Leave the old and dying America and use your creative energies to help form a new America, which would be de-militarized, more humanistic, where the police are less hostile and closer to the community, where the wealthy are not given unleashed power for the exploitation of the people.
I think all the folk singers are a testamony to America, I remember listening to Phil when I was 15 yo in California, on FM radio, sunday morning rapping my papers for my paper route. Great singer, and great times!
I was a grown ass man in 1974;and I liked Phil Ochs then and I like his music now.However I never endowed him with mythical properties.He was a man with opinions and talent;that's all.In addition to his "protest"songs he also wrote"Quarter of a century old;half a century high".My personal favorite.Shalom.
I seem to run to Phil Ochs when I get the most frustrated with our country. I'm so glad he existed. I just wish there was somebody carrying this torch a little higher today.
"Yet she's only as rich as the poorest of the poor, Only as free as a padlocked prison door... Only as strong as our love for this land... man, Phil sure had a way with words.
Thanks for posting this video! I always enjoy listening to this song on July 4. Phil has been gone for so many years, and I still miss him. We could use his voice right about now.
Phil Ochs was probably one of the most unappreciated, misunderstood and despised singer songwriters of his day (or anyday)... yet I believe he should have been acclaimed a NATIONAL TREASURE for his music stood for what he felt was righteousness in the land supposedly of free and the home of the brave... NOT.
I first heard and met Phil in the spring of 1968 when he came to Indiana to perform at a fundraiser for Gene McCarthy. Stopping LBJ was the goal, and we did manage that. Phil stayed the night at a local coffeehouse, smoking illicit substances, drinking wine, and playing music til dawn.
I was glad to know him- we lost a man who felt life too deeply.
I first heard and met Phil in the spring of 1968 when he came to Indiana to perform at a fundraiser for Gene McCarthy. Stopping LBJ was the goal, and we did manage that. Phil stayed the night at a local coffeehouse, smoking illicit substances, drinking wine, and playing music til dawn.
Typically songwriters in the folk (and other) genre write about the society they find themselves in and how they percieve it. It does not matter your political bent, there is a vast amount of absurdity to be observed. That does not make them "a politician". On the other hand, to paraphrase Pete Seegar, anyone causing folks to think and make judgements about the world around them is affecting the body politic thus are engaging in a form of politics. Phil did!
@TheTroyBreslow He's writes great melodies and this song never really was more than upgrade on Woody . I don't like it much. I see what you are trying to say but he has written so many great melodies and lyrics .. I would put his best of Phil up against Dylan and sure he might loose but it would be close ..
@TheTroyBreslow I wouldnt call him a politician because he didnt run for any office you can call him a journalist all the news thats fit to sing was one of his albums he was definately one of the best folk singer songwriters
Obama is no liberal, and Ochs would have been a LOT harder on the lunatic fringe that has taken over the GOP and turned the USA into a caricature of a free society.
wow wY before my tIME I DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE POLATICS KINDA IGNORANT i like metal but phil ochs one of the best ive ever hear. cheers and hail! if you like phil ochs go listen to manowar!
why does noone else see him as the poet/seer that i do. i am forever angry that he was not here to hold my hand through reganism, bushism, clintontonism and the rest. he saw the true america, the one i'm tired of trying to find
I've read in book of Joan Jara how they met two young men who came to univercity in Chile because they wanted to support goxerment of Aliende. And their names was Jerry Rubin and Phil Ochs, Victor Jara took them to copper mine and they sang together "If I had a hammer" and Victor Jara translated verses fo the miners
I met Phil in front of the Conrad Hilton in 1968, during the convention.We managed to escape a ring of police swinging nightsticks. After we settled down at a coffee and donut shop on Wabash, we spoke politics. He was very concerned about personal liberty, and government control. And that was 42 years ago; the same issues are present. So now the liberals are conservative.
it certainlyis amazing that after all these years phil ochs can still bring such strong comment from people. probably people who never served our country and does'nt really know what it's like to be a patriot, god bless america
@dimpledick3inch Actually, Phil preferred chardonnay. But it wasn't the alcohol that killed him and he was stone cold sober when he made his final decision.
Yes, I know about his personal life. And people that take their own lives are considered mentally ill. That being said, I happen to like his music, and would rather concentrate on the music, rather than his personal life. Just my own opinion, and yes, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.
Jesus, dude! Did the Sixties kill your dog or something? What did Phil ever do to you?
Never mind. You're the kind of guy who accidentally got a hard-on in the shower during eighth-grade gym class and you've been screaming about guys who "play the skin flute" ever since, because you think it proves you're not a paranoid closet case.
All of these comments are so derogatory. Maybe we should concentrate on the music, and less on the person's personal life. Many great artists lived very sad and self-destructive lives. Does that make their music less relevant ?
@dimpledick3inch Besides, If you hate Phil so much, why are you here? Mysogynist. Homophobic. Sexually obsessed. These are words that come to mind with your remarks.
@dimpledick3inch Just more of your lies, distortions and false innuendo. This is my last (I think) response to you vituperative. But just to show how little you actually know about Phil, you said he , "commited... suicide...despite the fact that he had several young children who loved him and needed him for support and love..." Phil had one (1) daughter, Meegan. I know her. She has a lot of various feelings about her father, but certainly nothing approaching the venom you spew. Get a life!
@dimpledick3inch Does engaging in sociopathic behavior over the internet really get you juiced? Seems as if it does. You actually make Ted Nugent look like a reasonable person. BTW, since you obviously have no respect for him or anyone else, I wonder: is there anyone you admire besides yourself?
@dimpledick3inch Phil Ochs was a brilliant songwriter, a consummate tunesmith and poet, who saw his art as a means to express his political viewpoint. In that regard he was at the artistic vanguard of his times, and remains the most forthright and unflinching of his peers, with the possible exception of Tom Paxton. He also remains one of the most misunderstood, maligned and under-appreciated of the great singers of the 1960s.
@dimpledick3inch And you are a loathsome lying slanderer. It's one thing to insult the dead, but you should be more careful what you say about the living. Your comments, especially those "attributed" to Alice and alluding to her grandson, are vile LIES and should be removed from this discussion. You obviously know nothing about Phil Ochs. You come off like some twisted cross between Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Ted Nugent. If all you can do is spread lies and insults, stay out of the discussion
First of all, this video is not from 1974. It's from 1970. And Phil didn't break his arm, he cut it deeply punching out the window of the box office at Carnegie Hall that April in an argument regarding Carnegie Hall's treatment of his guests. By 1974, Phil wasn't performing with anything near this clarity and confidence. Secondly, Mister DimpleDIck, you are a loathsome slanderer and it unconscionable that YouTube allows the posting of the libel you spew. It's one thing to slander the dead...
but you go on a binge publicly accusing and insulting living persons. The LIES you have posted should be removed by YouTube. Caidan, just for one example, is still a child and not old enough to engage in the kind of behavior you talk about. Phil Ochs indeed suffered from bi-polar disorder. He did commit suicide by hanging himself in his sister Sonny's house in Far Rockaway, NY, but it was not her boyfriend who discovered his body, it was Sonny's son, and Phil' nephew David, now a retired NYC...
...firefighter. Sonny says that Phil did see a doctor, had been prescribed lithium and had even filled the prescription, but never took any of it. He was in a deep depressive phase of the disease, compounded by his own perception that his songwriting ability had left him and by the irreparable damage caused to his vocal chords during the mugging and attempted murder in Africa in 1975. His abuse of alcohol was linked to the depression. Besides a little pot, he didn't use other drugs.
The fact that the song was written by a man with flaws, even if those flaws may have been many and great, does not detract from the strength of the message of the song itself. Most patriotic songs talk about how wonderful and pretty the country is and talks of what we get from America. Only "The Power and the Glory" reminds us that patriotism is a responsibility and reinforces the immortal words of JFK.
Utter and complete nonsense. You have no source for any of this crap .... because none of it ever happened.
How you supposedly come to know all this bullshit - which happened before you were born - is nothing short of a miracle.
State your sources, son.
I know Megan Lee Ochs, who, among other things, wrote a lovely forward to "Phil Ochs - Farewells & Fantasies". She would vomit over your turd-posts ... as I did.
I hope to God that when you are dangerously ill (and that day will come, as it does to all of us), that the people you know act as cold and callous as you are doing.
You know, Ochs was attacked and strangled by robbers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which damaged his vocal cords. The attack also exacerbated his mental problems. Ochs's mental stability declined in the 1970s and he eventually succumbed to a number of problems including bipolar disorder and alcoholism.
I hope to God that when you are dangerously ill (and that day will come, as it does to all of us), that the people you know act as cold and callous as you just did.
@dimpledick3inch Einstein was dyslexic, Freddie Mercury and Alan Turing was homosexual and nearly all sheep are white, my aged aunt, who is a fan of Queen, asked me if it matters, that she liked Freddie Mercury’s music, because of his sexuality, my reply was do you want to listen to his music or sleep with him. Thank you for the diversity of mankind it makes life so NOT BORING.
I so agree, VJ254-it's one the most beautiful and patriotic songs ever. I was thrilled that my daughter's 2nd grade teacher taught it to them. PHIL LIVES!
@jaac662 Sort of. Phil got into a bit of country (country and western, it was called back then) during his last studio album, ironically (and problematically) entitled "Greatest Hits".
@deanfaust yes he did the soundtrack to superfly that movie was pulled even though it was biggest movie of the moment because it was too immoral superfly was a drug pusher unlike shaft who was a private ivestigator
@ukevids it is jim he taught phil how to play guitar had a folk duo with jean ray who died in 07 her brother brian ray plays guitar with paul mcartney brian ray has some hot videos in youtube
Have always liked this song with its fluent and rhytmic lyrics, great performer and real nice harmony in the chorus. One of Phils best songs in my opinion.
It's so sad to think Phil was merely 2 years away from the end of his life. So tragic, but such a truly unbelievable person. Never forgotten, R.I.P. X
@simayana Don' t know. But you can keep an eye on it by searching google for "Phil Ochs" and "The Movie" and see commentary from Sean Penn and Joan Baez. There's also a great clip of singing "When I'm Gone.'' He just sparkles despite the black and white.
@charliekkendo Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special, which aired live on NBC on Friday night/Saturday morning (1 am on the east coast, 10 pm on the west). Yes, that is Curtis Mayfield, many years prior to his 1990 concert injury that left him in a wheelchair.
This was not long before Phil hung himself. This was in his words, "The Most Important Song", and I'd vote for it for National Anthem, myself. Phil was a bipolar, brilliant and self-medicated with alcohol. He was acutely depressed at this point, and we lost him when we needed him most of all.
This music is so good it brings you to tears. Phil Ochs did not die in vain, however his death came about. He lives down the years through his songs, and he has a lot to tell. Bless You.
It is only my opinion, but I think this is a more powerful patriotic song than "God bless the U.S.A." It seems more richer and deeper for me. Thank you for posting this.
He sang this song in a much lower key because of an accident- he was robbed and attacked several years earlier, and his throat was injured. He never really got over the damage it did to his higher vocal range.
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Phil was MURDERED! I have personally collected precious evidence on Phil Ochs, I have mailed it to any who will ask. Phil Ochs was murdered by our own Government/CIA/Secret Service. I have very strong information to support this. It will convince any skeptic, I can assure that. Psychiatry, and "medicine" to help? Tom Cruise was right about that. Cut out the ignorance Phil Ochs fans, and let's get some Justice For Phil!
I've spoken to the guy who was dating Phil's sister Sonny in 1976. Phil Ochs hanged himsef in her home and the boyffriend discovered it. Sadly, Phil talked about taking his life often in his final years and his brother Michael pleaded with him to get help. Phil was prescribed medication, but his sister believes he had stopped taking it.
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Phil wanted to have Michael taken out by his buddies in the Mafia for his so-called "help". Phil had buddies in the mafia. Prescribed medication? You're a brainwashed tool, don't berate me due to that glaring fact. He hanged himself? I think you mean he hung himself. No shit Sherlock, the conspiracy is why he did it. I've chatted with Sonny Ochs, so what's your point?
Not everything is a conspiracy, but some things are. And their power rests in the fact that most people don't believe in them, and the rest are too apathetic to care.
CIA documents list Phil Ochs as a domestic threat, and Nixon's administration is on record as dealing with these as they would foreign threats, in other words, their removal at any cost.
By the end of his life, Phil was a threat to passers-by (he was arrested on an assault charge during his John Butler Train era) and woefully self-destructive, but he'd lost his voice, literally and figuratively. No one in power really cared about Ochs by the time he died. That the FBI still had a file says more about bureaucratic inefficiency than it measures Ochs' threat. It was a tragic ending to a life that gave us some brilliant songs.
The theory of Phil's murder stems back to Nixon's view of the counterculture as domestic terrorists and his directive to do whatever was necessary to end that threat. Evidence suggests the CIA had been experimenting with an LSD that induced severe mental breakdown in its users, and the dissemination of those drugs by undercover ops to the "leaders" of the counterculture. Thus, their effects would take time to manifest, and would account for Phil's sudden onset of multiple-personality disorder.
That's a cruel thing to say. Before his disease (inherited from his father, btw) got ahold of him, he was one of the most rational thinkers out there. He always made sense - and he made sense in an incredibly lyrical and melodic way. We are all only human. May you always stay well and never become mentally ill or elderly and confused.
The awesome thing about Phil and his music is that it is Timeless. He knew he was only Mortal but left a great legacy and some good songs. Bless you Phil, wherever you are, and ya know what?... You were Right... we're STILL Screwed here! :-D
Phil's original intent was to sing "Here's to the State of Richard Nixon", his update of the older "Here's to the State of Mississippi" -- but the network forbade him, so he went to Plan B, "Power and the Glory." He and Jim had to quickly rehearse it backstage before going on.
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I highly doubt that.
Now, if he was elected because he was going to be a good leader, despite that he's black, Phil would be happy.
But to see someone elected BECAUSE they're black, despite their terrible policies, support for the murder of babies, no, that wouldn't make Phil happy.
Ah yes, wow, that was a blast from the past. Although, he didn't get the nomination, and I don't think he proceeded to run for President after that, did he? (I can't seem to remember, and I'm a bit too busy atm to look it up)
I sincerely doubt that the man who wrote "I Ain't a Marchin' Anymore" would admire the man who has just embroiled us in a Central Asian Vietnam of his own making...
His puppet masters gave the orders, and he just followed them in lockstep. He's turning out to be another hawkish, anti-environmental DLC clown like Clinton. If he wants to be another one of Dylan's "Masters of War", so be it.
I didn't buy his fancy rhetoric at the Nobel Prize Acceptance ceremony.
He keeps ripping off Lincoln's First and Second Inaugurals, rewriting them to his own purpose.
No he's not Bush. He's a far greater human being, which makes it all the sadder that he's such a sellout and puppet to the powers that be.
He's weak on the environment, health care (I wish he really was a Socialist), and a DLC hawk on foreign policy.
And I am so far to the left of you and on such a higher plane, that I don't know why I even bother to respond to you. If you're not part of the solution, you and Barack, you're part of the problem.
Right, I guess when you credit Afghanistan to something of Obama's "own making", you're tipping your hand to your obvious intellectual superiority. Thanks for gracing us mere mortals with your wisdom, O great one.
Too true. However, I'm hopeful my comment will discourage this type of behavior. Even if it makes 1 or 2 people reconsider doing it, at least I've done my share to help clean up Youtube :)
I suppose you can only hope. The way I see it though, is any attempt to clean up Youtube comments is pretty much the equivalent to shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing or cleaning while your kids still live at home.
Not necessarily. Phil was a political person, and would like nothing better than to inspire more political thought, followed by action.
The inclusion of comments on today's wars,wars Phil would be leading protests against were he still with us, is perhaps be greatest tribute we CAN pay to him. Other than actually STOPPING THE DAMN WARS.
Phil would likely have the same feelings towards Obama that he had towards the Kennedys-deeply conflicted feelings....admiring the idealism they seemed to inspire, yet railing at the hypocrisy at the shortcomings. These feelings can best be summed up by the brief note he wrote on the back of his "Tape From California" album, dedicating the record to "Robert Kennedy, who I loved and hated too much to support"
(In fact, Phil had decided to endorse RFK if he won the California primary, but...
@spacepatrolman you also support a loser if you support Nader, he's the reason we got "W". Nader is nothing but a pathetic whiner whose face would crumble if he ever cracked a smile. If I read how he was run over by a Chevy Corvair driven by a Washington lobbyist talking on his cellphone while eating a Big Mac on his way to his skybox at a megabucks football stadium I will shout "YES! There is justice in the world!"
@jennifersman I hope you dont roll over in your suv break your kneck and paralise yourself a devotee of ralph nader wrote a book on how suvs were oversold overlooking safety hazards
Leave the old and dying America and use your creative energies to help form a new America, which would be de-militarized, more humanistic, where the police are less hostile and closer to the community, where the wealthy are not given unleashed power for the exploitation of the people.
--philOchs
Presidentdudley 13 hours ago
I think all the folk singers are a testamony to America, I remember listening to Phil when I was 15 yo in California, on FM radio, sunday morning rapping my papers for my paper route. Great singer, and great times!
chrismedlin 3 months ago
I was a grown ass man in 1974;and I liked Phil Ochs then and I like his music now.However I never endowed him with mythical properties.He was a man with opinions and talent;that's all.In addition to his "protest"songs he also wrote"Quarter of a century old;half a century high".My personal favorite.Shalom.
spiffydresser1 4 months ago
I seem to run to Phil Ochs when I get the most frustrated with our country. I'm so glad he existed. I just wish there was somebody carrying this torch a little higher today.
GAlanHassell 4 months ago
The guy playing with Phil Ochs here is Jim Glover. He made three albums with Jean Ray under the name of Jim & Jean.
belliottx 4 months ago
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Cinnamombunz 4 months ago
"Yet she's only as rich as the poorest of the poor, Only as free as a padlocked prison door... Only as strong as our love for this land... man, Phil sure had a way with words.
OMGDeBest 5 months ago
Thanks for posting this video! I always enjoy listening to this song on July 4. Phil has been gone for so many years, and I still miss him. We could use his voice right about now.
tunghoy 6 months ago
What TV show was this???
GoodNoteDJ 7 months ago
@GoodNoteDJ The Midnight Special.
watchingtelevision 6 months ago
@KennBurch: The Kennedys and Obummer? The Kennedys where NOT New World Order puppets you Jackwagon!
@Dreadfel: There is one, Ron Paul!
ROCKETMISSILE1234 7 months ago
Love Phil... Wish he were still with us.
OMGDeBest 8 months ago
Phil Ochs was probably one of the most unappreciated, misunderstood and despised singer songwriters of his day (or anyday)... yet I believe he should have been acclaimed a NATIONAL TREASURE for his music stood for what he felt was righteousness in the land supposedly of free and the home of the brave... NOT.
OMGDeBest 8 months ago 2
I first heard and met Phil in the spring of 1968 when he came to Indiana to perform at a fundraiser for Gene McCarthy. Stopping LBJ was the goal, and we did manage that. Phil stayed the night at a local coffeehouse, smoking illicit substances, drinking wine, and playing music til dawn.
I was glad to know him- we lost a man who felt life too deeply.
498332 8 months ago
I first heard and met Phil in the spring of 1968 when he came to Indiana to perform at a fundraiser for Gene McCarthy. Stopping LBJ was the goal, and we did manage that. Phil stayed the night at a local coffeehouse, smoking illicit substances, drinking wine, and playing music til dawn.
498332 8 months ago
If somebody has Bill Schustik's version, I wish they would post it.
mahargsaxet 8 months ago
3 people don't see the power and the glory
xoxonena67 8 months ago
We need remember Phil Thanks.
jeffs666 9 months ago
Love Phil Ochs - but this song - not so much. Too cliched - far from his best.
298625 9 months ago
Since Phil recorded this in the 1970's, this song has been my nominee for the new (and truthful) National Anthem!
rkovachusba 10 months ago
Typically songwriters in the folk (and other) genre write about the society they find themselves in and how they percieve it. It does not matter your political bent, there is a vast amount of absurdity to be observed. That does not make them "a politician". On the other hand, to paraphrase Pete Seegar, anyone causing folks to think and make judgements about the world around them is affecting the body politic thus are engaging in a form of politics. Phil did!
rdvqc 10 months ago
DAY BEFORE 420!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
fopedarmerr 11 months ago
there is nobody around today like Phil, and we are the worse for it. xoxo
wrcanada 11 months ago
I am a big fan of Phil Ochs, but hes not a folksinger he is a closet politician or a journalist or something like that.
TheTroyBreslow 1 year ago
@TheTroyBreslow He's writes great melodies and this song never really was more than upgrade on Woody . I don't like it much. I see what you are trying to say but he has written so many great melodies and lyrics .. I would put his best of Phil up against Dylan and sure he might loose but it would be close ..
11xzxzxz 10 months ago
@TheTroyBreslow I wouldnt call him a politician because he didnt run for any office you can call him a journalist all the news thats fit to sing was one of his albums he was definately one of the best folk singer songwriters
spacepatrolman 9 months ago
Phil Ochs: Proves you can love America and also protest its wars and injustices.
manus211 1 year ago 19
R.I.P. PHIL....TRULY YOU ARE
AdolfShitlerite 1 year ago
R.I.P.
Phil Ochs inspires us still.
thesantoshow93 1 year ago
Obama is no liberal, and Ochs would have been a LOT harder on the lunatic fringe that has taken over the GOP and turned the USA into a caricature of a free society.
MiserableOldFart 1 year ago 4
I believe Phil's most perceptive song best expresses how he'd feel towards Obama and those who still support him...."Love Me, I'm A Liberal."
stevesglbaum 1 year ago
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He was a rebel poet who sung his poems with a guitar...
mavilunA 1 year ago
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mavilunA 1 year ago
He was a rebel poet who sung his poems with a guitar...
mavilunA 1 year ago 5
We need young people to listen to great songs like this.
twinlorna 1 year ago 2
@twinlorna I'm 18. Just turned.
Love this song.
I'd like to think that I am a young person?
NewWorld0dour 1 year ago
i think all politicians DON'T have our best interest ... and this song ... this should be OUR national anthem.
Dreadfel 1 year ago 27
wow wY before my tIME I DONT KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE POLATICS KINDA IGNORANT i like metal but phil ochs one of the best ive ever hear. cheers and hail! if you like phil ochs go listen to manowar!
uninvited13 1 year ago
why does noone else see him as the poet/seer that i do. i am forever angry that he was not here to hold my hand through reganism, bushism, clintontonism and the rest. he saw the true america, the one i'm tired of trying to find
rttugger2000 1 year ago 3
I've read in book of Joan Jara how they met two young men who came to univercity in Chile because they wanted to support goxerment of Aliende. And their names was Jerry Rubin and Phil Ochs, Victor Jara took them to copper mine and they sang together "If I had a hammer" and Victor Jara translated verses fo the miners
stanislavpaleha 1 year ago 2
Curtis Mayfield
56BUICKRiviera 1 year ago
He sounds like Johnny Cash here
skobichevskii 1 year ago
I met Phil in front of the Conrad Hilton in 1968, during the convention.We managed to escape a ring of police swinging nightsticks. After we settled down at a coffee and donut shop on Wabash, we spoke politics. He was very concerned about personal liberty, and government control. And that was 42 years ago; the same issues are present. So now the liberals are conservative.
10224401 1 year ago
@10224401 when phil ochs died a poem in rolling stone by abbie hoffman "ive seen phil ochs on freedoms trail singing songs and posting bail...
spacepatrolman 9 months ago
Forget the politics. Phil Ochs was the most honest, and best. Period..
gwmacdonald 1 year ago 3
Phil Ochs was murdered by Charles Mansons clan.
Mydickitches1 1 year ago
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I heard tghat Phil OIchs died after drinking too much Chardonay and getting buttphucked by John Holmes.
yomamakunt 1 year ago
"Being a patriot is supporting your country always. Supporting your government only when they deserve it" - Mark Twain.
VJ254 1 year ago 4
@dimpledick3inch
Dohohoho, angry right wing troll has nothing better to do than thread shit? What a shock.
Mortagern 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch you spelled dumpsters wrong :)
ragingbull888 1 year ago
it certainlyis amazing that after all these years phil ochs can still bring such strong comment from people. probably people who never served our country and does'nt really know what it's like to be a patriot, god bless america
SuperFunkdaddy 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch Actually, Phil preferred chardonnay. But it wasn't the alcohol that killed him and he was stone cold sober when he made his final decision.
Diceydee 1 year ago
Yes, I know about his personal life. And people that take their own lives are considered mentally ill. That being said, I happen to like his music, and would rather concentrate on the music, rather than his personal life. Just my own opinion, and yes, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.
nancyalis 1 year ago
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@nancyalis
and they all stink
peterpterodactyl 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch
Get therapy. Or maybe just a lobotomy. You need help.
KennBurch 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch Said the closet case.
KennBurch 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch
Don't tell me...you're STILL made because Mommy and Daddy wouldn't buy you a puppy to torture.
KennBurch 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch
Jesus, dude! Did the Sixties kill your dog or something? What did Phil ever do to you?
Never mind. You're the kind of guy who accidentally got a hard-on in the shower during eighth-grade gym class and you've been screaming about guys who "play the skin flute" ever since, because you think it proves you're not a paranoid closet case.
KennBurch 1 year ago
All of these comments are so derogatory. Maybe we should concentrate on the music, and less on the person's personal life. Many great artists lived very sad and self-destructive lives. Does that make their music less relevant ?
nancyalis 1 year ago
@AArtzner, your point with all this is....?
muddybrookrambler 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch Besides, If you hate Phil so much, why are you here? Mysogynist. Homophobic. Sexually obsessed. These are words that come to mind with your remarks.
Artzner 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch Just more of your lies, distortions and false innuendo. This is my last (I think) response to you vituperative. But just to show how little you actually know about Phil, you said he , "commited... suicide...despite the fact that he had several young children who loved him and needed him for support and love..." Phil had one (1) daughter, Meegan. I know her. She has a lot of various feelings about her father, but certainly nothing approaching the venom you spew. Get a life!
Artzner 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch Does engaging in sociopathic behavior over the internet really get you juiced? Seems as if it does. You actually make Ted Nugent look like a reasonable person. BTW, since you obviously have no respect for him or anyone else, I wonder: is there anyone you admire besides yourself?
Artzner 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch Why don't you just quit your idiotic ranting and go do something useful with your life?
Artzner 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch Phil Ochs was a brilliant songwriter, a consummate tunesmith and poet, who saw his art as a means to express his political viewpoint. In that regard he was at the artistic vanguard of his times, and remains the most forthright and unflinching of his peers, with the possible exception of Tom Paxton. He also remains one of the most misunderstood, maligned and under-appreciated of the great singers of the 1960s.
Artzner 1 year ago 2
@dimpledick3inch And you are a loathsome lying slanderer. It's one thing to insult the dead, but you should be more careful what you say about the living. Your comments, especially those "attributed" to Alice and alluding to her grandson, are vile LIES and should be removed from this discussion. You obviously know nothing about Phil Ochs. You come off like some twisted cross between Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Ted Nugent. If all you can do is spread lies and insults, stay out of the discussion
Artzner 1 year ago
First of all, this video is not from 1974. It's from 1970. And Phil didn't break his arm, he cut it deeply punching out the window of the box office at Carnegie Hall that April in an argument regarding Carnegie Hall's treatment of his guests. By 1974, Phil wasn't performing with anything near this clarity and confidence. Secondly, Mister DimpleDIck, you are a loathsome slanderer and it unconscionable that YouTube allows the posting of the libel you spew. It's one thing to slander the dead...
Artzner 1 year ago
but you go on a binge publicly accusing and insulting living persons. The LIES you have posted should be removed by YouTube. Caidan, just for one example, is still a child and not old enough to engage in the kind of behavior you talk about. Phil Ochs indeed suffered from bi-polar disorder. He did commit suicide by hanging himself in his sister Sonny's house in Far Rockaway, NY, but it was not her boyfriend who discovered his body, it was Sonny's son, and Phil' nephew David, now a retired NYC...
Artzner 1 year ago
...firefighter. Sonny says that Phil did see a doctor, had been prescribed lithium and had even filled the prescription, but never took any of it. He was in a deep depressive phase of the disease, compounded by his own perception that his songwriting ability had left him and by the irreparable damage caused to his vocal chords during the mugging and attempted murder in Africa in 1975. His abuse of alcohol was linked to the depression. Besides a little pot, he didn't use other drugs.
Artzner 1 year ago
The fact that the song was written by a man with flaws, even if those flaws may have been many and great, does not detract from the strength of the message of the song itself. Most patriotic songs talk about how wonderful and pretty the country is and talks of what we get from America. Only "The Power and the Glory" reminds us that patriotism is a responsibility and reinforces the immortal words of JFK.
jpdeni 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch
Utter and complete nonsense. You have no source for any of this crap .... because none of it ever happened.
How you supposedly come to know all this bullshit - which happened before you were born - is nothing short of a miracle.
State your sources, son.
I know Megan Lee Ochs, who, among other things, wrote a lovely forward to "Phil Ochs - Farewells & Fantasies". She would vomit over your turd-posts ... as I did.
Please don't post to me any more.
Rajamuttu 1 year ago
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@dimpledick3inch
I hope to God that when you are dangerously ill (and that day will come, as it does to all of us), that the people you know act as cold and callous as you are doing.
Rajamuttu 1 year ago
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Rajamuttu 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch
And he never dodged the draft.
And he did not spend his life "drinking and drugging".
And when he was in the final; throes of his mental disease, he could not offer much "support and love" to his children. Even they knew it.
Ask them.
Oh -- and he was definitely not a "wimp" either. He was powerful and courageous.
Rajamuttu 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch
You know, Ochs was attacked and strangled by robbers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which damaged his vocal cords. The attack also exacerbated his mental problems. Ochs's mental stability declined in the 1970s and he eventually succumbed to a number of problems including bipolar disorder and alcoholism.
I hope to God that when you are dangerously ill (and that day will come, as it does to all of us), that the people you know act as cold and callous as you just did.
Rajamuttu 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch You're funny when you're angry.
reamsofjest 1 year ago
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@dimpledick3inch And still he's a greater patriot than you.
reamsofjest 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch And yet he is still a greater patriot than you.
reamsofjest 1 year ago
@dimpledick3inch Einstein was dyslexic, Freddie Mercury and Alan Turing was homosexual and nearly all sheep are white, my aged aunt, who is a fan of Queen, asked me if it matters, that she liked Freddie Mercury’s music, because of his sexuality, my reply was do you want to listen to his music or sleep with him. Thank you for the diversity of mankind it makes life so NOT BORING.
Normanskie 1 year ago 2
I so agree, VJ254-it's one the most beautiful and patriotic songs ever. I was thrilled that my daughter's 2nd grade teacher taught it to them. PHIL LIVES!
Thanks so much for posting!
ssblklyn 1 year ago
such a touching song :}
xoxonena67 1 year ago 2
Wonderful songwriter, beautiful voice, not afraid to keep idealist in check.
You are missed Phil
AngelGendy 1 year ago
is this country?
jaac662 1 year ago
@jaac662 Yes, specifically the USA :{)
doctorpsycho1960 1 year ago
@jaac662 Sort of. Phil got into a bit of country (country and western, it was called back then) during his last studio album, ironically (and problematically) entitled "Greatest Hits".
juliejazz 1 year ago
"On us all...."
doctorpsycho1960 1 year ago
Imagine if Johhny Cash had covered this. It would have been an epic hit.
jester1137 1 year ago
Hey RobGoth? Fuck you!
mpaulworkman 1 year ago 3
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Love his music but can't stand his Marxist politics.
RobGoth100 1 year ago
Is that Curtis Mayfield doing the intro?
deanfaust 1 year ago
@deanfaust yes he did the soundtrack to superfly that movie was pulled even though it was biggest movie of the moment because it was too immoral superfly was a drug pusher unlike shaft who was a private ivestigator
spacepatrolman 9 months ago
Why this has not been somebodies campaign song is beyond me.
maxkauf 1 year ago
Should've kept on 'Keepin' on' like the man said, Phil.
cornucopiaethiopia 1 year ago
who is the other guy?
bhagenbdrinkin 2 years ago
@bhagenbdrinkin I think that is Jim Glover, his old college roommate and friend. Jim is peace activist and folk singer, now living in Florida.
ukevids 1 year ago
@ukevids it is jim he taught phil how to play guitar had a folk duo with jean ray who died in 07 her brother brian ray plays guitar with paul mcartney brian ray has some hot videos in youtube
spacepatrolman 9 months ago
Have always liked this song with its fluent and rhytmic lyrics, great performer and real nice harmony in the chorus. One of Phils best songs in my opinion.
jonasjar 2 years ago
One powerful song, by one of our greatest singer/songwriters.
RWRizzo 2 years ago
It's so sad to think Phil was merely 2 years away from the end of his life. So tragic, but such a truly unbelievable person. Never forgotten, R.I.P. X
andyochs 2 years ago 2
Who is the man singing with Phil ?
Life of Phil Ochs need a movie
matchou75 2 years ago 3
His college buddy Jim Glover who helped turn him on to folk music.
And yes, it's time for Phil's movie by now.
nancyzeetoo 2 years ago
@matchou75 A documentary about Phil's life is due out later this year. Hard to believe he'd be 70 in December.
juliejazz 1 year ago 2
@juliejazz Will that be on TV? PBS, probably?
simayana 1 year ago
@simayana Don' t know. But you can keep an eye on it by searching google for "Phil Ochs" and "The Movie" and see commentary from Sean Penn and Joan Baez. There's also a great clip of singing "When I'm Gone.'' He just sparkles despite the black and white.
juliejazz 1 year ago
Does anyone know who wrote this song and when? I distinctly remember hearing it in 1968.
Hudson2816 2 years ago
Written by Phil Ochs, on the album All The News Thats Fit To Sing, originally released 1964 according to the sleeve notes I'm reading now.
baggielee67 2 years ago 2
Is that Curtis Mayfield giving the introduction? What show was this??
charliekkendo 2 years ago
@charliekkendo Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special, which aired live on NBC on Friday night/Saturday morning (1 am on the east coast, 10 pm on the west). Yes, that is Curtis Mayfield, many years prior to his 1990 concert injury that left him in a wheelchair.
ottowes 1 year ago
This was not long before Phil hung himself. This was in his words, "The Most Important Song", and I'd vote for it for National Anthem, myself. Phil was a bipolar, brilliant and self-medicated with alcohol. He was acutely depressed at this point, and we lost him when we needed him most of all.
BelindaKyle 2 years ago
I guess that depends on how you define "not long." Phil died just ten days short of two years after this performance.
bbear8 2 years ago
Beautiful.
NewWorld0dor 2 years ago
Thanks!
Beadbud5000 2 years ago
Phil died in 71 or 72 I thought
Beadbud5000 2 years ago
April 9, 1976, physically.
1968, spiritually.
MrsSuratt 2 years ago
luv ya, Phil
Tuscanson 2 years ago 3
This music is so good it brings you to tears. Phil Ochs did not die in vain, however his death came about. He lives down the years through his songs, and he has a lot to tell. Bless You.
TheEarlBounty 2 years ago 3
so awesome
Chrishadges1 2 years ago
It is only my opinion, but I think this is a more powerful patriotic song than "God bless the U.S.A." It seems more richer and deeper for me. Thank you for posting this.
VJ254 2 years ago 21
beautiful song
arg888 2 years ago 8
He sang this song in a much lower key because of an accident- he was robbed and attacked several years earlier, and his throat was injured. He never really got over the damage it did to his higher vocal range.
MiltonJenkins 2 years ago 4
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Phil was MURDERED! I have personally collected precious evidence on Phil Ochs, I have mailed it to any who will ask. Phil Ochs was murdered by our own Government/CIA/Secret Service. I have very strong information to support this. It will convince any skeptic, I can assure that. Psychiatry, and "medicine" to help? Tom Cruise was right about that. Cut out the ignorance Phil Ochs fans, and let's get some Justice For Phil!
philochs 2 years ago
I don't doubt that Phil was killed. The same bastards also murdered Phillip K Dick.
AshleyHell 2 years ago
I've spoken to the guy who was dating Phil's sister Sonny in 1976. Phil Ochs hanged himsef in her home and the boyffriend discovered it. Sadly, Phil talked about taking his life often in his final years and his brother Michael pleaded with him to get help. Phil was prescribed medication, but his sister believes he had stopped taking it.
Not everything is a conspiracy.
HNK222 2 years ago
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Phil wanted to have Michael taken out by his buddies in the Mafia for his so-called "help". Phil had buddies in the mafia. Prescribed medication? You're a brainwashed tool, don't berate me due to that glaring fact. He hanged himself? I think you mean he hung himself. No shit Sherlock, the conspiracy is why he did it. I've chatted with Sonny Ochs, so what's your point?
philochs 2 years ago
eh?
Beadbud5000 2 years ago
Not everything is a conspiracy, but some things are. And their power rests in the fact that most people don't believe in them, and the rest are too apathetic to care.
CIA documents list Phil Ochs as a domestic threat, and Nixon's administration is on record as dealing with these as they would foreign threats, in other words, their removal at any cost.
thesithempire 2 years ago
By the end of his life, Phil was a threat to passers-by (he was arrested on an assault charge during his John Butler Train era) and woefully self-destructive, but he'd lost his voice, literally and figuratively. No one in power really cared about Ochs by the time he died. That the FBI still had a file says more about bureaucratic inefficiency than it measures Ochs' threat. It was a tragic ending to a life that gave us some brilliant songs.
elusiverobertdenby 2 years ago
The theory of Phil's murder stems back to Nixon's view of the counterculture as domestic terrorists and his directive to do whatever was necessary to end that threat. Evidence suggests the CIA had been experimenting with an LSD that induced severe mental breakdown in its users, and the dissemination of those drugs by undercover ops to the "leaders" of the counterculture. Thus, their effects would take time to manifest, and would account for Phil's sudden onset of multiple-personality disorder.
thesithempire 2 years ago
yes he was going through acute depression. Such a brillant player
Beadbud5000 2 years ago
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I hope I don't become a marxist and apologist and defender of Commuinst dictators either.
RobGoth100 2 years ago
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Phil Ochs hanged himself two years later.
He was as self destructive and confused as the generation he sang about.
RobGoth100 2 years ago
No, he had bi-polar disorder
vevaliant1 2 years ago
That's a cruel thing to say. Before his disease (inherited from his father, btw) got ahold of him, he was one of the most rational thinkers out there. He always made sense - and he made sense in an incredibly lyrical and melodic way. We are all only human. May you always stay well and never become mentally ill or elderly and confused.
juliejazz 2 years ago 19
@juliejazz Elderly = ill and confused ??!?!
fifthworld 1 year ago
That's probably true, but he was also one hell of a song writer and singer.
ellegaunt 2 years ago 3
The awesome thing about Phil and his music is that it is Timeless. He knew he was only Mortal but left a great legacy and some good songs. Bless you Phil, wherever you are, and ya know what?... You were Right... we're STILL Screwed here! :-D
Mosparx78 2 years ago 3
Sounds like Johnny Cash at certain points in the song
drumsonly 2 years ago
Pigasus!
drumsonly 2 years ago
Love the vocal harmonies!
HiddenFormula 2 years ago
this was after he was strangled and damaged his vocal chords so he couldn't sing as well....
patyak55 3 years ago
and he still sounds great =)
fuckedsociety 2 years ago 4
What a remarkable, heroic figure he was! This song is just so powerful and compelling!
ottowes 3 years ago
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A cool YouTube channel: Distorted Views (philochs) I'm often adding videos, which are rare.if you like, then subscribe
watch John Lennon and phil ochs - chords of fame on my channel
philochs 3 years ago
Phil's original intent was to sing "Here's to the State of Richard Nixon", his update of the older "Here's to the State of Mississippi" -- but the network forbade him, so he went to Plan B, "Power and the Glory." He and Jim had to quickly rehearse it backstage before going on.
marimbadearco 3 years ago 3
he looks kind of sick in this video but still had some amazing soul.
JoeMulk 3 years ago
we are only as tall as we stand, if that doesnt say it all,
mccloskeyman 3 years ago 6
Someone slit his throat and robbed him in Dir As Salaam "Haven of Peace". It severely damaged his voice. Thank-you wikipedia.
JOROSS2 3 years ago
No, he was strangled while they robbed him and his vocal chords were damaged that way, effecting his upper register.
marimbadearco 3 years ago
I stand corrected..sorry! The strange thing is that even on wikipedia it is written as strangled.. I usually am very picky about facts.
JOROSS2 3 years ago
I wish he could have lived to see Barack Obama elected. I think he would have been very happy to see him elected.
Rockwellbabe2 3 years ago
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I highly doubt that.
Now, if he was elected because he was going to be a good leader, despite that he's black, Phil would be happy.
But to see someone elected BECAUSE they're black, despite their terrible policies, support for the murder of babies, no, that wouldn't make Phil happy.
Davz99 3 years ago
well considering a black guy had already run for president in the 80's i doubt its because hes black
MalcomGrand 3 years ago
Which election was that?
Ronald Reagan vs. Jimmy Carter,
Ronald Reagan vs. Walter Mondale, or George Bush vs. Michael Dukakis?
Obviously the election isn't going to go to someone who isn't a Democrat or Republican or someone who didn't get their parties nomination.
Common sense, man.
Davz99 3 years ago
It was in 1984. Jesse Jackson ran for the Democratic nomination. He was unsuccessful, but he ran nonetheless.
PlanetIce121797 2 years ago
Ah yes, wow, that was a blast from the past. Although, he didn't get the nomination, and I don't think he proceeded to run for President after that, did he? (I can't seem to remember, and I'm a bit too busy atm to look it up)
Davz99 2 years ago
Not that I know of.
PlanetIce121797 2 years ago
I sincerely doubt that the man who wrote "I Ain't a Marchin' Anymore" would admire the man who has just embroiled us in a Central Asian Vietnam of his own making...
Vietnamistan
eurydicejones 2 years ago
"his own making"?
right.
slakjaw 2 years ago
Yeah, I suppose you're right.
His puppet masters gave the orders, and he just followed them in lockstep. He's turning out to be another hawkish, anti-environmental DLC clown like Clinton. If he wants to be another one of Dylan's "Masters of War", so be it.
I didn't buy his fancy rhetoric at the Nobel Prize Acceptance ceremony.
He keeps ripping off Lincoln's First and Second Inaugurals, rewriting them to his own purpose.
Afghanistan is not the Civil War.
Obama is not Lincoln.
eurydicejones 2 years ago
He's not Lincoln, but he's not Bush either - who is the one who not only started and failed to win this war after 6 years, but also Iraq.
Nice try for the dodge, though.
slakjaw 2 years ago
No he's not Bush. He's a far greater human being, which makes it all the sadder that he's such a sellout and puppet to the powers that be.
He's weak on the environment, health care (I wish he really was a Socialist), and a DLC hawk on foreign policy.
And I am so far to the left of you and on such a higher plane, that I don't know why I even bother to respond to you. If you're not part of the solution, you and Barack, you're part of the problem.
eurydicejones 2 years ago
Right, I guess when you credit Afghanistan to something of Obama's "own making", you're tipping your hand to your obvious intellectual superiority. Thanks for gracing us mere mortals with your wisdom, O great one.
slakjaw 2 years ago
You're quite welcome, small one.
eurydicejones 2 years ago
It's all how you use it.
Have a good night.
slakjaw 2 years ago 2
You do Phil a great disservice by turning this section for comments on this breathtaking performance into a place to voice your political propaganda.
Davz99 2 years ago 3
Welcome to Youtube...
NewWorld0dor 1 year ago
Too true. However, I'm hopeful my comment will discourage this type of behavior. Even if it makes 1 or 2 people reconsider doing it, at least I've done my share to help clean up Youtube :)
Davz99 1 year ago
I suppose you can only hope. The way I see it though, is any attempt to clean up Youtube comments is pretty much the equivalent to shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing or cleaning while your kids still live at home.
Best of luck to you. =)
NewWorld0dor 1 year ago
Not necessarily. Phil was a political person, and would like nothing better than to inspire more political thought, followed by action.
The inclusion of comments on today's wars,wars Phil would be leading protests against were he still with us, is perhaps be greatest tribute we CAN pay to him. Other than actually STOPPING THE DAMN WARS.
KennBurch 1 year ago
Phil would likely have the same feelings towards Obama that he had towards the Kennedys-deeply conflicted feelings....admiring the idealism they seemed to inspire, yet railing at the hypocrisy at the shortcomings. These feelings can best be summed up by the brief note he wrote on the back of his "Tape From California" album, dedicating the record to "Robert Kennedy, who I loved and hated too much to support"
(In fact, Phil had decided to endorse RFK if he won the California primary, but...
KennBurch 1 year ago 24
@KennBurch if you support ralph nader you dont have these dilemas
spacepatrolman 1 year ago
@spacepatrolman you also support a loser if you support Nader, he's the reason we got "W". Nader is nothing but a pathetic whiner whose face would crumble if he ever cracked a smile. If I read how he was run over by a Chevy Corvair driven by a Washington lobbyist talking on his cellphone while eating a Big Mac on his way to his skybox at a megabucks football stadium I will shout "YES! There is justice in the world!"
jennifersman 9 months ago
@jennifersman you dont make sense like nalph said its not a horse race you dont vote for the one you think is going to win you vote your conscience
spacepatrolman 9 months ago
@spacepatrolman I did vote my conscience and it sure as s**t wasn't for Ralphie-boy
jennifersman 9 months ago
@jennifersman I hope you dont roll over in your suv break your kneck and paralise yourself a devotee of ralph nader wrote a book on how suvs were oversold overlooking safety hazards
spacepatrolman 9 months ago