Top Rated Interpretation

anonymous May 26th, 2006 10:16AM  
This song is most definitely about the 1970 shootings at Kent University in Ohio. Four people were killed by troops of the Ohio National Guard because they were protesting the invasion of Cambodia in the Vietnam War. Although the protests were sometimes violent, the soldiers took unnecessary action when they fired into the crowd of unarmed students, again, killing four people. All four were students at the university, and only two were actaully involved in the protests. Anyways, this song goes, "Tin Soldiers and Nixon's coming, we're finally on our own, this summer I hear the drummin', four dead in Ohio, gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down...." Tin soldiers are the National Guard soldiers, Nixon's coming refers to Nixon's orders to invade Cambodia, four dead in Ohio are the four killed students, and soldiers are cutting us down is the soldiers opening fire on the unarmed students, killing four and wounding nine. After Neil Young released this song, he was quoted, "I feel upset with myself for commercializing the massacre, and making money off of the killings."