Released December 23, 1966 Length 2:37 | Format 7" single | |
B-side "Do I Have to Come Right Out and Say It?" Recorded December 5, 1966 at Columbia Studios, Hollywood, CA Genre Folk rock
country rock
psychedelic rock | ||
"For What It's Worth" is a song written by Stephen Stills. It was performed by Buffalo Springfield, recorded on December 5, 1966, and released as a single in January 1967; it was later added to the re-release of their first album, Buffalo Springfield.
Contents
The single peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This song is currently ranked #63 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time as well as the eighth best song of 1967 by Acclaimed Music.
The song's title appears nowhere in its lyrics; it is more easily remembered by the first line of the chorus: "Stop, children, what's that sound?"
Origin
Although "For What It's Worth" is often used as an anti-war song, Stephen Stills was inspired to write the track because of the Sunset Strip curfew riots in November 1966. The trouble, which started during the early stages of the counterculture era, was in the same year Buffalo Springfield had become the house band at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
It was within this period that local residents and businesses had become increasingly annoyed by late-night traffic congestion caused by crowds of young people going to clubs and music venues along the Strip. In response they lobbied the city to pass local ordinances that stopped loitering and enforced a strict curfew on the Strip after 10pm. However young music fans felt the new laws were an infringement of their civil rights.
On Saturday, November 12, 1966, fliers were distributed on Sunset Strip inviting people to join demonstrations later that day. Several of Los Angeles' rock radio stations also announced that a rally would be held outside the Pandora's Box club on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Crescent Heights. That evening as many as 1,000 young demonstrators, including future celebrities like Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda (who was handcuffed by police), gathered to protest against the enforcement of the curfew laws. Although the rallies began peacefully, trouble eventually broke out among the protesters and police. The unrest continued the next night and periodically throughout the rest of November and December forcing some clubs to shut down within weeks.
Against the background of these civil disturbances, Stills recorded the song on December 5, 1966.
Title
Stills said in an interview that the name of the song came about when he presented it to the record company executive Ahmet Ertegun who signed Buffalo Springfield to the Atlantic Records-owned ATCO label. He said: "I have this song here, for what it's worth, if you want it." Another producer, Charlie Greene, claims that Stills first said the above sentence to him, but credits Ahmet Ertegun with subtitling the single "Stop, Hey What's That Sound" so that the song would be more easily recognized.
History
The song quickly became a well-known protest song.
In 2006, when interviewed on Tom Kent's radio show Into the '70s, Stephen Stills pointed out that many people think "For What It's Worth" is about the Kent State shootings (1970), even though the song predates that event by over three years. Neil Young, Stills' bandmate in both Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, would later write "Ohio", in response to the events at Kent State.
The song was played (without Neil Young's presence) at Buffalo Springfield's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Covers
"For What It's Worth" has been covered, sampled, and referenced in numerous musical performances. The most well known are by Cher, The Staple Singers, The Muppet Show, and Public Enemy. Cher's 1969 cover did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but received decent reviews, with Allmusic retrospectively calling her version "mature [and] forceful." Public Enemy sampled "For What It's Worth", for their 1998 song "He Got Game," which also featured Stephen Stills.
Other covers of "For What It's Worth" include:
Use in media
The Muppet Show episode 221 partly rewrote the song to be an anti-hunting song. The song is performed by forest animal Muppets, who are periodically interrupted by rampaging human game hunter Muppets.
Other uses of "For What It's Worth" include: