I like music that makes you think, music that deals with issues, music that possesses poetic lyrics. As well as a great melody to feed the spirit I like a song to engage the cerebrum.
Music has many uses. It can make you feel good. It can be great to dance to. It can be visceral and energetic. It can by lyrical, wistful and play with the emotions. There’s a different music for different moods.
Phil Ochs hits a number of my needs. While it is not music to dance to it does play with the emotions, it does replenish the spirit, it does please the ear and above all, it does engage the brain. It’s music to get lost in.
A Toast To Those Who Are Gone is a great album. It is made up of demos that he laid down around the time he left Elektra in the 60s and was released in the eighties. The songs are all pared back and raw. They showcase Phil’s excellent voice, great melodies and quality song writing. I love this early style. I find it very moving. I like the sentiments. They are laid bare. Phil says what he feels – an insight into the ills of society – its racism, inequality, unfairness, exploitation and the courage of people who are prepared to stand up for what they know is right. Apart from the brilliant music it’s a lesson in morality for us all to absorb and think about. We take so much for granted. Phil was fighting a battle to make things better by highlighting the wrong and lauding the brave. I find it incredibly inspiring.
‘I’ll Be There’ is a perennial favourite. I also smile to myself. Phil was stating that where-ever there was injustice he would be there, and you know what, he still is.
All songs by Phil Ochs.
This old codger is me in my music den clutching a few of my Phil treasures.
Education.
The last thing a conservative or religious fanatic wants is a thinking, questioning person.
That’s why they try to stop schools from teaching anything that awakens critical thinking, want to turn education into a memory test, want to limit it to teaching religion and want to ban girls.
A population that thinks and questions would not tolerate the simplistic hominies and daft restrictions!
My breath is political
I am alive to what happens in the world.
Every breath is political.
To relax for a second
Is to endorse the hypocritical.
To deny the evidence of our eyes
To be manipulated
By fascist totalitarian lies –
Creeps in where truth capitulated.
Artists capture truth in reality.
Rulers of your minds,
Robbing the ability to think
Greatest gift of all mankind’s.
I’m writing with my blood,
Washing in my tears,
Seeing so much good,
Tyranny down the years.
Opher – 4.12.2022
I’m not sure if this poem really works. I don’t think the metering is quite right. But when I say it out loud I can use the stress on the syllables to bring it into line.
The sentiment is fine.
There is a constant battle going on between those who care and those who don’t; those who believe in intolerance and iron control and those who believe in freedom of thought and action; those who would build concentration camps for anyone who does not agree or fit the mould and those who enjoy the richness of difference, the compassionate and the cruel.
Fascism is ever present. Given half a chance it’s back. Totalitarianism has to be fought. It seems to be a default state for humans. It’s not a matter of left and right. Autocratic control is a product of left and right. It’s all about power, control and paranoia.
We have to be ever vigilant and always prepared to stand up for what we believe – Trump, Oban, Bolsonaro, Modi, Xi, Johnson, Erdogan – they’re all the same. Fascism stinks.
