For What It’s Worth

Background and Commentary

The piece was written by Stephen Stills and released by Buffalo Springfield as a single in 1967. It peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2004, it was #63 on Rolling Stone’s list of all-time greatest rock songs. It has come to symbolize worldwide turbulence and confrontational feelings arising from events during the 1960s (particularly the Vietnam War), but Stills reportedly wrote the song for a narrower reason: escalating unrest between law enforcement and young club-goers related to the closing of Pandora’s Box, a club on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The song’s title appears nowhere in the lyrics. Stills said in an interview that the name came about when he presented it to the record company executive: “I have this song here, for what it’s worth, if you want it.”—Wikipedia

Neil says in the liner notes to the Feedback album that Alex played the piece in his first band, The Projection.

Lyrics

Buffalo Springfield

There’s something happening here
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
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think 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 say, 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
You step out of line, the man 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
Stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down