Neil Young's Use Of 'Four Dead In Ohio'
On May 4, 1970, four students at Kent State University in Ohio were killed, another student was paralyzed, and eight others were wounded as a result of the United States National Guard opening fire into a crowd of peaceful college war protestors. The four killed were Allison Krause (age 19), William Schroeder (age 19), Jeffrey Miller (age 20), and Sandra Scheuer (age 20). Immediately after this massacre, Neil Young, a war protestor himself, composed a song called “Ohio”, which later became an anthem known as “Four Dead in Ohio”. This song is a very simple one with a very clear message against the war in Vietnam, and against President Nixon. It was not surprising to find that because this was an anti-war song, it was banned from many radio