The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns - Phil Ochs

[coldocean]

dmorse523 you are completely right on. He was so completely committed to all that is truth and real love for this world. It's there in every word and in that beautiful haunting voice that has no equal. He gave us everything and deserved to get it back tenfold. Instead I've always believed what killed him was the overwhelming sense of apathy and smallness, the pathetic reality of self interest that became the 70's and 80's.

[paullavan2011]

That beautiful voice singing about everything in the world that is fair and good and true. They crucified him for it. Love you, Phil.

[dmorse523]

Listening to Phil Ochs now, makes the constant comparisons to Bob Dylan seem so irrelevant, like comparing bananas to pineapples, etc.

Dylan wrote some great songs but was and is still an entertainer. Phil Ochs really tried to live out his idealism and that is what really killed him--the truth is that 99.9% of the people on the planet are apathetic and/or obsessed with self interest. This reality is what killed Phil Ochs, not his own suicide.

[BarbaryAllen]

@dmorse523 You just said the right words!! there is nothing else I can say!

[shawniemar]

This gives me goosebumps! Stunning! His talent was highly underrated.

[garyinthedesert]

Thanks for posting this. It's my favorite song by Phil. It's a movie in a song.

We miss you Phil.

[VJ254]

Who else but Phil would even consider writing a song about men in our lonely submarine service? Powerful and terrifying.

[62grossman]

He should be as well known as Dylan,Lennon and all the other great songwriters of the 60's.

[11xzxzxz]

@62grossman Damn straight. Neil Young, a great friend of Dylan, says he like Phil Ochs as much as Dylan. He just didn't say it to Dylan's face but it's on the web so it must be true.

[GoodNoteDJ]

@62grossman You are SO right. Absolutely one of the great songwriters of that era (and NOT just for his overtly political protest songs, although many of those are great -- but so are many of his more personal songs, including those on his later albums). It is a shame his songs are so little remembered and so infrequently covered. And oh that VOICE -- that clear, haunting tenor voice of his!

[webryder]

I'm a Scorpion, so I understand this...

The radio is begging them to come back to the shore

All will be forgiven, it'll be just like before

All you've ever wanted will be waiting by your door

We will forgive you, we will forgive you

Tell me we will forgive you

[JDev82]

@webryder i took this song to be drawing emotional parallels between the sinking of the USS Scorpion, a U.S. submarine in '67 and his own struggles with depression and alcoholism

[lonsumtravlr]

This version's better than the album version. This is also a fantastic concert album. Phil's anger about Chicago really seethes throughout the songs--even this one.

[VJ254]

Never heard this guitar version before, fantastic!! Thank you for this post.

[RogerBarrettLives]

Great song by a great songwriter.

[pgjt2]

Thanks for this. I heard Phil for the first time in Guelph Ontario in the 60's. In my soul ever since. He really spun the head around of that high school kid and opened his eyes to the magnificent beauty and ugliness and humor permeating the 60's. There is a great book that I have been reading lately called THINKING OF THE SIXTIES written by hardial bains, a Canadian who is no longer with us, the same as Phil but who also struck out fearlessly on the path of dealing with our world.

[killiekentman]

nice song