Phil Ochs - The Ringing of Revolution

[mahaksadasa]

He was a hippie, live with it

[HavidDagstrom]

Phil Ochs was a socialist, deal with it. He supported Allende, defied the vietnam war which liberals supported, was against attacking cuba,and hated liberals. Deal with it. He was one of the most radical singers of the era, and that's why nobody knows about him and why Bob Dylan is so popular, since he was liked by liberals and never had any phone taps at his house.

[truthslap]

@HavidDagstrom absolutely right, well said. Phil was no "champagne liberal", he was a revolutionary every bit as much as Sartre or Guevara, he bitterly opposed our petty bourgeois apathy and illusions.

[llowhite]

Occupy needs to be singing this one. I miss Phil big time.

[ThereAreNoUnionThugs]

Ochs said "Topical music just means the lyrics are so clear they cannot be confused with nonsense".

Its great how "topical" music is timeless; Ochs or Guthrie are more relevant today than almost all current music.

I like the part where Ochs said the rich "Gave in half way". After OWS we will see a lot of greenwash and whitewash and a fake shift toward real reporting.

This video is for North America as well as Egypt, the whole world, but don't worry, search "After the Revolution"

[TheAim1977]

@ThereAreNoUnionThugs So, so well said. Thanks.

[DavidCKendall]

thanks for posting. I found 'Phil Ochs in concert' at Safeway supermarket in Farmington,New Mexico in 'mono' for $1.79 on sale. I bought it coz it had a guy holding a guitar, and I wanted to be a singer/songwriter. I brought it home, put the needle on the record, and it blew the top off of my 11 year old mind, as my mom looked on and listened in horror. This LP changed everything.

[11xzxzxz]

It is hard for me to imagine a better melody coupled with such gorgeous and poignant lyrics. Thanks for printing the lyrics. This poetic history lesson is so much richer than reading this in a text history book or some dumb boring poetry snore class. Phil's immediate and soaring voice on top of a mere guitar is just so damn moving.

[psakref]

@11xzxzxz I agree with you. To quote a line in Bruce Springsteens' song "No Surrender"..." we learned more from a 3 minute record than we ever learned in school"

[11xzxzxz]

@psakref Right, thanks or I meant left thanks

[CanterburyCat]

god bless phil ochs

[worldbefreed]

@CanterburyCat

[Supermax1777]

Phil Ochs - better singer, better guitar player, better songwriter than Dylan.

A TRUE revolutionary, and there is no higher compliment.

[Blasphemy510]

Yo can we not ruin every song with immature arguments in the comments. Beautiful song, great lyrics, enough said.

[AnarchistOpposition]

@Blasphemy510 No. Fuck you. :)

But seriously, I don't think that people arguing ruins the song. They have their grievances and I address them if possible. I see no fault in that. Your post itself, after all, is a grievance and I am now addressing it. You created an argument or at very least a discussion. XD

[TheMariner48]

Libertarian my ass. Traitors who refuse to contribute. Just live unbothered and reap the benefits OTHERS provide. The song is allegorical for chrissake. Read labor history in America. Every once in awhile need to trim the excesses of the idle rich. Ochs was no anarchist, saying often "there's something inherently good about America WORTH SAVING" Democratic socialist if you have to pin a lable on him.

[AnarchistOpposition]

@TheMariner48 Who the fuck says that he was a libertarian? x_x It seems to me that you are responding to an imaginary dumbass youtuber who doesn't actually exist.

[AndrewStergiou]

@TheMariner48 Phil Ochs was no Libertarian nor Anarchist, he often was an individualist corrupted by the people around him, read first

zito(dot)biz/memorial/philochs­.html

Sorry I have not gotten around to updating it more. But just a point in mention anarchy applied to the lyrical format would not produce this type of song. As for themariner associating comments on Phil Ochs with libertarianism anarchy is easy when they pretending they are one yapping in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[SirTenTea]

It would be great of this actually happened and we threw off the yoke of the top 1 percent living of the backs our labors. It's time people realized who the real enemy is. It's not even the Republican Party, the Tea Party or the party next door.

Surprisingly both Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have said the wealthy need to put in more of their fair share to contribute to this country.

[6colin90]

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich." - Napoleon Bonaparte

[lancekillsit08]

We watched freedom flee, not with reason or just cause. We watched freedom leave, not with opposition, but applause.

[Calgiey]

0 dis likes enough said

[Calgiey]

Its not rape if the replay button likes it

[11xzxzxz]

Where has anarchy been tested? Anarchism seems to me capable of working in very small groups with come and go kind of people but wouldn't work in society at large. Of course if one is a laissez-faire anarchist I suppose one is a really libertarian.

[AnarchistOpposition]

@11xzxzxz Libertarian, in most places around the Earth, essentially means Anarchist. It's only here in the US where you have to add "socialist" to the end of libertarian in order for it to mean that. It's just so difficult to even have discussions here because words don't mean what they used to anymore.

As for anarchy being tested, there are plenty of examples. The first that comes to mind is Catalonia.

[11xzxzxz]

@AnarchistOpposition OK thanks for the info. sounds good in sound bites. However I feel you and most Anarchists just give up and don't articulate Anarchism for the dumb and the uninformed but eager to understand but those who don't want to read books. Twice you have turned me down on request .. hell a 1000 words would suffice. Catalonia was a couple of years in the late 30s and it is most significant as the one example of anarchism ..

[AnarchistOpposition]

@11xzxzxz I'm sorry. Personal issues came up and I just never got around to it and it kinda faded into the past. There is a good reason for the lack of definite answers, though. If we give answers like that, we'd be authoritarian ourselves. The whole point is that decisions are going to be made based on how it is affecting people who are organizing in whatever way is being implemented voluntarily.

What specifics are you looking for, I could give you some possibilities.

[11xzxzxz]

@AnarchistOpposition I understand what you are saying but it's hard to picture what an anarchistic state would be like more so than most political systems. This doesn't mean it wouldn't work but is a little frightening to the soft middle class and the rich walls look ready to fall.

[11xzxzxz]

@AnarchistOpposition and who knows what happened and if it would have worked if the communists didn't take over . I am still very confused on how it works in the real world. And Libertarian rule is unclear and just democracy w/o socialism . Democracy/Capitalism doesn't work on it's own very long either.

[MrDavidFeldmann]

@11xzxzxz Have you ever heard of the Spanish Revolution of 1936?

[11xzxzxz]

@MrDavidFeldmann Yeah I have and lecture on it weekly. I say "a stopped clock is right twice a day". You might be right once a day.

[MrDavidFeldmann]

@11xzxzxz Classy. Anyway, the reason I mention it is because of your comment about anarchism only working on a small level (if at all). I would hardly say that the city of Barcelona and the numerous agricultural collectives fall into this category.

[11xzxzxz]

@MrDavidFeldmann  OK thanks.

[11xzxzxz]

Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, and harmful and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. Anarchists seek to diminish or even abolish authority in the conduct of human relations, but widely disagree on what additional criteria are essential to anarchism. According to Wikipedia.

[AndrewStergiou]

Who ever said Phil Ochs was an Anarchist is a liar.

[AnarchistOpposition]

@AndrewStergiou Whoever says that I said that is a liar. 

[AnarchistOpposition]

@Aqquila89 Again, I never fucking said he was an anarchist.

His songs simply contain messages that many anarchists would probably agree with.

Oh, and as for Kennedy, while the admiration should be noted, it's also true that Ochs strongly disagreed with Kennedy quite often (Bay of Pigs, Vietnam War, etc).

[Aqquila89]

@AnarchistOpposition I'm sorry. You're right, I misread your post.

[AndrewStergiou]

@AnarchistOpposition So you knew Phil Ochs did you? Naw. Now fuck off Opposition your dumb shit check yourself.

[Seasass]

0:55 - "Ronald Reagan plays George Murphy". Somehow, I think if Phil had managed to pull through his depression in 1976, he still would have been done in by what happened in 1980.

[ThisIsUngood]

Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan were both great song writers.

[LeeMike233]

You are so on Phil !!! I only wish you were here today. You live on in your songs and philosophies. I love you so much Phil!! You are so much better than Bob Dylan!!!

[11xzxzxz]

Just how perfect can lyrics get to a song? 

[11xzxzxz]

the young bobby dylan re: hypocrite later on ..

In a building of gold, with riches untold,

lived the families on which the country was founded.

And the merchants of style, with their red velvet smiles,

were there, for they also were hounded.

And the soft middle class crowded in to the last,

for the building was fully surrounded.

And the noise outside was the ringing of revolution.

[11xzxzxz]

Neil Young & Phil Ochs connection " Wrote this for a city girl on peeling pavement coming at me thru Phil Ochs eyes playing finger cymbals". Neil Young adds that he considered Ochs & Dylan .. on the same level. Yes the same level though Phil was taller I say. Today who is doing what Phil Ochs did? Billy Braggs song writing is so weak. Neil's the "peeling pavement calling" sound like a line from a Phil Ochs nugget , but isn't. Neil and Phil - my heroes. The young bobby dylans - Phil & Neil

[MiserableOldFart]

Great song. You pathetic right wing POSs have about one more decade left of dragging this country into the gutter before you start seeing the guillotines.

[NYanarchy08]

Guys, it doesn't matter HOW a person acquires wealth. If a dictator rises through tireless labor and legitimate elections, he's still a dictator who deserves to be overthrown simply because he has too much power. Wealth IS power, so why should the rich be treated any different?

[darthjoey13]

iety. Bill Gates could not run Microsoft by himself. We forget about the labor that goes into these colossal efforts because we glorify the rich as being some kind of superhuman forces. Capitalism is like the adolescence of economics.

[darthjoey13]

The whole idea of capitalism is an intermediary stage of economics. In capitalism, income is determined by the amount of money you have (implicitly the amount of work you have done to make it). This is a step up from feudalism, where income is determined by land ownership/brute force. However, it is not so far developed as a socialist system, where earnings are determined by labor. We are still denying the reality that the owners of the means of production actually contribute very little to soc

[superhoga]

@darthjoey13

You are confused because you hold to the labor theory of value instead of understanding marginal utility. The price of a good is not made up of the prices of the inputs that went into it, but by individual consumers giving feedback as to whether or not they will trade their dollars for your goods at a given price. You get trapped in a value paradox, I understand that my choice is not all the diamonds in the world or all the water.

[M0oM0o1]

wow what a blessing

[karinablacktie]

To Egypt and its people. I feel like I'm watching the fall of the Berlin Wall, and what better way to cheer it on than to listen to Phil Ochs?

[Anthonytheory]

bump this for the Egyptians right now!!!

[HectorMediavilla22]

He was born to write.

johnny valdez; from; perth amboy nj.

[DayLi2US]

"COME ONTO ME ALL YE THAT LABOR AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST"

[Joypadjunkginger]

I'm middle class and i've decided i'm better off with the guys outside, CYA!

[pitbull103]

In my young days, I cheered this song and listened to it over and over. I put it on a double feature with Tracy Chapman's "Talkin' Bout a Revolution." I saw it as a monument to justice.

Now I see it for what it really is -- a monument to jealousy, theft, and class warfare. If those rich people earned their money without fraud or force, than the revolutionaries who want to take it are nothing more than thieves.

I own all of Phil's albums. I admire his passion and songwriting, but can't agree.

[AnarchistOpposition]

@pitbull103 How exactly does one go about maintaining large amounts of wealth without the use of force?

[pitbull103]

@AnarchistOpposition If you sell, invent, or offer a service that a lot of people want to buy, you can be wealthy. I started as a contractor with one thing in mind: do the absolute best job I could. After working 15 years and 15-hour days, I now have a huge co and clear 7 figures a year. We do a great job for a fair price. I also wisely invest my money in real estate. This story is not unique. Did Buffett use fraud and force? I dont' think so. I know rich people and most work -- REALLY hard.

[beccita]

@pitbull103

Wealth is immoral. Hard work does not justify it.

[pitbull103]

@beccita "Wealth is immoral" is the most immoral statement I have ever read on youtube, and that's saying a lot. The most basic moral principle is to work hard, save money, and accumulate wealth without force or fraud. One of the ways you make lots of $ is by pleasing a LOT of people.

The people who made your computer did it in hopes of wealth. It helps you and helps them. I assume you are for a govt structure that would forcibly take wealth. That is the definition of immorality.

[beccita]

@pitbull103 Greed is the most basic moral principle? That is a seriously warped point of view. The most common way of becoming wealthy is by cheating, exploiting and stealing from people, NOT pleasing them.

Wealth is an excess, not a sufficiency. If you are talking about the people in China who were paid a subsistence wage to assemble my computer, I seriously doubt that they could have had any hope that doing so would make them wealthy.

[pitbull103]

@beccita Bring out the straw man and burn him up. I never said "greed is the most basic moral principle." You did.

If you think that stealing, cheating, and exploiting is the only means to wealth, then you: A) Have woefully little worldly experience or B) Suffer from incredible jealousy.

I never stole, cheated, or exploited anyone and I am wealthy. You are for govt that confiscates wealth at the point of a gun. What could be more immoral than that? Answer: nothing.

[beccita]

@pitbull103 You did indeed say that greed, or in your words the accumulation of wealth, is the most basic moral principle.

However, I said absolutely nothing about my views on government, and they are nothing like what you have assumed them to be.

Of course, I know cheating, stealing and exploiting are not the only ways to acquire wealth. What I said was they are the most COMMON ways. One would have to be very naive to believe otherwise.

[pitbull103]

@beccita I said it was a basic moral principle to "work hard, save money, and accumulate wealth." If you believe this to be immoral, then you essentially believe human achievement is immoral. People should enjoy the fruits of their labors -- including the money they justly and honestly earned.

However, I'm glad you are not for govt forcing people to give up wealth.

I completely disagree that cheat/steal/exploit are "most common" ways to get rich. THAT is naive.

Take care and be well.

[hanksnow2]

@pitbull103 -I would imagine Phil is singing about the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, etc, worth "Trillions". He would not be singing about working men & women, who work for a living, & pay their taxes.

It's Rotheschild who force people to work 15/18 hrs. a day to achieve a since of security. They own over half of the world's wealth & have achieved this by similar action that's happening to Libya right now. In the past, V/Nam, Korea, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, well I think U know this anyway.

[OL55CADDY]

@AnarchistOpposition

By winning the lottery, of course!

Yikes! I just got struck by lightning!!!

[miguel1948]

@AnarchistOpposition

luck?

[superhoga]

@AnarchistOpposition

Are you against self-defense? Why exactly would you need force to maintain wealth if no one was using force to attempt to take it?

What is a large amount of wealth? Do you decide that? A committee?

If you are against force, why are you in favor of using force to redistribute?

Just admit your statements are arbitrary, subjective, and inconsistent.

[winggoddess]

@AnarchistOpposition put it in the bank and retire.

[11xzxzxz]

@AnarchistOpposition Well it ain't that easy or simple. The poor don't spiritually resemble Charles Laughton and the Rich don't resemble a pugilistic ugly Lee Marvin. Rich and poor people are all made of the same sweat of a million years of evolution &revolution & they all stink. Anarchy doesn't help even as a temporary fix. Phil Ochs didn't support anarchy. You need some compromise sway and give in half way or too late for our sorrow we've reach our tomorrow and reamed the seeds sewing..

[AnarchistOpposition]

@11xzxzxz Ohkay. Why does anarchy not help? Explaining yourself would do much to further your cause.

[AnarchistOpposition]

@11xzxzxz Ohkay first of all, your attack is simply ad-hominem. You haven't even given any reason to count me as unreasonable other than that I hold my position. You haven't attacked the position at all other than claiming that it is unholdable without some type of insanity.

Secondly, I don't remember ever talking to you about this subject.

Thirdly, I never claimed that Ochs was in favour of an anarchist revolution.

[AnarchistOpposition]

@11xzxzxz I wanted to send you the following message but you have friend lock on.

"Hey. Would you be okay with talking here instead of in the comments?

It is easier to have a discussion without the character limit and not having to scan an entire page for additional responses is also more convenient. If you like we can publish the conversation at the end, if you are against the idea due to comments being publicly viewable."

[AnarchistOpposition]

@11xzxzxz It's possible that we have talked before, I suppose. But the lock doesn't prove that. The lock simply means that people who are not your youtube friend cannot send you messages.

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 do you think those in charge at Goldman Sachs, AIG, Bank of America, British Petroleum, Chase Bank, Halliburton, Massey Energy, ExxonMobil, and the rest of our capitalist masters, whose money runs our political system, have EARNED their wealth and deserve to rule this country? By and large, the profits of our rich masters comes from the surplus value taken from the common people, be it exploited workers in the third world, fraudulent bank scams on the US people, public bailouts, etc.

[pitbull103]

@myleftFIST If you believe all the companies you listed have earned their money dishonestly then you are under the spell of leftist propaganda. The world needs energy and it requires expertise. You benefit everyday from this expertise.

Most people who rail at capitalism have not started a company, nurtured it, spent 15 hours a day at it, and spent countless hours pleasing customers and generating positive word of mouth. Do you begrudge these people their wealth or just evil corporations?

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 These companies do not earn money honestly. I work firsthand on legal foreclosure issues and can tell you the big banks are crooks. Many states have found widespread bank foreclosure fraud. Banks get around loan modification laws to steal people’s homes and get bailed out every time they foreclose on a govt-backed loan. Through mortgage securitization, banks have made fortunes trading bad loans like stocks, and get trillions in public money to maintain their illegitimate wealth.

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 If you think oil companies act honestly, look at Exxon’s civilian torture in Aceh, Shell’s pillage of Niger Delta and sponsorship of Nigerian dictatorships, Exxon’s 20 year battle to get out of paying for 80% of damages in the Valdez spill, BP’s negligence in the Gulf (read the govt commission that just came out). Just because I need energy doesn’t justify murder and destruction. Capitalism doesn’t provide us with energy alternatives, even though solar and wind technology exists.

[pitbull103]

@myleftFIST Capitalism provides you with everything of worth that you so blithely take for granted -- ithe computer you use, the car you drive, the food you eat, and every significant innovation.

You spout leftist propaganda. Are you grateful for any products of the free market? You named two oil companies, but aren't they ALL bad?

Would you prefer state-run soviet-style markets? Capitalists are obligated to respond to customers. Govts are a monopoly with the ability to use "legal" force

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 You say I spout propaganda - tell me one thing I said that is false. The workers who run the world ought to have power over it, rather than a tiny wealthy minority who control the capital, dictate to the workers how much they make and their working conditions, and who profit and gain ownership of the property that the workers create. Worker control is not a state-run economy. The state is inherently elitist and anti-socialist.

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 As for capitalism giving me all these wonderful things, food was around before capitalism. Plus, food distribution under capitalism sucks. One fifth of the world is starving, especially in the capitalist 3rd world. Computers could not have been possible without massive govt R&D into semiconductors and other electronics which the market doesn’t have the longterm vision or desire to take on risk for. The internet was completely developed by the govt in DARPA labs. That is socialism.

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 Yes, all oil companies are bad under capitalism because the means of production are controlled by private capitalists whose goal is to make as much profit as possible by externalizing costs onto the public and environment. The higher up the chain you go, the more vicious the capitalist oil companies behave, because they have more power.

[pitbull103]

@myleftFIST Wow. ALL oil companies?

And other realms of capitalism? My contracting co has made me "wealthy." I worked with my own literal blood stains on the wood for 15 yrs before realizing gains. I succeeded by wildly impressing my customers.

In-N-Out Burger started in 1948 (I worked for them in the 1990s), paid its workers over the min wage, customers loved the taste, employees did well, and the owners became incredibly wealthy.

Capitalism is imperfect, but by far the best system.

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 Private ownership of oil is bad under the capitalist mode of production and distribution because the resource is controlled by those motivated by greed, who gain by taking the surplus value created by those who actually work the production/refining/distributi­on, and by externalizing the costs onto communities and ecosystems affected by the oil. Do you support the capitalist atrocities that I mentioned earlier?

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 Some “mom and pop” oil company started by a small capitalist may mean that the capitalist individually works hard, but if his company becomes big enough, the system will dictate he become as vicious and destructive as BP, Shell, Exxon, etc. This is the same in all fields of work, including your own example. Though systemically they are similar, it is not useful for you to equate yourself, a small capitalist, with the heads of BP, Goldman Sachs, etc. They are not on your team.

[pitbull103]

@myleftFIST I do not agree that "becoming big" necessitates vicious and destructive practices -- a generalization not backed up by facts.

At least you do not disparage all capitalists. Some from the left will simply declare all wealth -- regardless of how it is gotten -- as inherently evil. Someone on this thread said something like, "All wealth is evil, regardless of hard work."

Even Phil Ochs longed to be more successful in terms of sales!

I respect your lack of ad hominem. Be well.

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 Even if the capitalist is the nicest person in the world, competition drives him to spend as little as possible on labor, regulatory safety, environmental responsibility, etc. If the capitalist chooses to spend capital in this way that values human beings and the planet, he cannot compete with the more ruthless capitalist and will go out of business. Destruction of life and planet is just another externality. People are commodified and dehumanized.

[myleftFIST]

@pitbull103 If the capitalist is corporate, spending money on such frivolities is harmful to profits and often actually illegal. Years ago, when a prankster pretending to be a Dow Chemical representative told the news that Dow was compensating the thousands of people harmed in the Bhopal gas leak (casued by Dow's corporate predecessor Union Carbide), Dow’s stock plummeted, because helping those harmed by this capitalist atrocity means less money to shareholders. The market rewards greed.

[pitbull103]

@myleftFIST I disagree, and I think you are cherry picking. Your gripe is equivalent to saying that cars kill 35,000 people in America so they must be "bad." Meanwhile, cars successfully get people from A to B countless times.

Capitalism gets people the goods and services they want -- as do corporations. Capitalism allocates resources to those who please people. The equivalent of allocating resources by govt force has horrific, and immoral, consequences.

We agree to disagree.

[sixthsonofsevensins]

@pitbull103 And yet how many people die because they don't have the means to get things they need in a capitalist society? And let me put it to you this way, lets say you have a train keeps going off track ever so often and only in the less well built cars do you have fatalities(oh those is the nicer cars whine about whiplash). Now do you show up on the scene see the train and the dead and say "lets clear the dead and get this train back on track" or do you question the design?

[anarchopinko]

@pitbull103 - people get rich by paying people under them less than what their labor is worth because they have better government enforced property relationships. How is that not force?

[superhoga]

@anarchopinko

Wrong. People get rich by selling a product that people want at a price they will pay. No force there.

Individuals choose to trade their time and effort for what the owner will pay. No force there.

Some people (Rockefellers) get rich by paying for access to the levers of power as you say, but that isn't capitalism. That is fascism. Or at least corporatism. That is force and the same thing happens under socialism. But the weaker the gov't, the less useful the levers.

[yoginipeacelove]

@superhoga The rich use sweatshops to get "A product people want at a price they will pay". "No force there." Been to sweatshops? Go to some see the living Hell they are and tell this to the 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds there who have no other option (no other jobs, must eat) as the rich corporation owners won't give them humane environments/pay/etc. due to greed not caring they work every day a year 19 hours just to afford to eat occasionally. It's the new slavery. Buy sweatshop-free, all.

[yoginipeacelove]

@superhoga As for consumers and non-sweatshop workers (e.g. at stores the rich own where products are sold) there are other tragedies. At the stores the workers, though not sweatshop, are still not paid SH*T as the rich are too greedy to pay them a good wage and they are therefore poor- economy sucks now so ordinary people take the job of necessity and end up buying the cheap sweatshop products of necessity- not that they or the middle-class consumers know of sweatshops. Not taught in school. :(

[yoginipeacelove]

@superhoga In conclusion, I am not going to say I am for or against capitalism, socialism, anarchism, or any ism- it's completely irrelevant to the point based on having a human heart (which should transcend any ism) I was making- it is a sad reality that there are very, very, few rich people who do not indirectly or directly have human rights abuses, even blood, on their hands. There are those who happened to be born into wealth and decide when grown not to continue to family business. Rare.

[ThisIsUngood]

@pitbull103 It is a cry for justice in the form of a fantasy.

Phil points out especially in the last verse that it is not their position nor wealth that they want, only justice.

Down on our knees we're begging you please,

We're sorry for the way you were driven.

There's no need to taunt just take what you want,

and we'll make amends, if we're living.

But away from the grounds the flames told the town

that only the dead are forgiven.

As they crumbled inside the ringing of revolution.

[ThisIsUngood]

@pitbull103 Also, fraud is the method to the wealth of those to whom Phil refers.

Phil observed this through his days, as well as directly experiencing rule by force in the 60's riots.

[PumaTwoU]

Phil Ochs is- next to Pete Seeger- the best of the protest singers of the 60's and 70's

[tonybenn1000]

@PumaTwoU I THINK HE WAS BETTER NTAN PETE

[2patrock]

@PumaTwoU No worries Phil-you are forgiven <3

[Joypadjunkginger]

I want to see this movie! lol XD

[makijotaz377]

Cada cierto tiempo repaso esta canción, como excribieron por ahí una Pieza Maestra del canto popular. Me encanta.

[stevevandien]

When and where was this performed and recorded?

[monkeymortician]

I believe it's "Vain Velvet Smiles"

I'm just saying is all.

[doctorpsycho1960]

Last night, I read a graphic novel which adapted various stories by Edgar Allan Poe, in modern dress. Otherwise, I might not have noticed that this song is "The Masque of the Red Death".

[11xzxzxz]

@doctorpsycho1960 Hey I missed it for a long time..thanks for the insight.

[Seasass]

@doctorpsycho1960 Very interesting about "The Masque of the Red Death"--we know that Ochs was a fan of Poe from his setting of "The Bells".

[kreeper57]

Only the dead are forgiven. Until this country realizes that you can not have a "nice" revolution and that we must follow what Phil is teaching then this country is dead. Remember the Haynarket!

[jaybeefrommanchester]

come the rev, and free the downtrodden, x

[webryder]

I personally remember this and love it!

[HanssenKrause]

The Weakerthans do a pretty good cover of this, if you ever get a chance...

[genelawdog]

May this song one day come true!

[AnarchistOpposition]

Oh it will, its inevitable!

[noston382]

inevitable is a poisonous word, comrade revolutions do not "happen", they are made! ,

[tarqys]

Brilliant

[AnarchistOpposition]

Yup, Phil Ochs at his best :D