Phil Ochs in 1966, 54 years ahead of his time.
A few notes on the jokes in his intro:
Senator Carl Hayden was the oldest senator in the Senate at the time at 89 years old at the time of the recording; and George Murphy was a former song and dance man who had been elected Senator from California in 1965, predating Ronald Reagan who became California governor a year later.
Thanks to YouTuber farmboy10001
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One of Phil’s songs that was not released until after his death.
Thanks to YouTuber J K
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Phil used to open all his concerts with this rousing musical adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe poem.
Thanks to YouTuber Thamali Peiris
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The Phil Ochs song about the 1966 Florence, Italy floods (fifty straight days of rain breached the walls of the River Arno which runs through the city) set to BBC footage of cleaning up the aftermath, as people attempted to save some of the artwork stored in the lower levels of museums, churches and warehouses.
Thanks to YouTuber OnionFart (!) for the great job of putting this together.
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The first Phil Ochs song I ever heard. My older brother was home on break from college and he played this new record album he had bought, Phil Ochs In Concert. This was the first track on it. Been listening ever since.
Thanks to YouTuber kotuhell
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Phil Ochs was a great songwriter, and nobody performed Phil’s songs as well as he himself did. His soulful interpretation of this song is one of his best.
Thanks to YouTuber MF
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Monday, Phil looking back at us, singing a song inspired by Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie.
“Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ — I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build — why, I’ll be there.”–The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
“Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.”—Pretty Boy Floyd, Woody Guthrie
Thanks to YouTuber HiddenFormula
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Monday morning on the roller coaster from youthful optimism to despair, back to acceptance and action with Phil Ochs.
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Monday, we return to the original feelings…
Phil Ochs’s birthday is December 19th. This lovely song was not on any of the original albums, though it was released later. He sung it on the air at WBAI radio in 1965, where he explained that this song was heavily influenced by his reading of the poetry of Yeats.
Thanks to YouTuber Krutponken
And thanks to Phil Ochs fan Claire Stohlman who corrected me on the date for Phil’s birthday.
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Monday morning and everything’s different.
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Phil Ochs, capturing the madness of life in New York City and Los Angeles in the late sixties.
Thanks to YouTuber abnormalbananas
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Phil Ochs: December 1940—April 1976
Though it’s been forty years, we remember you, Phil.
Thanks to YouTuber LukeFComics
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December 19th was, jarringly, the 75th anniversary of the birth of folk singer Phil Ochs. Jarringly, because Phil, who died too soon, seemed to be the embodiment of youthful energy, creativity, and rebellion. His songs decrying the United States of War sound as fresh and pointed now as they did back then. The song above, co-written with Bob Gibson, is on Phil’s first album, All the News That’s Fit to Sing.
Monday’s child trumps off to war yet once more.
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This is a song that wasn’t on the original Elektra or A&M albums, and as far as I can tell, it was never released on any later compilation. I think it’s one of his best non-political songs.
Thanks to YouTuber Krutponken
Among the political left, there has long been a tradition of the radical folk song masked as a patriotic ditty. Paul Robeson sung “The House I Live In” and “Ballad for Americans”; Woody Guthrie sung “This Land Is Your Land”; Pete Seeger sung “If I Had a Hammer,” and so on.
Phil Ochs, who died 39 years ago last week, continued that tradition. “The Power and the Glory” was Phil’s stirring contribution to the genre. He was clever enough in constructing the song that it was covered by arch-conservative songbird Anita Bryant.
Phil’s anthem gets you out of bed Monday morning, saluting the flag, and stuffing The Communist Manifesto in your back pocket en route to the demo.
Click on the video for the song, and the words in English and Spanish, and an additional unrecorded final verse reportedly written by Theo Bikel.
RIP Phil.
