The Afterword review – Phil Ochs book

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It’s always great to read a review on any of my books. This one came from The Afterword:

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books

I have to confess I know little about the work of Phil Ochs other than a vague familiarity with the name. At one time considered a rival to Dylan, his protest songs in the sixties touched on topics such as the Vietnam War, civil rights and social injustice, before he ultimately took his own life in 1976. If you want a concise but fact packed history of the man and his music and the causes close to his heart then this is just the book for you.

On Track – Rush 1973 – 1982 / Sparks 1969 – 1979 / Phil Ochs

Phil Ochs – Everything you need to know.

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Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song extract

New York and Early Forays

Having arrived in New York Phil started to hustle. His first paid job was opening for John Hammond Jr. and he soon built up a reputation for himself, getting work at a number of the burgeoning folk clubs like Sam Hood’s The Gaslight and The Third Side.

   The strength of his songwriting was soon noticed. Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen ran a magazine that specialised in printing the song lyrics of socially motivated folk singers. They regularly printed songs by the likes of Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger. They also recorded demos of these songs in their offices in order to transcribe the lyrics.  Bob Dylan, under the name Blind Boy Grunt, recorded for them.

   Phil knew he was on the way when he was invited to contribute. His songs began to appear in Broadside. An ambitious Phil, always eager to deliver to an enthusiastic audience, and eager for publicity, would drop in to the offices regularly to share his latest song and lay down a demo. Those demos would later come out on a couple of CDs. Phil said in a Broadside interview that ‘every newspaper headline is a potential song.’ He thought that songs should say something or they were useless. ‘It never ceases to amaze me how the American people allow the hit parade to hit them over the head with a parade of song after meaningless song about love.’ Broadside agreed.

   The other important outcome of this validation was that Phil was invited to perform at the prestigious 1963 Newport Folk Festival and that brought him to the attention of an even wider audience.

   The two biggest labels in the folk sphere were Elektra and Vanguard. By 1964 the folk scene had, following the success of Bob Dylan, taken off to extraordinary heights. Folk singers were flavour of the month and in great demand.

  In 1961 Vanguard had put together an album called New Folks that was intended to highlight a number of up and coming folk singers. It included The Greenbriar Boys, Jackie Washington, Hedy West and David Gude.

   By 1964 folk music had changed beyond all recognition and Vanguard decided to put out a second volume. These four artists selected demonstrated how much things had changed in such a short while. The second album featured more broody topical songwriters and Phil led the pack.

   Before that, however, there was a slight aberration.

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song Paperback

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I thought some of you might appreciate another little snippet from Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song Paperback

   I have attempted to give insight into his life, motivations and each and every song.

   For those of you who have read the book a little feedback would be great. Thank you!

Excerpt from the Introduction:

   In the course of his two years in Staunton (1956-1958) he developed a love of country and western. His heroes were Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash and Faron Young. During the latter part rock ‘n’ roll had burst onto the scene and Phil became swept up in that too. He was smitten by Buddy Holly and idolised Elvis Presley. He avidly played the radio alternately tuning into Alan Freed and country and western channels.

   In 1958 he signed up to Ohio State University and arrived wearing a red leather jacket like the one James Dean wore in Rebel Without A Cause. As he had no idea what to major in he took a range of general courses. He’d only been there a short while before deciding that it wasn’t for him. He fled to Florida and was living rough, ending up bust by the police for sleeping on a park bench. While in the police cell Phil apparently had that epiphany. He decided that what he really needed to do was to become a writer and settled on journalism. He promptly went back to Ohio State and changed courses.

   While studying journalism he was listening to rock and pop music and started studying politics with a particular interest in the situation in Cuba with Fidel Castro, Russia and the American government. Politics was quite a departure and eye-opener for Phil. He’d come from a very unreligious and unpolitical background, not used to discussing real issues in depth. He took to politics with zeal and became obsessed like all new acolytes.

   According to his brother Michael, they used to have long debates about music and politics. Phil was still into his country singers and Michael was more into rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm & blues. The one person they both agreed was Elvis Presley; he was god.

   It was while at Ohio that the final link in the chain was established. It was here that he met the guy who was going to change his life – Jim Glover. Jim was a left-wing folkie and introduced Phil to the mighty musical tomes of the great Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and the Weavers. He also taught Phil how to play the guitar. Jim used to take him home for meals where Jim’s animated father, Hugh, an avid Marxist, would regale them with stories embroidered with his political views, becoming a substitute father for the entranced Phil.

   It’s available on Amazon or from local bookstores (Probably have to be ordered)

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books

Phil Ochs Albums

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Some of the Phil Ochs albums I used to write the book!

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song Paperback

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Extract from the Introduction to Phil Ochs On Track:

   Another unusual consequence of his family situation came to the fore in the realm of child-minding. Because of the need to keep the children quiet because of their father’s nerves, Phil’s mother used an unusual method of providing child-minding for Sonny, Phil and his younger brother Michael; instead of paying for baby-sitting she sent them to the cinema. They spent huge amounts of time watching every film going, staying on to sit through film after film, lapping it up. When it wasn’t the cinema it was TV. Phil became an absolute film nut. He knew all the minor actors and collecting anything to do with film, magazines, leaflets, posters. He loved westerns and his big hero was big bad John Wayne, the tough guy who dished it out to the baddies; somehow, not the kind of hero that you naturally associate with a left-wing topical singer-songwriter. He did rectify this later with his love of more rebellious heroes in Marlon Brando and James Dean.

   At school Phil had to pick an instrument. He first picked the trumpet but there were too many trumpeters, the same with his second choice – the saxophone. He reluctantly settled for the clarinet and discovered he had a great ability with the instrument. So much so that he became a soloist with the Capital University Conservancy of Music at the age of fifteen.

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books

Extract; Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song

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Extract; Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song

   There were a number of factors that helped form Phil’s personality, the pacifism, sense of compassion and. desire for equality and justice.

   The first of these was his father’s health. Jack was a physician, which should have been the basis for a very stable, prosperous family situation. That was far from the case. He had worked for the military in the Second World War and had to treat horrific injuries following the Battle of the Bulge. The experience traumatised him. He was discharged from the army and came back home severely depressed and suffering a debilitating bipolar condition. Despite trying to operate as a local physician he had episodes where he could not function and ended up hospitalised. His regular struggles with mental illness meant that he had to take appointments on the lowest rung in the medical profession – working in TB clinics. Although they were a middle-class family things were not as financially secure as they might have been.

   The effect of his father’s condition on Phil was enormous. The first impact was financial. Due to regular bouts of hospitalisation and inability to work the family was thrown into a degree of poverty. That was going to have unexpected consequences. Secondly, there was the psychologically delicate nature of his father who had to be tip-toed around and was usually very withdrawn, so his mother took on the responsibility of running things. Thirdly, the family moved around a lot chasing new positions for his father whenever his condition improved.

   This resulted in Phil retreating into himself, becoming a daydreamer and making very few friends.

   It also meant that they lived in interesting settings, first in New York, in Queens at Far Rockaway beach, and then Columbus Ohio. Both places left him with deep impressions that came out later in songs.

   Being part of a non-practicing Jewish family also had an effect. Being Jewish provided the insight of an immigrant outside that probably fed into his politics. Phil was obviously affected. As a child he had a thing about his big nose and actually had an operation to reduce its size which had the effect of boosting his confidence.

   Another unusual consequence of his family situation came to the fore in the realm of child-minding.

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books

Excerpt from Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song Paperback 

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At school Phil had to pick an instrument. He first picked the trumpet but there were too many trumpeters, the same with his second choice – the saxophone. He reluctantly settled for the clarinet and discovered he had a great ability with the instrument. So much so that he became a soloist with the Capital University Conservancy of Music at the age of fifteen.

   This love of music took him down an even stranger route than anybody knowing him in later life could ever have imagined. At sixteen he did not like the school selected for him and choose a school for himself. He’d seen a poster with a great marching band and decided on that. He was taken with the idea of playing in a marching band. The Staunton Military Academy in rural Virginia hardly seemed the setting for the nurturing of one of the biggest rebels on the planet and avowed anti-war protester. Yet that’s where he went. Not only that but he seemed to love it. He liked the uniform, the regime and discipline and even got into weight-lifting and became more gregarious. Who could imagine?

   In the course of his two years in Staunton (1956-1958) he developed a love of country and western. His heroes were Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, Johnny Cash and Faron Young. During the latter part rock ‘n’ roll had burst onto the scene and Phil became swept up in that too. He was smitten by Buddy Holly and idolised Elvis Presley. He avidly played the radio alternately tuning into Alan Freed and country and western channels.

   In 1958 he signed up to Ohio State University and arrived wearing a red leather jacket like the one James Dean wore in Rebel Without A Cause. As he had no idea what to major in he took a range of general courses. He’d only been there a short while before deciding that it wasn’t for him. He fled to Florida and was living rough, ending up bust by the police for sleeping on a park bench. While in the police cell Phil apparently had that epiphany. He decided that what he really needed to do was to become a writer and settled on journalism. He promptly went back to Ohio State and changed courses.

   While studying journalism he was listening to rock and pop music and started studying politics with a particular interest in the situation in Cuba with Fidel Castro, Russia and the American government. Politics was quite a departure and eye-opener for Phil. He’d come from a very unreligious and unpolitical background, not used to discussing real issues in depth. He took to politics with zeal and became obsessed like all new acolytes.

Phil Ochs – On Track – excerpt

Posted on by Opher

   There were a number of factors that helped form Phil’s personality, the pacifism, sense of compassion and. desire for equality and justice.

   The first of these was his father’s health. Jack was a physician, which should have been the basis for a very stable, prosperous family situation. That was far from the case. He had worked for the military in the Second World War and had to treat horrific injuries following the Battle of the Bulge. The experience traumatised him. He was discharged from the army and came back home severely depressed and suffering a debilitating bipolar condition. Despite trying to operate as a local physician he had episodes where he could not function and ended up hospitalised. His regular struggles with mental illness meant that he had to take appointments on the lowest rung in the medical profession – working in TB clinics. Although they were a middle-class family things were not as financially secure as they might have been.

   The effect of his father’s condition on Phil was enormous. The first impact was financial. Due to regular bouts of hospitalisation and inability to work the family was thrown into a degree of poverty. That was going to have unexpected consequences. Secondly, there was the psychologically delicate nature of his father who had to be tip-toed around and was usually very withdrawn, so his mother took on the responsibility of running things. Thirdly, the family moved around a lot chasing new positions for his father whenever his condition improved.

   This resulted in Phil retreating into himself, becoming a daydreamer and making very few friends.

   It also meant that they lived in interesting settings, first in New York, in Queens at Far Rockaway beach, and then Columbus Ohio. Both places left him with deep impressions that came out later in songs.

   Being part of a non-practicing Jewish family also had an effect. Being Jewish provided the insight of an immigrant outside that probably fed into his politics. Phil was obviously affected. As a child he had a thing about his big nose and actually had an operation to reduce its size which had the effect of boosting his confidence.

   Another unusual consequence of his family situation came to the fore in the realm of child-minding. Because of the need to keep the children quiet because of their father’s nerves, Phil’s mother used an unusual method of providing child-minding for Sonny, Phil and his younger brother Michael; instead of paying for baby-sitting she sent them to the cinema. They spent huge amounts of time watching every film going, staying on to sit through film after film, lapping it up. When it wasn’t the cinema it was TV. Phil became an absolute film nut. He knew all the minor actors and collecting anything to do with film, magazines, leaflets, posters. He loved westerns and his big hero was big bad John Wayne, the tough guy who dished it out to the baddies; somehow, not the kind of hero that you naturally associate with a left-wing topical singer-songwriter. He did rectify this later with his love of more rebellious heroes in Marlon Brando and James Dean.

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song Paperback – Now Available!

Posted on by Opher

Phil Ochs was the ‘The Prince of Protest’ in the sixties. The only real rival to Bob Dylan, he was the archetypal Greenwich Village topical songwriter. Whether protesting the Vietnam War or campaigning for civil rights, workers’ rights and social justice, Phil was always there. Phil was the man to take up causes, write songs, play at rallies and even risk his life. His clear voice and sense of melody, linked with his incisive lyrics, created songs of beauty and power. As his career progressed, with lyrics and music becoming more highly poetic and sophisticated, he still never lost sight of his cause. Towards the end of the sixties he joined with the YIPPIES in protest against the Vietnam War. But idealism became Phil’s downfall. He was an idealist who could see no point in continuing if he was unable to make the world a better place. Phil lost all hope and descended into depression, which, along with excessive alcohol consumption, led to his suicide in 1976. Shortly before he took his life, Phil asked his brother if he thought anyone would listen to his songs in the future. Well here we are; sixty years later, still listening. The songs of Phil Ochs are every bit as relevant as they ever were and they are making the world a better place!

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song – Paperback – Out Now!

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   According to his brother Michael, they used to have long debates about music and politics. Phil was still into his country singers and Michael was more into rock ‘n’ roll. The one person they both agreed was Elvis Presley; he was god.

   It was while at Ohio that the final link in the chain was established. It was here that he met the guy who was going to change his life – Jim Glover. Jim was a left-wing folkie and introduced Phil to the mighty musical tomes of the great Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and the Weavers. He also taught Phil how to play the guitar.

   The seeds were sown and began to germinate and blossom at an alarming rate. They would sit up all night playing music, listening to music and debating music and politics.

   Phil started writing radical articles that were banned from the college magazine, so he started his own underground magazine called ‘The Word’.

   It wasn’t long before the politics and music merged together. He formed a singing partnership with Jim and played the local folk clubs first as ‘The Singing Socialists’ and then ‘The Sundowners’. Phil had discovered his new passion.

   Just before they were due to perform at their first professional gig they split up. Jim left for New York with his mind set on becoming a professional folk singer. Phil stayed on and continued playing and writing songs. In 1961, just three months before graduating, in a fit of pique at being passed over as the editor of the college magazine (not really surprising given the radical nature of his writing), Phil left the course. He returned to stay with his parents in Columbus, Cleveland and continued singing in the folk clubs. He’d basically sing anywhere that would have him. Pam Raver, a performer in Columbus has an amusing anecdote from this period: it centers on one of Phil’s early solo show s.

‘One of his first public performances as a solo artist was at the First Unitarian Universalist Church on Weisheimer Road, where he performed for a ladies luncheon,’ she said with a laugh. ‘I found that astounding because you think of him doing more radical, anti-establishment songs. God only knows the songs he performed there.’

   While singing in Farragher’s Backroom folk club as an opening act for established acts he met the folk singer Bob Gibson. Bob had an impact on his songwriting.

   The gestation period was over. In 1962 Phil followed his mentor Jim Glover to New York city and, like Bob Dylan the year before, inserted himself into the burgeoning Greenwich Village folk scene.

   A more unusual radical left-wing, anti-war folk singer would be hard to imagine. Phil came to the village as a middle-class, Jewish, country and western loving, rock ‘n’ roll loving, devotee of Elvis, Jonny Cash and the all-American hero John Wayne. Hardly the stuff of rebellious, intellectual folk music. 

   But Phil had absorbed sufficient Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, honed his songwriting and would scour Newsweek for sources of content for what was shortly to become an impressive catalogue of hard-hitting topical songs. Ironically, given Dylan’s later put-down jibe, he called himself ‘A singing journalist’.

   The scene was set.

Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books