Songwriters... Phil Ochs

"Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's life." - Phil Ochs

I had the great pleasure of seeing Phil Ochs play on three occasions, each representative of a particular phase in the arc of his career. First in the 1960s at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the opera house modeled after La Scala where Eugene Ormandy led the Philadelphia Philharmonic. It was the peak of Och's dominance as the best topical songwriter, perhaps ever.

Where he and Dylan had led the charge as songwriters in the intersection of the folk revival and the Civil Rights movement, Dylan abandoned the student left when the focus shifted to Vietnam while Phil became possibly the greatest anti-war songwriter ever.

"A pamphlet, no matter how good, is never read more than once, but a song is learned by heart and repeated over and over." - Joe Hill

Between 1964 and 1966 Phil's first three albums were released on Jac Holzman's Elektra Records label. All three were basic solo voice and acoustic guitar, the third one was a live album. Phil was every bit as scathing in his criticism of the left as he was the political right and his In Concert album featured his "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" which was clearly aimed at the Democratic party of LBJ and Hubert Humphrey.

In 1967, in the wake of Dylan's trilogy of post-folk LPs, Phil switched labels moving to A&M and worked with producer Larry Marks. The album concludes with Ochs' greatest song, "The Crucifixion" exploring a cycle of sacrifice that compares JFK to Christ. The song caused Robert Kennedy to weep when Ochs performed a solo acoustic version just months before the younger Kennedy's own death. The album version marries Phil's performance to Joseph Byrd's avant garde arrangement.

And the night comes again to the circle studded sky
The stars settle slowly, in lonliness they lie
'Till the universe expodes as a falling star is raised
Planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed
But they all glow brighter from the briliance of the blaze
With the speed of insanity, then he dies.

In the green fields a turnin', a baby is born
His cries crease the wind and mingle with the morn
An assault upon the order, the changing of the guard
Chosen for a challenge that is hopelessly hard
And the only single sound is the sighing of the stars
But to the silence and distance they are sworn

So dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you

Images of innocence charge him go on
But the decadence of destiny is looking for a pawn
To a nightmare of knowledge he opens up the gate
And a blinding revelation is laid upon his plate
That beneath the greatest love is a hurricane of hate
And God help the critic of the dawn.

So he stands on the sea and shouts to the shore,
But the louder that he screams the longer he's ignored
For the wine of oblivion is drunk to the dregs
And the merchants of the masses almost have to be begged
'Till the giant is aware, someone's pulling at his leg,
And someone is tapping at the door.

To dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you

Then his message gathers meaning and it spreads accross the land
The rewarding of his pain is the following of the man
But ignorance is everywhere and people have their way
Success is an enemy to the losers of the day
In the shadows of the churches, who knows what they pray
For blood is the language of the band.

The Spanish bulls are beaten; the crowd is soon beguiled,
The matador is beautiful, a symphony of style
Excitement is estatic, passion places bets
Gracefully he bows to ovations that he gets
But the hands that are applauding are slippery with sweat
And saliva is falling from their smiles

So dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you

Then this overflow of life is crushed into a liar
The gentle soul is ripped apart and tossed into the fire.
First a smile of rejection at the nearness of the night
Truth becomes a tragedy limping from the light
All the heavens are horrified, they stagger from the sight
As the cross is trembling with desire.

They say they can't believe it, it's a sacreligious shame
Now, who would want to hurt such a hero of the game?
But you know I predicted it; I knew he had to fall
How did it happen? I hope his suffering was small.
Tell me every detail, for I've got to know it all,
And do you have a picture of the pain?

So dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you

Time takes her toll and the memory fades
but his glory is broken, in the magic that he made.
Reality is ruined; it's the freeing from the fear
The drama is distorted, to what they want to hear
Swimming in their sorrow, in the twisting of a tear
As they wait for the new thrill parade.

Yes, the eyes of the rebel have been branded by the blind
To the safety of sterility, the threat has been refined
The child was created to the slaughterhouse he's led
So good to be alive when the eulogy is read
The climax of emotion, the worship of the dead
And the cycle of sacrifice unwinds.

So dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you

And the night comes again to the circle studded sky
The stars settle slowly, in lonliness they lie
'Till the universe expodes as a falling star is raised
Planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed
But they all glow brighter from the briliance of the blaze
With the speed of insanity, then he died. 

Ochs' next album, Tape From California, contains his other masterpiece, "When In Rome." I blogged about it a while back, here. 

Tom Paxton wrote a song about Phil's 1976 suicide. It has everything you need to know.

Tape From California had Phil's version of the old union song "Joe Hill." If Phil has a successor it is the British activist/singer Billy Bragg, and Bragg rewrote "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night" in recognition of Phil's life.

"The fortunes of the entire world may well ride on the ability of young Americans to face the responsibilities of an old America gone mad." - Phil Ochs

I want to finish up with a very short clip I found very recently of Ochs with Bob Dylan, in a clip from Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara.

If you would like to know more about Phil Ochs' life and music, there are two excellent biographies available. Marc Elliot's 1978 study Death of a Rebel, and Michael Schumacher's 1997 book, There but for Fortune.