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Buffalo Springfield — For What It's Worth
Album: Buffalo Springfield
Avg rating:
8.4

Your rating:
Total ratings: 1224









Released: 1966
Length: 2:32
Plays (last 30 days): 0
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There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

There's battle lines being drawn
And 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?

What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly saying, "Hooray for our side"

It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
Step out of line, the men come and take you away

We better stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

Stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

Stop
Now, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?

We better stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?
Comments (47)add comment
Stills' best I reckon despite his considerable later success. A straight 10. 
Posted 7 months ago by siqbal    [ Reply ]
It's amazing to me how well I remember how this came over the radio in Dad's new '67 Vista Cruiser as he and Mom awaited the start of the movies at the drive-in, with my brother and I supposed to be sleeping in back. They seemed ticked-off when I asked 'em to turn it up so I could hear it, too!
Posted 1 year ago by coloradojohn    [ Reply ]
True story.  Synchronicity.  Serendipity.  Something.  Odds of such a coincidence?  The instant I started to read this article in today's Daily Beast (4/21/23) this, one of Stills' most enduring tunes, came on RP.   
Stephen Stills on His ‘Enduring’ Friendship With Neil Young and Butting Heads With Crosby https://tinyurl.com/yjcf24a
Posted 1 year ago by kingart    [ Reply ]
Good advice.
Posted 1 year ago by itsme_bygolly    [ Reply ]
Working on a mobile, so can’t tell if it’s been suggested before: IMHO, the best track to follow Marvin Gay’s What’s Going On would have been the Public Enemy track He Got Game, which samples the Buffalo Springfield track For What It’s Worth. FWIW, I rank all 3 tracks 9 or higher. pxd
Posted 1 year ago by pxd    [ Reply ]
Shocked that I had not yet rated this classic song. An immediate 10!
Posted 1 year ago by Laptopdog    [ Reply ]
Nice sequence, Bill, from Waiting for the Great Leap Forward, through a War on War, to Stopping to Listen to the Sound of What's Going Down.
Posted 2 years ago by DrMacDaddy    [ Reply ]
Steven Stills and Neil Young… yep awesome
Posted 2 years ago by tm    [ Reply ]
 prs wrote:



This comment was posted 17 years ago - we've not moved on as this track is even more meaningful today, in 2021, than ever before - WTF are we doing!



I can't believe I posted this 9 months ago and now - Mar-21 Russia has decided that Ukaine should be a part of Russia - last night a very brave youg woman stood behind the newsreader on the main russian TV station holding up a placard denouncing Russia!
Posted 2 years ago by prs    [ Reply ]
 pollyh wrote:
brilliant segue from the great Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. great music, sad situation we're in. {#Eek}


Interesting. 4 weeks later, the same sequence.  
Posted 2 years ago by roadie    [ Reply ]
yeah...first country rock band
Posted 2 years ago by idiot_wind    [ Reply ]
brilliant segue from the great Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. great music, sad situation we're in. {#Eek}
Posted 2 years ago by pollyh    [ Reply ]
The cycle continues. We’ve come back around to this place again.
Was it naive to think that we were making progress?
We’ve enslaved ourselves to a history of slavery.
We’ve built a system of privilege for a few and taught the many to enshrine and protect it.
Until it all comes crashing down, as all such systems ultimately do.
Are we capable of choosing a different end? 
I hope so.
Posted 2 years ago by easmann    [ Reply ]
 Spliff wrote:

I was hoping this song would be very outdated by now - but in these insane times, more meaningful than ever.



This comment is now 17 years old!! And still nothing changes - infact - no matter which side of the Atlantic or planet we live on as we've all seen it only gets worse!  Maybe time for this  track to be re-released and played on our radio stations as record of the week!
Posted 2 years ago by prs    [ Reply ]
Posted 3 years ago by mread    [ Reply ]
 joelbb wrote:

Exactly!!  The song was recorded more than 50 years ago and is still utterly relevant.  The WTF is completely appropriate:  we've made zero progress in half a century.


No shit... WTF?
Posted 3 years ago by snagle.1776    [ Reply ]
 Spliff wrote:

I was hoping this song would be very outdated by now - but in these insane times, more meaningful than ever.



No shit...WTF?
Posted 3 years ago by snagle.1776    [ Reply ]
Aham! Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and then this, I see what you did there! 
Posted 3 years ago by Darsaka    [ Reply ]
 prs wrote:



This comment was posted 17 years ago - we've not moved on as this track is even more meaningful today, in 2021, than ever before - WTF are we doing!

Exactly!!  The song was recorded more than 50 years ago and is still utterly relevant.  The WTF is completely appropriate:  we've made zero progress in half a century.
Posted 3 years ago by joelbb    [ Reply ]
If one didn't know better, this song was written 15 f'ing minutes ago...
Posted 3 years ago by kingart    [ Reply ]
 kingart wrote:

. . . one of those relatively few songs the title of which is never iterated in the lyrics. This title is a sneering, skeptical comment for those who needed / still need the song explained to them.   


From Wiki:
Stills said in an interview that the name of the [then untitled] song came about when he presented it to the record company . . . Stills said: "I have this song here, for what it's worth, if you want it."

They apparently assumed "for what it's worth" was the name of the song, and released it as such.

Posted 3 years ago by On_The_Beach    [ Reply ]
 Spliff wrote:

I was hoping this song would be very outdated by now - but in these insane times, more meaningful than ever.




This comment was posted 17 years ago - we've not moved on as this track is even more meaningful today, in 2021, than ever before - WTF are we doing!
Posted 3 years ago by prs    [ Reply ]
 hayduke2 wrote:

Strong Priceless Music!!!   {#Clap} Great comment kingart!!!



This can't be 54+years old!!
Posted 3 years ago by prs    [ Reply ]
 kingart wrote:
50 years old, and as contemporary as 50 minutes ago. And a brilliant song whatever its vintage. 

Also, one of those relatively few songs the title of which is never iterated in the lyrics. This title is a sneering, skeptical comment for those who needed / still need the song explained to them.   
 
Strong Priceless Music!!!   {#Clap} Great comment kingart!!!
Posted 5 years ago by hayduke2    [ Reply ]
One of the highest rated songs I've seen & deservedly so.
Posted 6 years ago by Rockit9    [ Reply ]
50 years old, and as contemporary as 50 minutes ago. And a brilliant song whatever its vintage. 

Also, one of those relatively few songs the title of which is never iterated in the lyrics. This title is a sneering, skeptical comment for those who needed / still need the song explained to them.   
Posted 6 years ago by kingart    [ Reply ]
Everybody look what's goin down
Posted 8 years ago by TomJB    [ Reply ]
 Spliff wrote:
I was hoping this song would be very outdated by now - but in these insane times, more meaningful than ever.
 
a couple of years ago Stills said this song 'should be a parody by now but it can still be sung with a straight face'
Posted 8 years ago by Skydog    [ Reply ]
ss 
Posted 9 years ago by Proclivities    [ Reply ]

Everybody in my churches loves this song...
 
Posted 11 years ago by Lazarus    [ Reply ]

The Last Letter

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care...

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole...


Posted 11 years ago by Lazarus    [ Reply ]
Thank you, thank you.  So good to hear again.

Glad I caught its dust off.

{#Cheers}
Posted 12 years ago by kurtster    [ Reply ]

Widespread Panic - B. Springfield´s For What It's Worth

Widespread Panic open their 25th Anniversary Party 2/10/11 Athens, GA,with a cover of Buffalo Sprngfield;s "For What It's Worth" just like they did at their first show in '86.

man why am just hearing about these guys i just watched a concert on Austin City Limits and these guys are f**** awsome!!!! And they have been around for 25 years and i am just hearing about them now do they tour in Canada can anybody tell me???   2003fordmustang281

I still have trouble believing that the whole first paragraph in the 'Discovery of Evidence' against me, tries to explain how WSP's presence in Athens justifies putting a dog on my car, even though I was at a different show, at a different venue, on this night. Putting the entire town under heightened surveillance, is a hell of a way for Georgia to follow up on 'honoring' WSP for it's 25th year as a local business. Sure hope I don't go to prison...    TieDyeSteveAnderson




Posted 13 years ago by calypsus_1    [ Reply ]
Hey, dust this one off, please.
Posted 13 years ago by kurtster    [ Reply ]
I feel the song is too short, but it's another Stills masterpiece
Posted 17 years ago by KarimMosna    [ Reply ]
This song is fantastic! I needn't say more.
Posted 18 years ago by Ian911299    [ Reply ]
I stole this 45 from my dad's collection when I was a teenager, and played it until I memorized every word. I'm 28 now, and like spliffy I never expected to see a day that it would again be as relevant as it was when it was recorded. America needs to wake up and stop Bush. Thanks Radio Paradise.
Posted 20 years ago by Zygomatic    [ Reply ]
When the song started, I was expecting to hear The Cure.
Posted 20 years ago by kerneld    [ Reply ]
Possibly more relevant today than when it was written.
Posted 20 years ago by tungsten    [ Reply ]
Spliff wrote:
I was hoping this song would be very outdated by now - but in these insane times, more meaningful than ever.
Agreed!
Posted 20 years ago by MsfStl    [ Reply ]
Godlike.
Posted 20 years ago by newwavegurly    [ Reply ]
classic protest music.
Posted 20 years ago by bluedot    [ Reply ]
A classic protest song.
Posted 20 years ago by artmarcia    [ Reply ]
I was hoping this song would be very outdated by now - but in these insane times, more meaningful than ever.
Posted 20 years ago by Spliff    [ Reply ]
Love this song, cool. Has a great meditating rythm....and this "cool 60s"-feeling.
Paranoia strikes deep Into your life it will creep It starts when you're always afraid You step out of line, the man come and take you away
Posted 20 years ago by spieler    [ Reply ]
Timeless......
Posted 20 years ago by rulebritannia    [ Reply ]