OWS gets its music

Nothing terribly original, but Boom will be happy to hear OWS is getting at least getting little retro music with an acoustic performance this afternoon by David Crosby and Graham Nash. I'd attend if Pete Seeger decides to stop by...

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/david-crosby-graham-nash-perform-zuccotti-park-occupy-wall-street-protesters-article-1.974178

 

Was juts reading this book about the music scene in 1970:



http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Rain-Beatles-Garfunkel-Taylor/dp/0306818507

Neil Young wrote Ohio within just days of the Kent State massacre. CSNY recorded it just 17 days later and released it as a single -- at a time they were supposed to be promoting Déjà Vu, and the singles off of it -- within barely a month.

Hard to think of many similar examples -- at least when you're talking about a song that's any good.

The one I think of off the the top of my head is another one by Neil Young: Let's Roll, his 9/11 song about Flight 93.

 

How about Tom Petty's "Peace in LA" during the Rodney King riots?

By far Petty's biggest embarrassment, even surpassing those chipmunk sideburns he sported for years.

 

"Let's Roll" was horrible. So was the 9-11 song Paul McCartney, part of his ripped-from-the-headlines schtick that also gave us "Give Ireland Back to the Irish."

"Ohio" is notable in that it's one of the few news-inspired, instant songs to be any good. Then again, the idea of an anti-Vietnam War protest song was hardly out of nowhere in 1970, and Young had had ample time to crystallize his position before Kent State happened. "Ohio" might have been written quickly, but it's clear the feelings behind it had been boiling for a while.

 

Literally never heard of it.

 

Let's Roll isn't great, but it caught the emotion. It doesn't stand up over time very well though.

Ohio is still a classic.

The telling of it's composition in the book is pretty cool. Neil just bangs it out, and Crosby is floored by it. Crosby calls everyone else to tell them they have to hear the song Neil's just written.

Just a few days later they gather in a recording studio to record it.