Phil Ochs

• Born: December 19, 1940
• Birthplace: El Paso, Texas
• Died: April 9, 1976
• Place of death: Far Rockaway, New York

Musician, singer, and activist

A leader in the 1960’s folk music revival, Ochs was a singer and songwriter who turned to the headlines of the day for inspiration, crafting songs that called for political and social change. His song “I Ain’t Marching Anymore” became an anthem of the antiwar movement during the Vietnam War.

Areas of achievement: Music; activism

Early Life

Phil Ochs (ohks) was born in El Paso, Texas, the second child of Jacob Ochs and Gertrude Phin, a native of Scotland. Phil Ochs’s father, the son of poor Russian Polish Jewish immigrants, had achieved the American Dream by becoming a doctor, but he had to leave America to do so: In the 1930’s, American medical schools had quotas that limited the number of Jewish students. He earned his degree at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and returned with a wife and young daughter, only to be drafted almost immediately. Army postings meant that the young family moved frequently, a pattern that continued even after the end of World War II. Ochs’s father suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar illness. He changed jobs often and at times was hospitalized. Ochs, a dreamy and solitary child, took refuge in films and music. A gifted clarinet player, he played at a local conservatory, but his musical heroes were Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly.

Ochs attended Ohio State University, where he majored in journalism, wrote for the school newspaper, and was introduced to guitar, folk music, and radical politics by Jim Glover, a college friend. Inspired by the work of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Ochs began writing and performing his own songs in local clubs. His outspoken political views brought him face-to-face with censorship: At the height of the Cold War, he championed the Cuban revolution. Denied editorship of the school newspaper because of his controversial beliefs, Ochs quit in his senior year, determined to make a name for himself with his music.

Ochs came to New York in 1962 at the forefront of a folk music boom. In small clubs and coffeehouses, young songwriters were creating a new musical genre, combining traditional acoustic music with lyrics that addressed issues of the day: civil rights, nuclear war, pacifism, free speech. Ochs quickly established himself as a leader in the topical song movement. His songs offered provocative social commentary, but he tempered the message with humor and catchy melodies. Along with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Seeger, Ochs performed in the historic 1963 Newport Folk Festival.

Life’s Work

In 1964, Ochs recorded his first album, All the News That’s Fit to Sing, which included songs about Vietnam, civil rights, and the Cuban missile crisis. The album found critical praise but, because of its political content, almost no airplay. Ochs continued to tackle controversial issues on his second album, I Ain’t Marching Anymore (the title track became an antiwar anthem), and on his third, which featured poems by Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong on the back cover with the question: “Is this the enemy?” Ochs was identified with protest music, yet each album featured personal, introspective lyrics along with topical ones. “When I’m Gone,” a meditation on life and death, is one of Ochs’s best known songs, and “There but for Fortune,” a hit for Baez, is a plea for compassion, more spiritual than political.

By 1966, Ochs was a popular concert draw, selling out Carnegie Hall and playing college campuses, antiwar rallies, and folk festivals. However, the mainstream success his friend Dylan had achieved still eluded him. Ochs tried a new direction with Pleasures of the Harbor (1967), adding orchestration to his formerly spare, acoustic sound. Inspired by such musically inventive albums as the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (1966), Ochs experimented with styles ranging from cinematic to Dixieland to electronic art-rock. Some critics thought the arrangements overwhelmed the lyrics, but Pleasures of the Harbor became Ochs’s most successful album.

Ochs was profoundly changed by the violence he witnessed during protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Illinois. After watching peaceful demonstrators beaten and gassed by police, he became increasingly disillusioned. His 1969 album, Rehearsals for Retirement, featured a tombstone for “Phil Ochs (American)” on the cover. Its songs portray the death of America, a slide into violence and chaos. By then, Ochs was on his own downward slide. Once prolific, he was no longer able to write. He struggled with depression, bipolar disorder, and alcohol abuse for several years before hanging himself at his sister’s house in Far Rockaway, New York, on April 9, 1976.

Significance

Ochs saw music as a social force, and his songs did more than entertain: They informed, persuaded, and demanded a response. His music was a call to arms in the cause of peace. He dreamed of combining the broad popular appeal of Presley with the revolutionary spirit of Che Guevara. Though his idealism sometimes fell short of reality, his music remains powerful, still able to provoke anger, sadness, laughter, and—for others, if not for himself—hope.

Bibliography

Cohen, David. Phil Ochs: A Bio-Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. Provides a detailed listing of writings and recordings by and about Ochs, along with background information.

Eliot, Marc. Death of a Rebel: A Biography of Phil Ochs. New York: Citadel Underground Press, 1995. Revised and updated edition of the original 1979 biography; a sympathetic treatment by a writer who knew Ochs.

Harden, Joel. “Music to Change the World: Remembering Phil Ochs.” Canadian Dimension, September/October, 2001. Interesting critical article reexamines Ochs’s life and legacy, focusing on his attempt to unite the radical left with the American working class.

Schumacher, Michael. There but for Fortune: The Life of Phil Ochs. New York: Hyperion, 1996. A complete and extensively researched biography; includes interviews with Ochs’s family, including his adult daughter.