Today’s socially relevant song of the day is “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield. Yes, that’s the actual title, although some might know it better as the “Stop! Hey What’s That Sound” song.
Most folks view “For What It’s Worth” as a protest song and it kind of is—just not in the way you might think. Stephen Stills wrote the song in response to the Los Angeles Curfew Riots in November of 1966. Those so-called riots were skirmishes between young people and the police over a then-new curfew for the Sunset Strip area; apparently local merchants were getting annoyed by the crowds of young folks loitering and congesting traffic as they made their way to the Whiskey A Go Go and other nearby clubs. Within days, hundreds of demonstrators hit the streets to protest against the enforcement of the curfew. That unrest inspired Mr. Stills to write “For What It’s Worth.”
Stills’ group Buffalo Springfield released “For What It’s Worth” as a single in December of 1966 and it ended up hitting #7 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 early the following year Despite its purely local inspiration, the song became somewhat of an anthem for the general social unrest taking place across the country in the mid-to-late ’60s. You still hear it played at protest rallies today.
That lasting impact has a lot to do with Stills’ in-retrospect-universal lyrics:
There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
Buffalo Springfield was one of the earliest bands to combine rock, folk, and country elements. At the time of the single’s release, the members of the band included Stephen Stills on guitars and vocals, Neil Young on guitars and vocals, Richie Furay on guitars and vocals, Bruce Palmer on bass, and Dewey Martin on drums. Stills and Young later split from the group, with Stills joining David Crosby and Graham Nash in Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Neil Young enhancing the trio as “and Young” a little later.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Buffalo Springfield lip synching “For What It’s Worth” on the February 26, 1967, episode of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Yep, that’s a very young Stephen Stills in the cowboy hat singing lead—and a heavily sideburned Neil Young noodling away in the back.
