Writing the Phil Ochs book.

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Writing the Phil Ochs book.

In order to want to write about anyone you have to have a love and great affinity for them. You are going to spend a couple of thousand hours of your life deeply immersed in them and their lives. You have to enjoy the experience.

Right from the sixties I have been a fan. Those early albums played a huge role in my development. His words inspired me. Phil was a hero of mine. Spending hundreds of hours in his company was going to be a pleasure.

Having twisted the arm of a reluctant publisher who did not even know about Phil Ochs and had to be persuaded that he was an important person worthy of a book, with sufficient ardent fans to make a book viable, I secured a contract.

That was the start.

Setting up

The first thing, before a word is put on a page, is to set up. To gather together your source material. I had most things. Over the years I had accumulated nearly everything Phil had done or had been written about Phil. I had all the books, every single album and a mass of bootlegs. I was a huge fan and had gathered everything. I had to check to see if there was anything missing; anything I needed to hunt down.

Starting The Process

It’s one thing having things for pleasure and quite another studying them to write about them. I began reading and making notes.

The Structure

Fortunately, the structure for the book is more or less dictated by the format of the series. The aim was to write about every album and every single song Phil Ochs had released. I had to write an introduction. Write about each album giving the background and details and then write about each and every song shedding insight into its content, meaning and importance. Easy. Well, actually not quite so easy. Some songs were not quite as simple to interpret as might appear, particularly the later ones. I had my own feelings and understanding but was that the same as Phil’s intention? Or other peoples’ opinion? I could only listen, delve, think and express my views.

Starting

I started reading the biographies and listening to all the albums. I had to get in tune, gather my wits, open my ears and allow the spirit of Phil to take over. I knew that it was a responsibility. The major songs were not a problem. The rarer ones were the most important. There were some that I’d glossed over. We all had our preferences. I had to give them equal weight and listen to everything.

Pen To Paper

Or at least finger to keyboard. I’m a one-finger typist but I can go quite fast.

Task number one was to do the layout. I put the headings in. The introduction, the albums, all the songs. I had a skeleton. I now had to apply the flesh.

I then wrote the introduction. It came spilling out.

The Albums

One by one I worked my way though, album by album. I sought the details of studios, producers, labels, personnel. I wrote about the times, the creation of the album and as much detail as I could muster. The internet was invaluable. I could check out different facts, chase things up and fill in the blanks. At times I felt like I was a detective on the case at others that I was piecing together a jigsaw.

The Songs

I then played the songs, one by one, analysing the lyric, thinking about the meanings, how it was written and why. Finding words to describe what Phil was trying to say and how the song was put together. Not always easy to find words. Phil was a master of lyrics. How was I supposed to shed light on his creations? They were too important to mess up. I could only give my views and interpretations. At least others could use them as a sounding board. They might disagree. That’s fine. The most Phil’s songs are talked about the better.

The First Draft

At times the process was hard. Working up to eight hours a day, concentrating, trying to find words that were right, sapped the energy. There were days where I was tired and could not be bothered, days when I was fired up and ready to go. Fatigue sets in. Writing is a lonely task. Friends get bored with you going on about minute details. You spent hours at your desk tapping away. Hours with headphones listening, relistening, studying, scribbling.

Finally you have done the last song, completed the bibliography and it is complete.

Rewriting

Of course, it isn’t anywhere near finished. What you have is a first draft. It was put together in pieces. There is the little task of rereading it and changing the disparate parts into a coherent entity. The facts are there but does it flow? Is there annoying repetition? Does the style change? Is it coherent?

Getting that right takes a good rewrite.

Editing

Once you have the second draft the nit-picking begins – the grammar and punctuation, sentence structure and spellos. It’s amazing how they annoyingly proliferate. No matter how many times you reread they still pop up.

The Publisher

When you’ve done all you can you send it off. There’s always a fear. Will they like it? Will they reject it?

Last Edit

Having a professional objective eye run over the writing always turns up a few things that require addressing, the odd repetition or section that requires a rewrite.

The Wait

That’s it! You wait!

Finally, months later, a package arrives containing your ten copies and you hold the finished product in your hands. You have your book.

The book is up there on line on the Amazon site and Publishers site. It’s out for order in book stores. The publisher does a little marketing. You sit and anxiously wait for the reviews. What do people think? Have you done justice to Phil?

I hope so. I really hope so.

Phil Ochs – Source Material.

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I’ve been a fan of Phil Ochs since the sixties. Unfortunately, living in the UK did not provide me with the opportunity to see him live but I bought everything I could lay my hands on and read all the articles and books. He was one of my abiding heroes.

When I was offered the contract to write the book on him and his music I jumped at the chance. I had a wealth of material to draw on from interviews, books, liner notes and a huge number of live performances (with insightful banter). I immersed myself in the man, his life and music.

In the course of the months I spent writing the book I lived Phil Ochs; I listened to every single track the man ever recorded, every demo and live performance. I enjoyed every minute. I uncovered lots of information that I hadn’t known. It felt like I was an explorer discovering a majestic lost city in the midst of a jungle. I’d thought I knew it all but I found out so much more. It was an honour and a privilege.

These were just some of the material I found myself drawing on:

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

   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.

   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.

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

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

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Phil Ochs On Track: Every Album, Every Song Paperback

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: Amazon.co.uk: Opher Goodwin: 9781789523263: Books

Extract – Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track 

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Extract – Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track 

   Everything about Bob Dylan was false, a construct, apart from his natural talent. His persona was nothing more than a vehicle to transport him to where he wanted to go.

   Young Bob Dylan was ruthless. He drained everyone around him dry, wringing out their songs, their chords, their tunes, friendships and love. I’m not implying that this was intentional or in any way mean, merely necessary. In order to get to where he needed to be he had to grow, blossom and change. Nothing was more important. Bob was helplessly riding a tsunami that he himself created. At times, for the people involved – Suze Rotolo, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Martin Carthy and Dave Van Ronk, to name a few – it must have felt as if they were being used and abused.

   That fledgling Dylan (Robert Allen Zimmerman) was on a roller-coaster that kept changing tracks. Seemingly, he had no compunctions about leaving people and whole movements behind. Parents, lovers, friends and fellow musicians bit the dust. He moved on when the need arose, without scruples and ne’er a backward glance. The chameleon had to grow and move. That was his nature, all he knew.

   The biographies are numerous, the details mauled over, magnified, twisted, sensationalised and made to fit the required template. Hard to disentangle reality from myth. There lived a legend largely generated by Bob himself in his quest to create credibility and breakthrough.

   Life for a musician was cutthroat. Most fell by the wayside. Talent was not the only criterion necessary. Having the correct image, credentials, friends, disposition, drive and luck were also a necessity. What Robert Allan Zimmerman lacked he created for himself out of thin air.

Bob Dylan 1962 to 1970 On Track (Decades) : Opher Goodwin: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Roy Harper – Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith.

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I was 18 when this album came out. I had this and Roy’s Sophisticated Beggar. Loved ’em both but this one received more needle-time. I lost myself in the philosophy as much as the music. It hit me at exactly the right time. I was taking my A Levels with a lot of pressure from teachers and parents dangling careers and money when all I cared about was music, girls and gorging on ideas, books, travel, poetry and an alternative type of life that had opened up before me. I was impervious to the pressures. I had no interest in careers, money or this narrow path on offer. I was reading Kerouac, getting into Beefheart, Dylan and motorbiking off to catch Roy playing two or three times a week. The London underground scene was in full swing and, blindly, I wanted in. The future could look after itself.

Consequently songs about pressures, infinity and possessions hit me right in the centre of my cerebrum. I wanted a life full of meaning and adventure, not boring security. Life for me was a quest. I was after something more fulfilling and meaningful. What Roy and this album had to offer was far more exciting than A Levels, a university place and some future career. I was ripe for it.

While this is not one of Roy’s favourites it still hits home every time I play it. Those words still resonate. The music is adventurous, melodic and captivating. The whole concept pushes the boundaries. Roy’s creative juices were on fire!!

This album remains one of my firm favourites.

Phil Ochs: Every Album, Every Song – Paperback – Finally out in the USA on 29th November!!

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!

In Search of Captain Beefheart – A Rock Memoir -Paperback, Kindle, Hardcover 

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Another little slice of my life. By 1971 it felt as if the whole dream was over. I was wandering through the rubble of the sixties looking for evidence of life. We headed for the USA for a few months.

I was still searching for that perfect Rock Music.

Extract:

Back in 1971 we still thought we’d be young forever and that the whole scene was so normal it would always be there. Wandering around Greenwich Village was a casual experience not even worthy of note. We hadn’t even gone to see anyone at the Café WHA? – Or the Bitter End, Gerdes Folk City, the Fat Black Pussycat or even the Gaslight. We could always do that another time if there was someone on who we wanted to see. The age of Dave Van Ronk, Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan was gone forever.

We didn’t even visit the Chelsea Hotel. Who knows? We might have actually bumped into someone? Maybe Jimi, Janis or Leonard? It wasn’t that long ago that Dylan had dried out there.

But this was the 1960s – you didn’t visit places and see things – you lived them! Sight seeing was square. Experience was all there was.

We were content to wander and meet up with like minded people, hanging around, talking and playing music. We asked what was good to eat as we only had $5 between us. We advised that knishes were good. That’s what we ate.

By 2010 all the experiences were hidden away in the past. We were more eager to seek out the hazy ghosts of their former existence. We couldn’t hear the Beat poems of Ginsberg, Kerouac and their wild friends and neither could we hear Phil Ochs singing his heart out.

We wandered down Bleeker and MacDougal and I looked in a book shop. They had a Richard Brautigan hardback with a signed dedication for $1200. That sort of summed it up.

We checked out all the clubs that were left and where the others had been, found Jimi’s Electric Ladyland studio and bought some knishes.

This time we went in the Chelsea Hotel and wandered round its rambling corridors looking at the art on the wall. It was shabby and atmospheric. I could see why it would appeal. The bohemian history of Dylan Thomas down to Patti Smith was seeped in its walls.

We tried to find where Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable had been but there was nothing to see.

In Search of Captain Beefheart – Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle

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I wrote this book as a homage to my life and adventures with Rock Music. Rock has been an enormous part of my life from the age of ten onwards. I went to my first live gig at the age of fourteen (the British Birds at Walton Palais). It blew my mind.

I was lucky enough to have been exposed to the Rock ‘n’ Roll era of the fifties, to have been in London for the sixties underground scene, to have lived through Punk and am, in my mid-seventies, still going. Gigs are an important part of my life. I’ve been to thousands – always at the front digging the vibe.

I grew up with the Beatles, Stones, Doors, Captain Beefheart, Roy Harper, Neil Young, Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Pink Floyd and legions more. I saw them perform in small clubs, met them backstage, regularly went to Abbey Road Studio and had the time of my life!

It was great fun

The sixties raged. I was young, crazy, full of hormones and wanting to snatch life by the balls. There was a life out there for the grabbing and it had to be wrestled into submission. There was a society full of boring amoral crap and a life to be had in the face of the boring, comforting vision of slow death on offer. Rock music vented all that passion.

This book is a memoir of a life spent immersed in Rock Music. I was born in 1949 and so lived through the whole gamut of Rock. Rock music formed the background to momentous world events – the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War, Iraq war, Watergate, the miners’ strike and Thatcher years, CND, the Green Movement, Mao and the Cultural Revolution, Women’s Liberation and the Cold War. I see this as the Rock Era.

I was immersed in Rock music. It was fused into my personality. It informed me, transformed me and inspired me. My heroes were musicians. I am who I am because of them. Without Rock Music I would not have the same sensibilities, optimism or ideals. They woke me up!

This tells that story.

Excerpt – Neil Young 1963 to 1970: Every Album, Every Song (On Track…) Paperback 

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Another extract from Neil Young 1963 to 1970: Every Album, Every Song (On Track…) 

   This was the mid-sixties and the 20-year-old Neil was, like most others, totally smitten with Dylan and his poetic innovations in songwriting. Unlike most, Neil was as greatly impressed by Dylan’s contemporary Phil Ochs, who he rated just as highly.

   Instead of seeking to form another band, Neil decided to go solo, develop his songwriting and perform in the folk clubs. It was here that he developed his lyrical style and also met Joni Mitchell, who had a big impact on him and his writing. That encounter also led to the involvement of another character, who was destined to have a huge bearing on his music and career – his later manager Elliot Roberts.

   That songwriting of Neil’s was beginning to take off. The Guess Who, featuring a friend from the early days, Randy Bachman (a local muso who created a unique echo effect, much coveted by Neil, by passing sound through a tape recorder and went on to form Bachman Turner Overdrive), had a Top 40 hit with one of Neil’s songs, ‘Flying On The Ground Is Wrong’, which gave him some encouragement.

   In the course of this solo period, Neil went to New York and met up with Richie Furay, who was playing folk in the clubs. Richie was smitten with Neil’s ‘Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing’ and Neil taught him the song, which became a part of Richie’s solo act. Richie would later share the song with Stephen Stills. This would turn out to be another vital cog in the machine that became Buffalo Springfield.