More than 55 years ago on one Saturday night Stephen Stills who was part of the band Buffalo Springfield was traveling to Hollywood to watch a live concert on the Sunset Strip. But that night had a defining rock and roll movement hidden in shadows. When he reached Hollywood he encountered masses of young protestors taking over the streets resulting in the closing of the club in which he was going to attend the performance.
After this incident, it took Stephen Stills a few weeks to come up with the lyrics of For What Itâs Worth. The song emphasizes the spooky voice of Stephen Stills, an ominous snare from the drummer Dewey Martin and a warning bell from Niel Young, which has two guitar parts in the verse. This song became the band's only hit, peaking at the 7th position in the spring of 1967. The eerily quiet song had a striking sound that captures the uneasy mood of the movement that extends from Los Angeles all the way to Vietnam.
"For What Itâs Worth" became one of the rock and roll staple songs, and it has been covered a lot of times, making it somewhat âWe Shall Overcomeâ of its time. Ozzy Osbourne was one of the famous singers who has covered this song, his cover was more of a grim stomper version of the song. Then came Lucinda Williams, Kid Rock, Rush, and even Led Zeppelin tried their hands at making something out of their cover of the song. Even to this day For What Itâs Worth is considered to be the best song for protests, for raising the voices of the unheard.
To help you learn the guitar chords of For What Itâs Worth by Buffalo Springfield, we have our very own jazz maestro, Steve Luciano. He has over 40+ years of experience in playing guitar; he founded a jazz group and was also part of Walt Disney Worldâs staff musicians for over 15 years. Currently, he is working at Southeastern University as a Jazz guitar instructor. After you complete this guitar tutorial, you can check out other similar rock anthems like Good Times Bad Times from Led Zeppelin, Hey Jude by The Beatles and more from our song lesson repository.
At Torrins we believe that every human needs to learn one musical instrument in their life. As a result, we provide online guitar tutorials for beginners, bass guitar lessons and even piano lessons so everyone gets the right guidance to learn their favorite musical instrument. Sign up now to start your musical journey with us!
