when we kiss
So many men stronger than me have thrown their backs out trying to lift it
But me I’m not a gamble, you can count on me to split
The love I sell you in the evening by the morning won’t exist

You’re looking skinny like a model with your eyes all painted black
Just keep going to the bathroom, always say you’ll be right back
Well, it takes one to know one, kid, I think you’ve got it bad
But what’s so easy in the evening by the morning’s such a drag

I got a flask inside my pocket, we can share it on the train
And if you promise to stay conscious I will try and do the same
We might die from medication, but we sure killed all the pain
But what was normal in the evening by the morning seems insane

And I’m not sure what the trouble was that started all of this
The reasons all have run away, but the feeling never did
It’s not something I would recommend, but it is one way to live
Cause what is simple in the moonlight by the morning never is

It was so simple in the moonlight now it’s so complicated
It was so simple in the moonlight, so simple in the moonlight
So simple in the moonlight…

For those of you who have never attended, imagine Glastonbury as a smelly field, but imagine it too as a place that weird moments can just lift you up and take you somewhere you never imagined. I’ll admit I’d had a few beers (and nothing else), but when Moby played his final tune of the night… the sun was setting directly opposite the stage. The crowd weren’t lively, they were stood watching in amazement at the beautiful melody that Moby creates again and again. Repeating himself, but seemingly never repeating himself.

Not the biggest hit of all, but I’d heartily recommend you put this on your alarm clock, and let it wake you up for a week. You’ll feel truly alive.

Regards as always,
d

The rest of the Ten album is masterful too, an almost perfect debut pitched against a 90’s teenage youth full of angst with the world. They met it head on, and clashed beautifully with its raw power and force. Ultimately it would propel Pearl Jam into the limelight, hitting the top 20 in six countries. If you had an older brother in the nineties, this is what he listened to.

It would be easy for me to select a song from Ten, they are all wonderful. But you should buy it, play it endlessly, and wonder how you lived without it.

I’m choosing Do the Evolution, track 9 from the 5th Jam album Yield.

Enjoy
d