4 Alternative Voices – Have We Progressed or Regressed?

“A protest song is a song that’s
so specific that you cannot mistake it for bullshit.”

– Phil Ochs

Common sense tells us there is no way a book of this length, or even a lengthy series, can address and analyze all aspects of every musical trend that has existed since CSNY’s anthem.  What we offer are conversations aimed at stimulating self-reflection and discussion, and for this segment we take a quick look at the response by the punk and new wave community.

We’ll hear more from Alan Canfora, one of the Kent State victims, later in this book, but he recognized the power of all musical genres even in the earliest stages. “I think there has always been.” He explains, “Even since 1970. There’s been this kind of an underground music scene that was going on back in the Seventies. The punk rock scene emerged. There’s still some of those bands now that are doing some political songs. For example, the whole genre of street punk, they’re very much encouraging rebellion, and awakening of the youth, and encouraging the young people to take a stand. So that’s one genre of music, but also a lot of the rap music is encouraging people to awaken and get active.” More on rap to come, but you see the continuing impact on more traditional music linked to May 4th, often by artists who were witness to the unfolding tragedy. Terry Leonino is one of them. A long-time social activist, she’s been part of the folk duo Magpie with her husband Greg Artzner since 1973 who grew up in music traditions.  According to Leonino, “While putting myself through college I was singing Pete Seeger songs, Phil Ochs Songs, Tom Paxton songs, Aunt Molly Jackson songs, songs of The Weavers, Peter, Paul, and Mary and as the country and our government was digging in deeper and deeper into the war in Vietnam, these songs became more prominent in my repertoire. Included in this repertoire were many other songs from the Civil Rights Movement and Peace Movement and Women’s Movement to name only a few movements occurring during my early childhood and throughout my college years.” She also tells us the audience has to learn from history, especially on issues of social inequality and injustice. She points to a wide range of artists and influences including, “Matt and Marshall Jones, The SNCC Freedom Singers, Pete Seeger, Malvina Reynolds, Faith Petric, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan (until he decided to go commercial), Judy Collins, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary to name only a few of the song leaders of the 60’s chose to tell and share their stories of their social and political concerns through their songs. Magpie and many other lesser known, or as Phil Ochs’ sister, Sonny Ochs, calls us the ‘almost famous’ who have chosen to carry on this important musical tradition. Every artist must decide where they stand.”

An impressive list.  Leonino says her own musical direction was solidified when she was eyewitness to the Kent State tragedy. She was honored to play with Peter, Paul and Mary at the 1990 May 4th observance. Leonino also says her own experience left her with questions saying, “I come from a very musical family traditional family. I was already playing political music, but it was obviously majorly turned after the shootings only in the regard that I was like, ‘Why am I still here?’ Survivors always wonder why they aren’t the ones that didn’t make it. Why did I make it and Jeff Miller didn’t? He was in my English class. Why did I make it and some of my other friends didn’t make it? So, it’s a very weird kind of almost surreal place to be reflecting sometimes because you see yourself and say well okay, I was left behind to do something. So, what do I do? I do what I’ve been doing. I do my music and I find ways to make it work in the world. I was able to get three Bachelor of Science degrees.”

Leonino goes on to share her story of what happened on May 4, “My friend Raleigh Brown was the guy who rang the liberty bell which drew everybody down to the commons for the freedom speech rally about Cambodia and Nixon’s going into Cambodia. It was a big deal. They closed all the buildings down. They forced everybody to go to the student union. So that was professors and students and everybody. You would try to go to class and there would be somebody standing there with an M16 right in front of the door in combat gear and tanks all over the campus and they’re trying to go to school. And you think, ‘Okay well I think I’ll just go see what’s happening at the student union.’ My geology professor, that was a class I was supposed to go to, Dr. Glenn Frank talked everybody down or there probably would have been a lot more people dead. He was the very man who stood up in front of the crowd and said, ‘Please sit down or there’s gonna be a slaughter!’ He was pretty eloquent and amazing that he was there at the moment that he was.”  Leonino was so moved by Frank’s plea that she immortalized it in a song titled “You Carried Us.”

“He’s a pretty important person in the story,” she says. “It’s important that as many books, as many sides, as many perspectives as possible are out there because it’s not a simple story. It’s a very complex one. You have to realize that the shootings that are going on today are being done by young people, mostly men, and this was our government. This wasn’t one person. This was our government and we’re supposed to be trusting our government with our lives and here they are shooting at us? And they have tanks surrounding us? These times are difficult, but they have to be fought against and the best thing you can do is use your freedom of speech. That’s one thing I think I came out from the other side on that. Words are powerful. Songs are powerful. They are a reflection of what is happening, and they also can be used as peaceful weapons. They cut to the heart of the story but hopefully open your heart and your mind so that you can take it in a way that can transform you so you would not continue on this horrible path of injustice.”  She also points to a greater sense of history at that time to fully appreciate the events on the Kent State campus. “We always talk about the 4th as if the 3rd or 2nd of May didn’t happen and all the things leading up to it.” Leonino details the often overlooked key factors that lead up to the shootings that were frightening in their own right, telling us “There was a trucker strike in Cleveland and the very National Guard that they sent down to Kent were up with no sleep for 48 hours, having battle fights with guns with truckers in Cleveland. They were taken with 48 hours of no sleep to the Kent campus and they were young people, they were our age, some of them, they had no sleep and they had a weapon. So, think about that.”

“There were truckers who actually did have guns and actually shot at the guardsmen,” She continued, “So they were having gun battles in Cleveland right before they came to Kent. All those little pieces of the story that are not highlighted are kind of overlooked sometimes because we talk just about the 4th. A lot of things happened before then. The burning of the ROTC building, the anti-war movement was at a pinnacle, the peace movement was at a pinnacle and people were trying to decide which side they were gonna be with. Were they gonna be with the SDS or were they gonna be with the peace movement? There were a lot of decisions being made because our government at that time were literally taking young men, not as many women but they did take women as well and send them off to Vietnam, with draft notices. Greg was number 254 in the year it didn’t count and number four the year it counted. He became a conscious objector to the war. You serve two years, you don’t just object to the war, you actually put in service for two years. He served in a hospital, which I think kind of maybe lead him into nursing. They serve the government too, just like a solider does only they’re’ doing it in protest and some are just thrown in jail and left to rot.” Despite the questions she still lives with and the trauma she endured as a witness, Leonino still manages to find room for optimism saying, “The hope really is in our next generation.”