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Chords Of Fame
''Chords Of Fame'' is a two-LP compilation from American folk singer Phil Ochs, compiled by his brother Michael Ochs shortly after Phil's death and released in 1976 on A&M Records. With the exception of 1969's ''Rehearsals for Retirement'', all studio albums are represented, as well as a number of live releases. The compilation also included several rarities not previously available on an album: *An electric version of "I Ain't Marching Anymore", released as a single in the UK in 1966. *Both sides of a 1974 single: **"Power and the Glory", recorded with a fife and drum corps. **"Here's to the State of Richard Nixon", a revision of "Here's to the State of Mississippi", taped live at Max's Kansas City. *An acoustic version of "Crucifixion" recorded at Carnegie Hall on March 27, 1970, at the show that had produced ''Gunfight at Carnegie Hall''. Notably, ''Chords of Fame'' compiled tracks Ochs had recorded for both A&M and Elektra Records. With the exception of the 1997 box set '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs (; December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was an American songwriter and protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer). Ochs was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, political activism, often alliterative lyrics, and distinctive voice. He wrote hundreds of songs in the 1960s and 1970s and released eight albums. Ochs performed at many political events during the 1960s counterculture era, including anti-Vietnam War and civil rights rallies, student events, and organized labor events over the course of his career, in addition to many concert appearances at such venues as New York City's Town Hall and Carnegie Hall. Politically, Ochs described himself as a "left social democrat" who became an "early revolutionary" after the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago led to a police riot, which had a profound effect on his state of mind. After years of prolific writing in the 1960s, Ochs's mental stability declined in the 1970s. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Farewells & Fantasies
''Farewells & Fantasies'' is the 1997 posthumous box set of the work of singer/songwriter Phil Ochs, chronicling his life and career in music from 1964 through 1970. With its non-chronological running order, it plays like three separate albums, each showcasing a different side of Ochs. The compilation was produced by Gary Stewart, Michael Ochs (Phil's brother) and Meegan Lee Ochs (Phil's daughter). Liner notes include a foreword by Meegan Lee Ochs, "The Sound of Freedom Callin'" by Michael Ventura and "Song of a Soldier: The Life and Times of Phil Ochs" by Mark Kemp, (Music News Editor of ''Rolling Stone,'') track-by-track explanations by Ben Edmonds, discography, selected bibliography, and many photographs, some of which are from the family's private collections. The box set is dedicated to a friend, co-writer, and inspiration to Phil Ochs, Bob Gibson, who died while the box set was in production. Its title comes from the back of Ochs' LP ''Tape from California.'' Track listi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greatest Hits (Phil Ochs Album)
''Greatest Hits'' is Phil Ochs' seventh album and final studio album released in his lifetime, released in 1970 on A&M Records. Contrary to its title, it offered ten new tracks of material, mostly produced by Van Dyke Parks. Music and lyrics Focusing more on country music than any other album in Ochs' canon, the album included members of The Byrds and Elvis Presley's backing group, alongside mainstays Lincoln Mayorga and Bob Rafkin. His lyrics were at their most self-referential, with only one overtly political song appearing, "Ten Cents A Coup," which included a spoken introduction strung together from two anti-war rallies. The song is an ironic tribute to Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew, who Ochs wryly suggests are more laughable than Laurel and Hardy. Among the self-referential tracks was "Chords of Fame", which warned against the dangers of cult of personality. "Boy in Ohio" saw Ochs looking back nostalgically at his childhood. "Jim Dean of Indiana" is a tribute to James De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleasures Of The Harbor
''Pleasures of the Harbor'' is Phil Ochs' fourth full-length album and his first for A&M Records, released in 1967. It is one of Ochs's most somber albums. In stark contrast to his three albums for Elektra Records which had all been folk music, ''Pleasures of the Harbor'' featured traces of classical, rock and roll, Dixieland jazz and experimental synthesized music crossing with folk, in hopes of producing a "folk-pop" crossover. History The best known track is " Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", a sarcastic jab at the apathetic nature of people in certain situations, at its base the story of the Murder of Kitty Genovese in New York City (which numerous people witnessed, doing nothing to help), set to a Dixieland backing. The mention of marijuana in one verse was misinterpreted, and its release as a single failed to do anything on the charts as it was banned from radio play by many stations. "The Party" savaged high-class snobs, with Ochs taking the role of a lounge piani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phil Ochs In Concert
''Phil Ochs in Concert'' is Phil Ochs' third long player, released in 1966 on Elektra Records. Despite its title, it was not entirely live, as several tracks were actually recorded in the studio, owing to flaws in the live recordings made in Boston and New York City in late 1965 and early 1966. The album's producers retained the essence of a live album by including song patter and audience reactions between and during the songs. ''Phil Ochs in Concert'' features many of the folksinger's most enduring songs and represents the culmination of Ochs' folk career, the last of his original albums to be all-acoustic. Songs " There but for Fortune", which opens side two of the LP, is perhaps the best-known track. A minor hit for Joan Baez (whom Ochs jokingly credits with its authoring), this song encourages people to count themselves as fortunate, as fate takes its toll on those with broken lives who might have turned out differently under other circumstances, and makes the point that nega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Ain't Marching Anymore
''I Ain't Marching Any More'' is Phil Ochs' second LP, released on Elektra Records in 1965. History Ochs performs alone on twelve original songs, an interpretation of Alfred Noyes' " The Highwayman" set to music (much as Poe's "The Bells" had been set to music on the previous album) and a cover of Ewan MacColl's "The Ballad of the Carpenter". Of the twelve originals, probably the most noted was the title track, with its distinctive trilling guitar part, that spoke of a soldier sick of fighting. Also of note was the album closer, "Here's to the State of Mississippi", a biting criticism of that state's lack of civil rights and generally bigoted attitude. Other important songs include "Draft Dodger Rag" (assailing those "red blooded Americans" who were in favor of US participation in the Vietnam War but did not fight because they were just summertime soldiers and sunshine patriots), "That Was The President" (a tribute to John F. Kennedy written soon after his assassination), "Talki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All The News That's Fit To Sing
''All the News That's Fit to Sing'' was Phil Ochs's first official album. Recorded in 1964 for Elektra Records, it was full of many elements that would come back throughout his career. It was the album that defined his "singing journalist" phase, strewn with songs whose roots were allegedly pulled from ''Newsweek'' magazine. It is one in a long line of folk albums used to tell stories about everyday struggles and hardships. Among these stories was that of William Worthy, an American journalist who traveled to Cuba in spite of an embargo on the country who was forbidden to return to the United States. Civil rights figures Medgar Evers and Emmett Till were lionized in "Too Many Martyrs" (alternatively known as "The Ballad of Medgar Evers".) Two talking blues jabbed sarcastically at Vietnam and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Even a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, " The Bells", was set to music. "The Thresher" was an ode to the sinking of the nuclear-powered American submarine : "And she'll alwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Power And The Glory
"Power and the Glory" (sometimes titled "The Power and the Glory") is an American patriotic song by Phil Ochs, a U.S. protest singer from the 1960s known for being a harsh critic of the American military and industrial establishment. Originally released on his 1964 debut album, ''All the News That's Fit to Sing,'' "Power and the Glory" is said to have contributed to Ochs' profound impact. History Singer/songwriter Phil Ochs is said to have "spent half his adult life dodging FBI microphones hidden in his soup." By 1963, Ochs was not well thought of by the U.S. government and was deemed one of the harshest critics of the American military and industrial establishment. In that same year, Ochs began writing "Power and the Glory," a song that honors the way of life that America symbolized to the world. While composing the song, Ochs told his sister Sonny that he was writing "the greatest song I'll ever write". The song has been described as an "anthem ... with lyrics that might hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The War Is Over (Phil Ochs Song)
"The War Is Over" is an anti-war song by Phil Ochs, an American protest singer in the 1960s and early 1970s. Ochs was famous for harshly criticizing the Vietnam War and the American military-industrial establishment. The song, which was originally released on ''Tape from California'' (1968), has been described as "one of the most potent antiwar songs of the 1960s". One of Ochs' biographers wrote that "The War Is Over" is his "greatest act of bravery as a topical songwriter". Background American involvement in the Vietnam War escalated significantly during 1966. The number of American troops fighting in Vietnam increased that year from 184,000 to 450,000. In 1966, poet Allen Ginsberg decided to declare that the Vietnam War was over. The idea of ending the war simply by declaring it over appealed to Ochs, who organized a rally in Los Angeles to announce that the war was over. To publicize the rally, he wrote an article in the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' titled "Have Faith, The Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends
__NOTOC__ "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" is a song by Phil Ochs, a U.S. protest singer from the 1960s. "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", which was originally released on Ochs' 1967 album ''Pleasures of the Harbor'', became one of Ochs' most popular songs. Ochs was inspired to write "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" by the case of Kitty Genovese, who was stabbed to death on March 13, 1964, outside her home in Queens, New York, while dozens of her neighbors reportedly ignored her cries for help. The song's refrain, and its title, came from a conversation Ochs had with an acquaintance: tcame out of a chance remark, late at night at a coffeehouse. I was talking to a Canadian guy, and he said, "Oh, I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody outside of a small circle of friends." I said, "What'd you say?" and I picked up a guitar and ZOOM, the chords came right away. The lyrics of "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" condemn social apathy by relating different situatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Love Me, I'm A Liberal
"Love Me, I'm a Liberal" is a satirical song by Phil Ochs, an American singer-songwriter. Originally released on his 1966 live album, '' Phil Ochs in Concert'', "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" was soon one of Ochs's most popular concert staples. Introducing the song on the live album, Ochs said: In every American community there are varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals. An outspoken group on many subjects, ten degrees to the left of center in good times, ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally. Here, then, is a lesson in safe logic. "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" is sung from the perspective of an American liberal. In the first verse, the singer laments the assassinations of Medgar Evers and President John F. Kennedy, but says Malcolm X got what he deserved. Each verse ends with the refrain, "So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal." In the song's other verses, the singer says he supports the Civil Rights Movement a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
There But For Fortune (song)
"There but for Fortune" is a song by American folk musician Phil Ochs. Ochs wrote the song in 1963 and recorded it twice, for ''New Folks Volume 2'' (Vanguard, 1964) and ''Phil Ochs in Concert'' ( Elektra, 1966). Joan Baez also recorded "There but for Fortune" in 1964, and her version of the song became a chart hit. The song "There but for Fortune" consists of four verses, each one of which ends with the line "there but for fortune may go you or I". The first verse is about a prisoner. The second verse describes a hobo. The third verse is about a drunk who stumbles out of a bar. The final verse describes a country that has been bombed. One of Ochs' biographers wrote that, "of all the songs that Phil would ever write, none would show his humanity as brilliantly as the four brief verses of 'There but for Fortune'". The song's title was used as the name of the 1989 compilation album '' There but for Fortune'', which featured material taken from three albums Ochs recorded for Elektra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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