Phil Ochs was a troubled genius. His songs are so passionate and thought provoking. This song is not a social/political one. It’s about how things come and go. We have to love them and give them up. Our loves, our lives are transitory. But there is beauty in that moment and we can look back at the beauty and share it.

Time brings changes and the new can be different and just as good. Our lives change. The passions die down. We grow old and die. But life goes on and those changes are all part of its richness. We leave something of us behind in the passing.

Phil certainly touched and changed a lot of people. He fought for a fairer world. It’s a fight that continues.

All life is change. Before we go we have a duty to make the world better.

I’m including this song in the celebration of my life.

Changes

Sit by my side, come as close as the air
And share in a memory of gray
And wander in my words
Dream about the pictures that I play of changes

Green leaves of summer turn red in the fall
To brown and to yellow, they fade
And then they have to die
Trapped within the circle time parade of changes

Scenes of my young years were warm in my mind
Visions of shadows that shine
‘Til one day I returned and found they were
The victims of the vines of changes

The world’s spinning madly, it drifts in the dark
It Swings through a hollow of haze
A race around the stars
Journey through the universe ablaze with changes

Moments of magic will glow in the night
All fears of the forest are gone
But when the morning breaks
They’re swept away by golden drops of dawn of changes

Passions will part to a strange melody
As fires will sometimes burn cold
Like petals in the wind
We’re puppets to the silver strings of souls of changes

Your tears will be trembling, now we’re somewhere else
One last cup of wine we will pour
And I’ll kiss you one more time
And leave you on the rolling river shore of changes

So sit by my side, come as close as the air
And share in a memory of gray
And wander in my words
Dream about the pictures that I play of changes

jorge@earthackney.co.uk