GARAGE TO STADIUMS Music History Podcast
Oct 14, 2026 · 1 hr 13 min · 14 segments
Travel back to the political protests and civil unrest of the late 1960s that spawned the legendary Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — America’s first supergroup comprised of members of previously…
David BrowneGuest
Dave AnthonyHost
So, David, that gets us really to the issue of was this a project or was this a group? And I think you talked about that in the book that, you know, you mentioned Neil working on his own stuff and the rest of them.
Ultimately, there's not another album put out by CSN till what, 77 or something like that.
So was it a project or was it a group or was there an agreement at the beginning? Yeah.
That's a key question and a good one, but I think it was almost like an experiment.
Certainly there was the political aspect of some of their songs, whether it was For What It's Worth,
For some context, Neil Young wrote the song Ohio in direct response to the Kent State shootings on May 4th, 1970.
During one of those protests, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on the crowd, killing four students and wounding nine others.
The shooting sparked outrage and grief across the country, leading to a nationwide student strike.
Neil Young channeled that raw emotion and political frustration into the song Ohio, which became a searing indictment of not just the incident, but President Richard Nixon's administration itself.
And the staggering fact about the song, it took him only 15 minutes to write as he channeled his anger into one of the most powerful political protest songs in history.
Incredibly, the song was released only three weeks after the actual incidents on the Kent State campus.
As you were outlining, there were other politically charged songs from the group.
So, David, that gets us really to the issue of was this a project or was this a group? And I think you talked about that in the book that, you know, you mentioned Neil working on his own stuff and the rest of them.
Ultimately, there's not another album put out by CSN till what, 77 or something like that.
So was it a project or was it a group or was there an agreement at the beginning? Yeah.
That's a key question and a good one, but I think it was almost like an experiment.
Certainly there was the political aspect of some of their songs, whether it was For What It's Worth,
For some context, Neil Young wrote the song Ohio in direct response to the Kent State shootings on May 4th, 1970.
During one of those protests, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on the crowd, killing four students and wounding nine others.
The shooting sparked outrage and grief across the country, leading to a nationwide student strike.
Neil Young channeled that raw emotion and political frustration into the song Ohio, which became a searing indictment of not just the incident, but President Richard Nixon's administration itself.
And the staggering fact about the song, it took him only 15 minutes to write as he channeled his anger into one of the most powerful political protest songs in history.
Incredibly, the song was released only three weeks after the actual incidents on the Kent State campus.
As you were outlining, there were other politically charged songs from the group.
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