Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young “Ohio” charted

Ohio Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Writer(s): Neil Young (see lyrics here) First Charted: June 20, 1970 Peak: 14 US, 14 CB, 25 GR, 13 HR, 2 CL, 16 CN, 44 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 24.25 video, 95.90 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Crosby, Stills & Nash arguably became the biggest supergroup of all time when they formed in 1968. David Crosby had been in the Byrds, Stephen Stills in Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash in the Hollies. The folk-rock trio released its self-titled debut album the next year and performed at Woodstock in August 1969. It would be seemingly impossible for the group to get any bigger, but in 1970 they added Neil Young to the mix. He had worked with Stills in Buffalo Springfield before launching a solo career. The quartet released the chart-topping, multi-million-selling Déjà Vu that year. Four singles were released to support the album, but right in the middle of them the foursome released the non-album cut “Ohio.” The song was in response to an incident at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Four students were shot and killed by National Guardsmen at an anti-Vietnam war demonstration on the Ohio college campus. The “tragedy galvanized anti-war sentiment nationwide, and deepened the country’s cultural divide.” SS The May 15 issue of Life magazine featured a photo of “a distraught girl kneeling beside Jeffrey Miller’s lifeless body.” SS Four days later, Young penned a “stinging denouncement” HL of the incident in just fifteen minutes. SS “The outrage remains as immediate today ias it ever was.” DT “There are few more stirring moments in their (or any other contemporary) catalog than this.” DT The song was rush-released, hitting stores just over a month after the incident. In spite of an airplay ban and vice-president Spiro Agnew’s declaration that the song – and rock music in general – was “anti-U.S.” HL the song reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Young deemed it his best work with Crosby, Stills & Nash. HL Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young HL Michael Heatley and Spencer Leigh (1998). Behind the Song: The Stories of 100 Great Pop & Rock Classics. Blandford Books: London, UK. Page 131. SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland. Page 490. DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 69. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 4/12/2023; last updated 4/28/2024.

Grateful Dead Workingman’s Dead released

Workingman’s Dead The Grateful Dead

Released: June 14, 1970 Peak: 27 US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU, 12 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 1.0 US Genre: folk rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Uncle John’s Band (7/1/70, 69 BB, 4 CL, 6 DF) High Time Dire Wolf (5/2/81, 16 CL, 37 AR, 27 DF) New Speedway Boogie (21 CL) Cumberland Blues Black Peter Easy Wind Casey Jones (3 CL, 11 DF) Total Running Time: 35:33 The Players: Jerry Garcia (vocals, guitar, piano) Mickey Hart (percussion) Robert Hunter (lyrics) Bill Kreutzmann (drums) Phil Lesh (bass, guitar, piano, vocals) Ron “Pigpen” McKernan (harmonica, vocals) Bob Weir (guitar, vocals)

Rating: 4.307 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

From Psychedelic to Roots Rock The “Dead are long-term champions of the mind-shredding psychic frontier.” JSH Prior to this album, they “were already established as paragons of the free-form, improvisational San Francisco psychedelic sound.” AM Their previous album, Live/Dead, was “their magnum opus of the free-jamming style.” JSH Then they “abruptly shifted gears for the acoustic Workingman’s Dead” AM and “concentrated on writing a more concise series of songs.” JSH The group was also in a position where they needed to make the album cheaply. They owed Warner Bros. nearly $200,000 and were in trouble with the law after a marijuana bust. This compelled lead singer Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter to return to their “roots and come up with a collection of tight, melodic songs with a simple acoustic framework.” TB The band “knew exactly what needed to be done right from the start – and the simplicity of the arrangements made the going that much easier.” TB “Despite its sharp contrast to the epic live space jams on which the group’s legend primarily rests, Workingman’s Dead nonetheless spotlights the Dead at their most engaging, stripped of all excess to reveal the true essence of their craft.” AM They offer up “a lovely exploration of American roots music illuminating the group’s country, blues, and folk influences.” AM “There’s a rollicking western outlaw spirit to this album that actually lives up to the album cover, which shows ‘em hangin’ out in a railyard like hippie hobos.” JSH They churn out “eight spooky blues and country songs that rival the best of Bob Dylan.” 500 Joe S. Harrington, in writing for the web zine Blastitude, called it “the best country-rock album of all-time.” JSH It was also their commercial breakthrough. The Influence of CSN The sound was influenced by the band’s friendship with Crosby, Stills & Nash. Grateful Dead frontman Garcia said, “Hearing those guys sing and how nice they sounded together, we thought, ‘We can try that.’” WK He also said, “We weren’t feeling like an experimental music group, but were feeling more like a good old band.” 500 Drummer Mickey Hart further explained that “Stills lived with me for three months…and he and David Crosby really turned Jerry and Bobby onto the voice as the holy instrument…That turned us away from pure improvisation and more toward songs.” WK The Title The album’s title came from a comment Garcia made to lyricist Robert Hunter (who is featured on the album cover as the band’s seventh member) that “this album was turning into the Workingman’s Dead version of the band.” WK The Songs Garcia and Hunter “proved themselves one of rock’s sharpest songwriting teams, with the acoustic hymn Uncle John’s Band, “a nod to the three-part harmonizing” of CSN. TB Hunter said, ‘It was my feeling about what the Dead was and could be. It was very much a song for us and about us, in the most hopeful sense.’” 500 It “opens the record and perfectly summarizes its subtle, spare beauty; complete with a new focus on more concise songs and tighter arrangements, the approach works brilliantly.” AM That song as well as “the countrified” TB “High Time and Cumberland Blues were brought to life with soaring harmonies and layered vocal textures that had not been a part of the band’s sound” WK previously. There’s also the “slow blues” TB of Black Peter. The album features “Garcia’s best singing ever” on Casey Jones and the “amazing Dire Wolf,” JSH which Harrington calls “purely American expression…as good as Hank Williams or the Everly Brothers.” JSH New Speedway Boogie “is the Dead’s ode to Altamont, and it’s one of their best rockers.” JSH Notes: An expanded edition was released in 2003 which included an alternate mix of “New Speedway Boogie” as well as live versions of “Dire Wolf,” “Black Peter,” “Easy Wind,” “Cumberland Blues,” “Mason’s Children,” and “Uncle John’s Band.”

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Jason Ankeny JSH Blastitude (2003). “A Loaded Proposition: Joe S. Harrington Picks the All-Time Top 100 Or…Who Pulled the Trigger?” by Joe S. Harrington 500 Rolling Stone (12/21/2023). “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 130. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 8/1/2011; last updated 11/4/2025.

The Kinks “Lola” released

Lola The Kinks

Writer(s): Ray Davies (see lyrics here) Released: June 12, 1970 First Charted: July 4, 1970 Peak: 9 US, 8 CB, 7 GR, 7 HR, 1 CL, 2 UK, 2 CN, 6 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 0.4 UK Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 22.0 video, 218.86 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Kinks formed in England in 1963 and were one of the most celebrated bands that spearheaded the British invasion. Singer/songwriter Ray Davies “created some of the best typically British popular music of the era.” TB The Kinks landed a dozen top-ten hits in the UK during the 1960s. In the U.S., they hit the top 10 three times before petering out and finding themselves unable to even crack the Hot 100. However, they experienced a resurgence in 1970 with “Lola,” a top-ten hit in the U.S. and UK. “One of the most controversial songs of its time, ‘Lola’ was the first pop hit about transexuality.” TC It “predicts gender bending a full decade before Boy George made it fashionable” DT in the early ‘80s. Davies spins a tale about picking up a woman at a Paris nightclub who might be a man. He was inspired by a night out with record producer Robert Wace, who was dancing with a sultry black woman. However, when Davies noticed stubble on “her” chin, he thought she might be a he. SJ Kinks’ drummer Mick Avory has claimed it was about his own experiences in West London bars which hosted drag shows. WK Davies himself denies it was inspired by his own experience dating Candy Darling, a transvestite who gained attention as one of Andy Warhol’s superstars at the Factory and who was referenced in Lou Reed’s song “Walk on the Wild Side.” TC Amusingly, the Kinks did have to change a line in the song, but not because of sexuality. The song originally referenced Coca-Cola, but the BBC insisted on changing the lyric to “Cherry Cola” TC because of regulations prohibiting product advertising on the airwaves. TB Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Kinks TC Toby Creswell (2005). 1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time. Thunder’s Mouth Press: New York, NY. Pages 34-5. SJ Bob Shannon and John Javna (1986). Behind the Hits: Inside Stories of Classic Pop and Rock and Roll. Warner Books, Inc.: New York, NY. Page 145. DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 35. TB Thunder Bay Press (2006). Singles: Six Decades of Hot Hits & Classic Cuts. Outline Press Ltd.: San Diego, CA. Page 122. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/11/2023.