“f What It’s Worth”
“For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield
In 1967, Stephen Stills wrote a song in which represented worldwide views that challenged the events going on during the 1960s, “For What It’s Worth”. As the song begins, an electric guitar strums two notes that are slowly repeated. Then the drums set up a low and quiet pulse-like beat. As the acoustic guitar enters, playing two chords, it creates a laid-back rhythm in the song. Finally Stephen Stills’ vocals appears, where he sings two of the most important lines of the song; “There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.” These first two lines were to create suspense and to draw the listener in. Stills states that “something is happening here,” but we as the listeners are unaware of what is going on. The rest of the first verse introduces the central tension of the song, the disparity between the drama of the situation and the emotional reserve or the singer. An interesting notation about the chorus is that it issues a request for attention towards a force that seems to threaten the community in which the singer is in. The musical addition suggests movement and increases intensity; an electric guitar break is played between the end of the chorus and into the beginning of the next verse as an instrumental transition. While the pace is a still graduate in a low volume, the supplement the electric guitar indicates that something is happening, with the tremolo giving a forewarning of what is about to come. As the music progresses, it continues to intensify in the verse, with descending background vocals behind Still’s voice. The electric guitar begins to play stretched notes, along with hand claps added for percussive effect, that creates a tension of distortion of some kind. The song concludes with Stills and background singers repeating the chorus several times, with minor variations in lyrics and melody each time. Young's guitar continues in the background,...
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