Phil Ochs II

I was telling you, dear reader of Phil's depression after Mayor Daly ( a Democrat apparently ) had set his dogs on the protestors at the Democratic party convention in Chicago - when of course the powers that be conspired to defeat the anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy.

But Phil was not to be outdone - chronology is not my strong point so forgive me if this is not in the right order - he got involved, ney he entered with his heart, head and body, into the civil rights stuggle, the anti-Vietnam war movement and the support Chile cause to prevent the overthrow, by Mrs. Thatcher's friend General Pinochet and the American Government, of a democratically elected communist government in that country. His life long commitment to such lost causes I'm sure inevitably led to his sad decline.

But - back to the music - John F. Kennedy got elected and shot. Phil's response was to write "The Crucifixion" a most moving tribute to one of his heroes - another age of hope that has passed. Unfortunately his record producer, at the time, produced a weirdly metaphysical background to the recording and shot down a great achievement in flames. Had it been recorded, as he played it to Bobby Kennedy on an airliner one day, with his straight guitar and trembling voice it would have made you weep as Bobby Kennedy wept on that airplane.

Phil went electric before his friend, Bobby Dylan, who followed his ideas but spat on his friend,
and was to face a hostile audience at Carnegie Hall where he appeared in a Gold Suit and started performing Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry numbers. The audience booed, they had come to hear his protest songs - never trust a folkie from Meskogee - but Phil won them round with his charm and his appeal to be prepared to be pluralistic and his pleas to listen to what the opposition are saying. Get the CD - it's called "Gunfight at Carnegie Hall".

He had now moved lables to AM where they added deep orchestrations to his sad and beautifully lyrical ballads. Listen to his masterpieces such as , "When in Rome" or "Floods of Florence" and try, dear reader, to understand what was rushing through his mind at the time - as like Van Gogh - he tried to cope with a world that was out of kilter with his.

There then followed songs that predicted the end "Rehearsals for Retirement", "There But For Fortune" (which Joan Baez covered) , "When I'm Gone", and :-

No More Songs
By Phil Ochs
intro chords: Dm\C\B flat\A
Em
Hello, hello, hello
C
Is there anybody home?
Em
I've only called to say
C D
I'm sorry.
Em
The drums are in the dawn,
G D
and all the voices gone.
C D Em
And it seems that there are no more songs.
Once I knew a girl
She was a flower in a flame
I loved her as the sea sinks/sings(?) sadly
Now the ashes of the dream
Can be found in the magazines.
And it seems that there are no more songs.
Once I knew a sage
who sang upon the stage
He told about the world,
His lover.
A ghost without a name,
Stands ragged in the rain.
And it seems that there are no more songs.
The rebels they were here
They came beside the door
They told me that the moon was bleeding
Then all to my surprise,
They took away my eyes.
And it seems that there are no more songs.
A star is in the sky,
It's time to say goodbye.
A whale is on the beach,
He's dying.
A white flag in my hand,
And a white bone in the sand.
And it seems that there are no more songs.
Hello, hello, hello
Is there anybody home?
I've only called to say
I'm sorry.
The drums are in the dawn,
and all the voices gone.
And it seems that there are no more songs.
It seems that there are no more songs.
It seems that there are no more songs.

Aged thirty five Phil Ochs hung himself.

He leaves behind music that will never age and tribute after tribute from friends such as Johnny Cash and Nanci Griffith - who wrote, in my opinion, amongst a host of wonderful tribute records to him one of the finest - "Radio Fragile".

Read the book, at your peril, it sent me into twelve months of depression - "There But for Fortune" - THE LIFE OF PHIL OCHS" by Michael Schumacher.

He loved Scotland and his ashes were scattered from Edinburgh Castle whilst the Queens Own Higlanders played, "The Flowers of the Forest".

Nuff said

Gordon






Pleasures of the Harbour