Mighty Ochs
I watched the American Masters documentary on Phil Ochs. The format was interesting in that there was no narration, just soundbites from those they interviewed to tell his story.
He was one of the better known protest singers in the folk movement of the early 60s. Dylan became the best known, but recognized it was a dead end and moved on. Ochs never really did. He moved beyond just a guitar and voice, but never dropped his politics, or his need to sing about them.
I wouldn't call him a great songwriter, or singer, but there's no question he had some talent, and even more commitment. It's interesting to hear a song like "Love Me, I'm A Liberal" today, when most politicians fear the term for sounding too left, while back then the New Left hated liberals for being so wishy-washy.
He spent his life fighting for causes. This may be noble (or does that depend on the cause?), but artistically you can only sing so many fingerpointing songs until it becomes tiresome. Who are you to judge everyone else all the time? And aren't you just preaching to the converted, the self-satisfied crowd who attend your concerts to hear their favorite targets attacked? Maybe liberal Tom Lehrer had a point:
posted by LAGuy @ 12:10 AM
5 Comments:
"I Ain't Marching Anymore" is my favorite Ochs song. I love songs that contain detailed history.
The link above is the folk version (just voice and guitar). He later did a folk-rock version that I have on CD but I can't find it on YouTube.
Note the dig at the liberals at the end of "Marching" -- his reference to the labor unions supporting the cold war because it gave them jobs.
Meanwhile, Ochs' contemporary Arlo Guthrie, a second-generation folk singer, has been all over the map politically. In 2002 he became a Republican; in 2008 he supported Ron Paul; now he is praising the Occupy Wall Street folks. Perhaps there is some deep consistency underlying his views... or maybe he's been doing a little too much of this? (Another great song.)
I wonder if anyone's done any research on how much the politics of those folkies changed. Even some radicals, like Jerry Rubin, did 180s by the 80s.
The interesting thing is by the 70s, much of the energy of the protest movement seemed spent--partly because of success (Nixon resigns, Vietnam over, no draft), partly because of excess. But maybe a lot of it is you can't remain young and idealistic forever.
Anyway, while earnest liberals were actually changing things (but never fast enough for Phil Ochs), those out on the streets honestly thought the world would change in 1968 (though change to what I'm not entirely clear), and of course were disappointed not too long after.
I'm sure you know this awesome radical song: "Eve of Destruction".
I recently learned that there a forgotten minor folk trio recorded a staunchly liberal rebuttal, "Dawn of Correction". It's the only liberal anti-radical song that I can think of. OF course, in 1965 liberals strongly supported the Cold War -- even the ones who didn't think that Vietnam was the best place to fight it.
(Can someone be a staunch liberal? I only hear "staunch" used with "conservative".)
You know who liked "Dawn Of Correction"? John Baker. He also used to complain that all conservatives were called archconservative while not even Ted Kennedy was called an archliberal.
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