CASETTA

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Member Since: 6/7/2001
Total Mixes: 130
Total Feedback: 683

Rock Snob Encyclopedia Oo PHIL OCHS

Side A
Artist Song
Phil Ochs  Power and the Glory 
Phil Ochs  What's That I Hear 
Phil Ochs  Love Me, I'm A Liberal 
Phil Ochs  I'm Going To Say It Now 
Phil Ochs  Draft Dodger Rag 
Phil Ochs  I Ain't Marching Anymore 
Phil Ochs  Ringing Of Revolution 
Phil Ochs  When I'm Gone 
Phil Ochs  There But For Fortune 
Phil Ochs  The War Is Over 
Phil Ochs  White Boots Marching In A Yellow Land 
Phil Ochs  Cops Of The World 
Phil Ochs  Bracero 
Side B
ArtistSongBuy
Phil Ochs  Canons Of Christianity 
Phil Ochs  When In Rome 
Phil Ochs  I Kill Therefore I Am 
Phil Ochs  Pretty Smart On My Part 
Phil Ochs  Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends 
Phil Ochs  Flower Lady 
Phil Ochs  Tape From California 
Phil Ochs  Chords Of Fame 
Phil Ochs  No More Songs 
   
   
   
   

Comment:

To say someone's life represents the 1960s is cliched at best and reductionist at worst, but folksinger and protest troubadour Phil Ochs odyssey through the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 60s, the Yippie days of the Chicago Democratic Convention and the despair of the 70s almost begs to be placed in such a category.
At the peak of his career,Ochs sped from protest demonstration to sold-out Carnegie Hall concerts. By the time he took his own life in 1976 at the age of 35, he had become a hopeless street creature, fighting mental illness, alcoholism, and despair at the state of American politics. He went to the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention believing, as so many did, that they could change the world. Instead, they were tear-gassed and bopped on the head with batons. Phil gave up. He gave up on the country and fell into a deep depression. A sort of writer's block set in, and that was coupled with his manic depression. His highs became bigger and bigger, and his lows became deeper and deeper. Toward the end of his life he took on another persona and changed his name to John Butler Train. He began falling apart in front of his friends. Listen to Ochs sing songs about US foreign intervention, religious profiteering, police brutality, human rights and his own personal demons. The fact that these songs could all be written today without a single word change shows the timelessness of his work but sadly shows just how much we as a society and country should be ashamed. Afterall these songs are 3 decades old and are still relevant. What Phil was all about still applies today. Look at bands like Rage Against the Machine, or a guy like Billy Bragg. If you talk to Michael Stipe of REM, he's well aware of who Phil Ochs was, and so has Chuck D of Public Enemy. Virtually anyone willing to take up a song for a cause with comething to say owes a bit of gratitude to Phil Ochs

Feedback:

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Very enlightening!
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Rob Conroy
Date: 7/26/2001
I just got the Tape From California album, Casetta (chosen because of the amazing Squirrel Bait cover of the title song), and I'm happy to say that I'll be snagging the rest of his catalog in the next couple of weeks. How I've avoided picking up his stuff over the past 20 years that I've known about him is beyond me... *bows*
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McDonald12
Date: 12/25/2001
A wonderful compilation from a greatly underrated artist. Wish it had Changes on it though.