Neil Young, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and film director, penned the lyrics to the protest song “Ohio,” after seeing the photos of the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970 in Life magazine. The song was quickly recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (“CSNY”) and immediately released as a single, even though CSNY’s “Teach Your Children” was still climbing the singles charts. After its release, the song was banned from some AM radio stations because of the challenge to the Nixon Administration in the lyrics, but received airplay on then underground FM stations in larger cities and college towns. The American counterculture took the group as its own after this song, giving the four a status as leaders and spokesmen they would enjoy to varying extent for the rest of the decade. “Ohio” peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and although a live version of the song was included on the group’s 1971 double album Four Way Street, the studio version of the song did not appear on an album until the group’s So Far compilation was released in 1974. This song also features at number 385 on the Rolling Stone Magazines Top 500 Songs of All Time. Many believe that the release “Ohio” as a single cut into the sales of “Teach Your Children” and prevented that song from reaching the top ten. In the late 1970s and for much of the 1980s, Young refrained from performing “Ohio” live, as he considered the song to be dated. In the wake of the 1989 Tienanmen Square massacre, however, Young revived the song in concert, often dedicating it to the Chinese students who were killed in the massacre. Interestingly, Crosby, Stills & Nash, as a trio, also returned the song to their live repertoire around the same time, even though Young had provided the lead vocals on the original recording.

Official CSNY site
The Four Way Site - unofficial CSNY site