Five of the Best Songs Inspired by Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon and his tarnished presidency inspired music of a variety of genres. Here are five of the best.
- “Ohio” (1970)
Songwriter: Neil Young
“In speaking for ourselves, [listeners] recognized that we were speaking for them, too.” Graham Nash said this about the song Neil Young wrote for Crosby Stills Nash & Young in response to the Ohio National Guard shooting unarmed students on the campus of Kent State University on May 4, 1970. The National Guard had been called to the campus to try to restore order in the wake of protests following Richard Nixon’s announcement that a bombing campaign was underway in Cambodia (it had actually started a year earlier.)
What makes the song great? The lyrics. “Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming/We’re finally on our own/This summer I hear the drummin’/Four dead in Ohio.” Young did not just write the lyrics. His guitar playing is urgent, pushing his bandmates forward through the song that puts the blame for the four deaths on Nixon’s shoulders. “ Ohio” has the signature CSN harmonies but this is no “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” This is a rock song. Chrissie Hynde, who was a freshman at Kent State and on campus when the shootings occurred, said it was fitting that Young wrote the song that spoke for them because Jeffrey Miller, the 20 year-old whose lifeless body is shown in the now iconic photo taken by John Paul Filo, was a big fan of Young’s music.
2. “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” (1974)
Songwriter: Stevie Wonder
The song drips with funk and with an assist from The Jacksons providing background “doo da wops,” Stevie Wonder creates a song that is so fun that you do not even realize you are protesting. That was the point. It was 1974, Nixon was ass-deep in Watergate but had not yet resigned, and America was sick of it all. Sick and tired of the hearings and the interviews and the articles and the lies. Wonder put those feelings into words:
But we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
’Cause if you really want to hear our views
“you haven’t done nothin’”
He then took this words and wrapped them up in a dance song. He wanted to write a song that his fans liked and that made them want to dance. His hope was that while they were dancing, they might take the time to think about the lyrics. He did not want to write a song that was too “heavy,” even if the issues he was writing about really were.
3. “H20 Gate Blues” (1974)
Songwriter: Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron was a sociologist, historian, political commentator, poet, songwriter, and even if he denied it, the father of hip-hop. His work is all at once jazzy, bluesy, and yes, at times, funny. Scott-Heron and his collaborator, Brian Jackson, put all of that into “H20 Gate Blues.” One of the best things about his recordings is that they are often live, giving listeners the chance to eavesdrop on the background sounds of 70s jazz clubs.
Addressing the Watergate break-in and the crimes that helped Nixon cruise to re-election in 1972, Scott-Heron wrote these lyrics, which some might find startlingly relevant today:
How much more evidence do the citizens need
That the election was sabotaged by trickery and greed?
And, if this is so, and who we got didn’t win
Let’s do the whole goddamn election over again! (YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!)
Scott-Heron was not through with Nixon. After Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon in 1974, Scott-Heron wrote “We Beg Your Pardon America,” a spoken word performance that takes Ford to task for giving a pardon that was not his to give.
4. Watergate Blues (1973)
Songwriter: Tom T. Hall
Tom T. Hall is a storyteller and the story he tells with his own version of “Watergate Blues” is that of an election and presidential administration that did not just deceive a nation, but may have done so with untold damage to the nation. Using his wry wit and easy strumming of his acoustic guitar, Hall sounds like he might be sitting on the front porch with a glass of sweet tea nearby. He isn’t telling a folk tale, though. Not with these lyrics:
The USA bought a new used car
Russia and Vietnam and China were cool
The American press, they could not find any news
So they dug into Watergate and the further they went
It seemed as if they might just run into the President
5. Young Americans (1975)
Songwriter: David Bowie
With a song that surveys a post-Nixon America, Bowie asks how long it will be before everyone forgets all about how we got there. “Will you remember your President Nixon/Do you remember the bills you have to pay/Or even yesterday?” It was a fair question. America was battle-fatigued in more ways than one. David Bowie and Richard Nixon are both gone now but the questions are still relevant. Do we remember our President Nixon? Do we remember yesterday?
