Day 395:med update, and a look back 44 years.

Good Morning  to all, 

    It has been a year and a month, since my transplant, and I can say with confidence that my condition is improving.  The "numbers", my blood lab results, continue to trend towards normalcy and the good days are outweighing the rough ones. I am not out of the woods, yet,
but I am adjusting to my "New Normal".  Physical Therapy and tapering meds is helping too.

     I had a scare earlier this year with squamous cell carcinoma, but caught it in time and had it carved out.  I think that episode was the cause for the scarcity of blog posts this last winter.  It was hard to accept that I had come so far with the Bone Marrow/Stem Cell transplant to be struck down by a form of cancer.  That is behind me now,  but I can't help but think of how fragile our lives can be.

     For instance, 44 years ago this Sunday an event occurred that should not be forgotten. I still wear a black armband on April 4th.

Follow me over the jump, and through the tear gas to...

Soundtrack

Ohio

Here is a story worth telling, and I have checked it's veracity as best I can.

I shamelessly ripped and edited for brevity this text from here the pop history dig.
The full story is a good read.
Source


May 17th  1970 Life Magazine cover:

      According to the story behind this song, Young was given an early copy of the Life magazine issue that had run the dramatic cover photo of a shot student being attended on its May 15th, 1970 issue (photo at top of page, above).  David Crosby had given him the magazine copy, and after Young looked at the photos and read the story, he reportedly disappeared for several hours, returning later with his song.

     The four musicians then rehearsed a version of the song which was then recorded on the evening of May 15th, 1970 at the Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles.  The foursome, with other back-up musicians, recorded it live in just a few takes.  During the same session they also recorded what would become the single’s B-side, Stephen Stills’ ode to the Vietnam war’s dead, “Find the Cost of Freedom.”

     The record was then mastered and rush-released by the Atlantic record label soon after its recording.  It was being sold on the market as a 45 rpm single in June and was being heard on the radio even before that, within weeks of the shootings.  But the new song wasn’t welcomed everywhere.  In some parts of the country it was banned from radio playlists – especially AM radio, the mainstream pop radio in those days.  The song was held off the air at a number of those stations because of it’s “anti-war” and “anti-Nixon” sentiments.  Meanwhile, FM radio, then regarded as underground radio, played the song without hesitation.  In any case, the song’s lyrics – especially the refrain, “four dead in O-hi-o” – became a ringing anthem for a generation angered by the war and what had happened at Kent State.

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      So it was just weeks for the song to get recorded and distributed. Today it could have been on YouTube and gone viral within minutes of the event.



Chris