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there was the psychologically delicate nature of his father who had to be tip-toed around and was usually very withdrawn, so his mother took on the responsibility of running things.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