Maurice Hope – September 12, 2016 at 05:44PM
Tags:_AMERICANA
Recently found, we have this live board recording from a show in May 1973 at The Stables in East Lansing, MI by the late American folk singer-songwriter Phil Ochs.
Relatively little is available on CD from the influential, other than a handful of studio albums and best of collections. A product of the 1960s folk boom (Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin, David Ackles, Joan Baez, Eric Anderson, Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Tim Buckley among others) Ochs according to Mary Katherine Aldin’s detailed liner notes paint a picture as most others do of a man, who once the initial rush of work and songs surfaced in the early, mid-1960s possessed a deeply troubled soul.
A wonderful stylist, El Paso, Texas-born Ochs was up there with the best when the folk scene supplied a varied, and sometimes eclectic set of singer-songwriters. Inspirational to many who have come down the pike since Ochs’ style of music, the crispness of his vocals and keen cutting edge is often associated with hard knuckled political protest songs.
Richard Nixon and America’s involvement in the war between North and Vietnam, and with distinctive leftist political slant his humour and those of a biting intensity ensured Ochs was propelled to the forefront of the movement. Among the songs to wear best you have such notables as “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” , “Flower Lady” and the beautifully written “There But For Fortune” (as covered by Joan Baez) and “The Bells”.
He was a masterful talent, and a great loss to the art world when, in 1976 after a long time suffering from depressing and alcohol abuse aged 35 years old he took his own life as his sister’s home. Ochs’ simple, direct more often than not grips the listener still, despite the fact he did on occasions direct his venom on the country of his birth like they were the reason for all wrongs.
Maurice Hope
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